Yes, schooling is fine. I objected to the statement qualifier that "school will teach you everything you need to know". In the IT world, that is a patently false statement. If you're not spending hours per week on your own time tinkering, learning, etc. then you're not going to succeed in this field.
-
Be sure to read this post! Beware of scammers. https://www.indianagunowners.com/threads/classifieds-new-online-payment-guidelines-rules-paypal-venmo-zelle-etc.511734/
Question for the INGO computer guys
- Thread starter Ruffnek
- Start date
The #1 community for Gun Owners in Indiana
Member Benefits:
Fewer Ads! Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership Discuss anti-gun legislation Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses Discover free outdoor shooting areas View up to date on firearm-related events Share photos & video with other members ...and so much more!
Member Benefits:
Yes, schooling is fine. I objected to the statement qualifier that "school will teach you everything you need to know". In the IT world, that is a patently false statement. If you're not spending hours per week on your own time tinkering, learning, etc. then you're not going to succeed in this field.
BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 26,608
- 113
That's fantastic advise. The college courses are less than half the battle in most IT fields. Certifications, like CCNA and MCSE, are what matters. The tests are pricey, as are the specialty prep courses. I think I dropped almost $5k to get my Cisco certification.
I did this route in 2000 when I got out of the military. I already had an associate's degree from when I was in the Army, took courses at Ivy Tech until I had another AS, then transferred to University of Louisville to work on my bachelor's. My advice? Get a nursing degree. Its the same length of time, it pays about the same or better, you aren't competing with offshore resources and "skilled immigrant" visas, you have a lot more mobility, you don't have to start over with your certifications every so often (I was an MSCA for Windows 2000, which today is about as impressive as knowing how to shoe a horse when applying for a job at an auto mechanic), and your co-workers will be hotter. You have better mobility, you have the option of specializing into different career paths, and you can work weekends only and get paid for full time.
It has been touched upon, but I'd like to narrow a previous point:
IT is a big place, with many different types of work. Make sure the type of work you are looking at will appeal to you over the long run. I worked in IT for a few years, first as a network tech and later as a programmer. While I enjoyed the additional money I made as a programmer I hated the work. Given a choice most days I wished I could go back to pulling and organizing cables, rather than sit on my (ever-widening) butt and stare into a glowing box. I eventually quit altogether and went back to school myself...to be an auto mechanic.
I was 30 when I graduated from tech school, and I don't feel I was so far behind my peers that it put me at any lasting disadvantage. If you are not happy with your current path I highly recommend switching directions...even at this "late" stage in the game. (Late is very subjective...you still have what, 30 or 40 more years on the labor market?)
Keep your head up. The risk is worth it if you put in the work and follow through!
IT is a big place, with many different types of work. Make sure the type of work you are looking at will appeal to you over the long run. I worked in IT for a few years, first as a network tech and later as a programmer. While I enjoyed the additional money I made as a programmer I hated the work. Given a choice most days I wished I could go back to pulling and organizing cables, rather than sit on my (ever-widening) butt and stare into a glowing box. I eventually quit altogether and went back to school myself...to be an auto mechanic.
I was 30 when I graduated from tech school, and I don't feel I was so far behind my peers that it put me at any lasting disadvantage. If you are not happy with your current path I highly recommend switching directions...even at this "late" stage in the game. (Late is very subjective...you still have what, 30 or 40 more years on the labor market?)
Keep your head up. The risk is worth it if you put in the work and follow through!
Second what Paul said. I am doing a combination of self-teaching and Ivy Tech classes to learn graphics and web design. In two weeks, I will leave my teaching job of 28 years to go into a new direction (probably part time office work and part time self-employed computer stuff). "Late" is relative. I'm making a huge change later in life than most of you, but it's never too late to pursue a new path if that's what you want to do.
