[domerdel]

I've been in the Web and Print Industry for nearly 10 years, had my bachelor degree in graphic design for almost 7 years. With the way things are going in my industry, to have someone in-house, I'm not experiencing the growth I intended in my long term goals (majority due to the shift in our economy). I'm also getting burned out in this field.

I'm thinking of pursuing a career involving advanced networking, and I'm not sure if pursuing a degree vs. pursing certifications is more practical. And i'm not looking to be the low grade company IT guy, so if it's more schooling/certification needed, i will pursue that route... Before I was in graphics, I would build and network PCs from the ground up Win 98 to Win2k/XP/03-server, and in the past 5 years, troubleshooting networks/hardware/software to a fundamental-intermediate level on MAC's.

I was wondering anyone who's in this field, would recommend the path that would take me 1-3 years to get all the credentials I need... I am also looking to overlap skillsets in Telecommunications (in other words, IT on an high commercial/industrial level).

[mattyb]

I've got over 10 years in IT. These are my humble opinions. YMMV.

The tech side of IT is a young persons game. I would not recommend after 10 years to go down another avenue. It may be different in the US, but generally in Europe this wouldn't grab a potential employers attention. Like I said, my opinions after 10 years, I've worked with most of the big hardware guys and most of the large consultancy companies.

Now saying that, there are the 'gurus', those that have spent years on the tech side and are approaching the 50 years mark and basically can talk about a broad range of subjects, from Ajax frameworks to QoS to the use of IMS around the world. These guys are serious tech heads. They are generally the sort of person who never seems to waste time, build video game consoles over a weekend, and have their fridge send text messages when the orange juice is running low. Like hens teeth.

I am trying to get into the Quality side of IT and leave the late nights and weekend upgrades to the young punks.

[Paco500]

I escaped from IT almost 5 years ago after rising to director level. I got sick of being called at 3 AM. I'm now a Sales Engineer for a big IT based company. Still get to use my tech, but get paid more and have a much better lifestyle.

It's better to be on the revenue generating side of the house than to be overhead. Very rarely do even the best IT guys get sent to "president's club" type events. Even mediocre SE's can get a ticket.

Just my thoughts.

[Doc HM]

ha, he said MAC's

[Monique]

I am looking having my boss jump off a cliff. But, there is no cliff around the office.

You see I have an intolerence to perfume and my neighbour wears a lot of it and does not want to stop instead of moving me to another spot in the office she (the witchy boss) says that I am a liar, bullies me into shuting up, threaten me.

So, now I have to get angry and make a complait against her. How sad?

But, would love to change jobs.

[Chuckit]

So why don't you change jobs?

[besson3c]

Monique: why don't you get one of those fart sprays and spray it around your cubicle every once in a while and just tell this woman that you like the smell of it and that it is your perfume of choice?

The only problem is that your cubicle would smell like farts, and maybe you might be intolerant of that too, but it would still be a good idea and a means for you to have the upper hand so that you can work something out with her.

[besson3c]

One good stepping stone job is a job at a large University. There, you can be exposed to enterprise computing environments in a pretty low stress environment with decent benefits, and learn a whole lot of stuff. From that point on, you can safely put in your resume that you were involved in an IT infrastructure that served thousands of users, and you'll have the size thing down.

I think that one of the things that employers are always concerned with is whether you have had experience in a big time environment like theirs, or whether you have only done small time stuff. Nobody is terribly comfortable with learning on the job unless there is a strong mentor around and no better options.

[besson3c]

Also, you too don't want to be in an environment where you are over your head for your own sake and sanity, and you may not really know what over your head is until you have the experience in a similar environment.

[Chuckit]

Did Monique say she was in IT?

[besson3c]

No, my non fart spray comments were directed at the original poster.

[RAILhead]

Funny Pranks with Liquid A**.