Question about PC Tech Degrees

[randyannie]

What are the latest and best PC tech degrees or areas of work: I'm talking about 1 to 2 year degrees here.

I personally don't like programming, but I do like more hands on stuff like hardware stuff or basic software installation and upgrades and possibly network set up.

Is there a degree or certification that would make this possible, if not what are the hot tech areas to work in today and what are the pay rates - if you want to actually get a job?

Thanks, Prozac

[Balton]

needs more info, like where you want to work. not all degrees, diplomas are recognised in every country equally.

[randyannie]

want to work in the United States in Florida

[JaFO]

You might want to look at becoming a "Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist" or a "Microsoft Certified Professional" (which effectively means you've finished several MCTS-courses).
They cover everything except how stuff really works ...

It does have the disadvantage of being Microsoft-focussed, but when given that 90% of the IT-business is most likely to involve Microsoft-software at some level it can be worth getting. Especially because having enough MCP/MCTS's on staff gets the company access to discounts from MS as well.

Info : http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/

[kiff]

I have a degree, but most places I worked for (I'm self-employed/contract now) also either wanted you to already have or to be in the process of getting certifications. In my case they were the various MS certs for .net development. Get the testkings for the cert you want. I read the MS supplied study books from cover to cover and didn't pull out the exact details they wanted. Testking does coveres exactly what they'll be asking.

[JaFO]

Indeed ... from what I've heard they practically cover all possible questions of the exams.
So in theory you could simply learn them and get your degree the 'easy' way.

Be warned though ... that is the way to the Dark side.

[kiff]

True, some people consider it cheating. For the tests I took I certainly do not. Even though the testkings basically give you the exam and the answers, I learned a lot more practical knowledge from them.

If you do use them, just make sure you learn from it.

[rattyocaster]

You can always look into Comptia Network+ and A+ certifications. They tend to touch on more than just Microsoft. While they are fairly basic compared to the microsoft ones they do tend to fill in a lot of blanks and give you a much firmer base to build your IT/tech support career on.

[Renegade Retard]

A lot of the companies I've worked with have been big on .NET certifications.

However, Randy is more into hardware/software installation. I would suggest you look at job postings for jobs you would like to do. There you can see what their requirements are. You should be able to get a good idea of the most common certifications/credentials that you need for what you want to do.

That's actually how I got around to getting my PMP certification. I wanted to get more into Project Management, so I started looking to see what companies were looking for when hiring PM's.

BTW - Hey Randy :)

[DeaJae]

When i first started on my.. lets call it 'Personalized Customer/end user support', there was just MCSE courses available. which i went and got, and regretted as 99% of the problems you face with end users/ local population are not covered by any of it.
I got about 3/4's of the MCSE certification and i'm likely not to finish it.
An open mind and ability to fix things got me far by word of mouth.

In over words, big expensive courses which give you lots of letters and paper aren't really worth it, just looks good in the big corporate eyes. :)

(If you do take any network courses, for crying out loud learn how to wire up cables before you get employed to do it.. I've bailed about 4 people out who've done this...)

[Plutonia_Experi]

I'd like to do the A+ certification.
Here at work we have loads of material (some guy managed even to get the questions of the actual exams) and as I have plenty of spare time I could give it a shot.

Can it lead to a good professional career into the IT, by itself? I don't have other IT-related certification except for the (lol) ECDL, is the A+ alone enough to be put in a CV and ask for a technical job?
(I have already worked in the tech support, but the usual **** jobs they train you in 4 weeks to do).

Any advice really appreciated.

[rattyocaster]

A+ is a good certification but it probably won't get you a job at a big company as they will be expecting something starting with M and S (not talking about Marks and Spencer). However if you were to get a techy job at a techy company, while you might be on one of the lower rungs of the ladder it would give you the knowledge to learn more easily as you know how and why things work, rather than just that they do!

[Continuum]

A+ would probably be a good start and shouldn't take much to get but after that you need to decide what field you really want to get into. Some networking (Net+ or CCNA) would probably help in any path you take. If you decide to go for Network/Domain Admin then you'll probably need to get some sort of OS specific certification (MSCA, Red Hat, Solaris, etc...). There are also a lot of other more specialized areas like printers, scanning equipment, filenet, messaging i.e. Exchange, electricians and fiber optic specalists (you make good money fixing broken fiber optics)

[Vitamin-Carrot]

Brush up on your Unix based systems possibly solaris and then you will be wanted almost everywhere

[Big-Al]

cisco?

[Daedalus]

Before you even THINK of going into IT, make sure you ask yourself if that's REALLY want you want to do the rest of your life. Yeah you may think toying around with home built machines is cool and all and putting that new graphics card in is sweet but it does not make you an IT genius.

You have to specialize. Do you want to do applications? Networking? Infrastructure?

Like I said, just because you think it's cool to upgrade hardware doesn't mean you'll like things like VMWare, Windows Server 2003 environments, and Cisco hardware.

I currently work at an IT helpdesk for a company that has probably around 300-400 people. We are growing and it's up to me and my buddy to basically help out the entire company. I love that job. Every day there is awesome and why? Because I just love the field. You have to love the field otherwise you'll hate it.

Get your A+ Certs first, that would be my recommendation. Then, depending on what you want to specialize you can go for some microsoft certs or go for CCNA if you enjoy networking.

Don't try to dive in headfirst into the IT field, you'll end up overwhelmed and confused. Try getting a job at your local Best Buy at the Geek Squad. Yes, it's a bit retarded but it serves it's purpose. It did for me at least. Working at the Geek Squad taught me how to deal with stress, how to deal with retarded end users, and build better skills in speaking with people (in general and in explanations). Or try to get a job at a mom-and-pop type IT shop and start there.

[Continuum]

As far as most companies are concerned a 2 year degree is worth less than certifications, if you don't want to get a Bachelors then you'd be better off with certs or getting your foot in the door somewhere.