What's a man to do?

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Hello everyone.

um....where to start..............
I am going to be 40 this year and at the moment I work in the oil and gas pipeline business. This usualy means either have spells of unemployment or travelling around the world to work. I have 2 young kids and I am not perpared to be away from them, so I spend times unemployed.
I decided last year that the time had come for me to get out of this industry and into IT (I need secure work all year round, so I can at least get a mortgage and buy a house before it's too late). My idea was to get a CCNA and follow that carreer path, but........ I live in the highlands of Scotland, the nearest city is Inverness (a small city but rapidly growing) and there doesn't seem to be any companies there providing Cisco network support (I guess they all use companies in the central belt), so even if I get this qualification, there will be nowhere local for me to work (we are prepared to 'up sticks' and move to where the work is, if need be). I have been looking at the job market and it's the usual thing....all anyone wants is experienced people.
I can turn my hand to just about anything, so the Cisco carreer is not set in stone, it just seemed like a good place to start.

I guess what I am asking is;
1. What's the chance of someone with no experience and a nice fresh CCNA getting work (pref' in the highlands (although that's not set in stone either), untill I get some experience)?
2. Is Cisco the best route into an IT carreer (bearing in mind that I have done some of the CCNA ground work, and got myself some 2500 series routers and DTE-DCE cabling to play with), or should I be looking at something else?
I tried my hand at web design, but I am not artistic (www.umaxpipeweld.com is one of mine ).

I would be very gratefull for any ideas, advice or comments anyone has.

Thanks for reading.

 

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There is no "best way" to get into IT. There are numerous entry points. I'm curious as to why you are attracted to the CCNA as a starting cert. Sure, it's "every level" but if you know nothing about networking, it's a pretty steep learning curve.

You might want to try out CompTIA's A+ and Network+ certs first. They will lay the basic foundation for you to build on in terms of hardware, basic OS and basic networking.

 

I just have to ask you a simple question - How much do you know about Cisco and IOS at the minute?

 

What can you take from your existing career and experience and add to a Cisco cert? Do you want to move into a fully technical role or can you turn your hand to a more business oriented technical role?

If you've got project experience from the oil and gas industry maybe you could get your CCNA (or CCDA) and look around for some local 'IT/network solution providers' and pitch yourself on your industry experience or gas and oil that you'd like to now apply to IT with your shiny new cert. If you're experience so far is project/contract based (I'm just guessing at that because you said that you go for spells being unemployed and lots of travelling around) then you will have business experience that this becoming more and more necessary for tekkies to get.

I'd get your CCNA/CCDA and look toward the 'hot' networking technologies like VOIP, wireless and security, Then pitch your existing professional skills and shiny Cisco cert to some networking solution providers even if it's a sales position just to get your foot in the door. If Inverness is rapidly growing and companies are expanding and forming then you may well already be in the best place.

 

Don't sell yourself short, I thought it looked pretty good. Oh and welcome to CF.

 

Well, A few years back I was 1st line techy support at a the UKs first ADSL ISP. I have a reasonable knowledge of windows 98, me, 2000 & xp. I have CCNA course notes and I have managed to get a reasonable grasp of the basics through reading and doing labs (subnetting is still a bit of a stumbling block although I recon I have nearly got it sussed).
I just thought that seeing as Cisco seem to be one of the leaders, they would be a good choice.

I will answer your other posts tomorrow, as soon as I get a chance.
Thank you all for your responses.

 

Not too much because I have forgotten all my notes (been very busy with work lately and not looked at them for a few months), but I was getting to grips with it when I was studying it properly.
I was reasonable on the basics (slow at subbnetting), and just started doing labs. I need to get busy and start working towards something, and I have CCNA course notes and all the lab hardware I need apart from a switch (cheap as chips on ebay).

 

I think that as someone who has always thrived in a technical role, I'd want to keep with that. But, never say never.

Yeah, I am always a contractor. A QC Inspector, but it's not a qualified role, it's a position of trust (ie, you dont need a qualification to do my job, you just need a background in the industry and to be trusted to do the job precisely).

Yeah, that's pretty much what i had thought of trying. Where I work, we use Cisco including our VOIP phones, I came in on the weekend that it was installed and spent the time with our techy guy that head office had sent to config our routers and switches. Maybee with the relavent qualification it would be more cost effective for them to let me look after our site, if not I had thought of trying to get weekend work on a voluntary basis with someone.

 

Thanks man
We (my wife, my best friend and I) had to make it look like their brochure, it was a nightmare to build for us with our limited experience, we kind of learned as we built the site.

 

is that a cert that can get me employment, or would it be purely for getting the basics before doing a Cisco cert?

My worry there is that this kind of thing would be for a more experienced person.

Thanks Sparky

 

Hi and welcome aboard. Like the website, good luck with the CCNA

 

Thanks Boyce. Love to Marlene