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I meant that towards providing him direction in starting in the field, not that school teaches everything about the IT field as a career. Like you said, that would be ridiculous. Just like the paper MCSE's that flooded the market back in the early 2000's, an diploma in an IT area is only a starting point. As a starting point, college is good cause you can dabble in different areas to see what focus you like best, have access to career counseling, resume writing guidance and such. Once started in the field you have to keep learning, keep getting experience and keep doing. I've worked with far too many people who had the paper smarts for their position, but didn't actually know how to do anything with that knowledge.
I hate it when that **** happens.
I've worked in a technical field for over 20 years. Couple of years ago, upper management decided we were going to use a more paperless process. Me and a few others in my organization were sent to some classes in SharePoint and InfoPath. Over two years, everyone in the other offices dropped out, but I just completed our process that uses an InfoPath template that I built for our people to collect data and information, then they click a button to upload that to our SharePoint site that I also set up, which kicks in a workflow that assesses fields in the InfoPath form to route it through an approval process before it gets emailed to interested people. Before I rolled it all out, I had to write a detailed instruction manual for staff. I put a ton of time into the project, but I enjoyed every part of it.
I've never thought of myself as a computer person, but once I started to build this thing, I realized that my ability to visualize large complex systems in my head is something that apparently not everyone can do. Now that the project is over, except for the expected little improvements over time, I can't help but think that I'd rather have a job where I can use those skills and to do something that stimulates me much more than my "regular" job.
I've never thought of myself as a computer person, but once I started to build this thing, I realized that my ability to visualize large complex systems in my head is something that apparently not everyone can do. Now that the project is over, except for the expected little improvements over time, I can't help but think that I'd rather have a job where I can use those skills and to do something that stimulates me much more than my "regular" job.
What companies in the Bloomington area would do so?Also,wouldn't experience be needed for that kind of thing?I don't think I could even do Level 1 support with my lack of current knowledge.
When I was hired at a major medical company in Indy in 2006 to bring their help desk back in house, there was at least one person hired with zero computer experience. During training she asked us what kind of PC she should get at home. Her experience was in customer service for an airline or something and they figured since she was good on the phone that she could learn tech stuff. She really struggled with the tech stuff and it frustrated our callers. But if you have a knack for it, then you may well be able to land a job and be successful. Better be real good at selling yourself in a job interview though.
Maybe look for a technical staffing firm? Seems a lot of tier 1 type jobs are done by contractors, so hitting job sites for target companies may not yield much.
My old job consisted of answering the phone for the help desk which had 3 people working. We had to find out what the problem was and if it was desk top support, network issue, or an application issue (like email or some of the special programs they used).
Reset passwords/unlock accounts, walk users through getting an ip address so we can remote into their pc, remotely trouble shoot a printer, deploy new hardware/software/security software.
The fun days where when I was able to go with the network engineer and wire up a new switch or take down a network, or spend the day in the data center.
Another thing, if you work a help desk, users that call in will tell you a problem and you ask them a simple question like how long the pc has been on. They will tell you 6 hours, you pull up a log and it has been on for 6 days and so many hours. I guess what I am trying to say is customer service is fun
Honestly to me the job sucked. But if you like office work and problem solving it may be good for you.
Last edited:
Everything you described does suck. They don't call it the "Hell Desk" for nothing. I can't even tolerate the thought of going back to resetting passwords and hoping that maybe I get to go help the network guy wire up a new switch. But you have to do it because it teaches you what you need to know to do the fun stuff. Now I am the network guy and I spent my Monday morning trying to figure out why the half of the network core just spontaneously decided to stop passing traffic while 150 P.O.'ed people were breathing down my neck because they couldn't start working until it was fixed.
Note: One of the core L3 switches crashed, but it was still responding. One of the backplanes within the switch just decided to take a complete dump, but left the control plane intact, so VLANs functioned, SNMP reported everything was hunky-dorey, and I could down-down/up-up each of the ports all I wanted. It was nuts.
I don't miss those problems!!! I don't miss the calls from the users asking about it, or finding out a client wants to use the network closet as storage closet and unplugs everything so something can be moved and wonder why the network went down.
Last time I had that was when a client's server was crashing several nights per week between 2am and 3am. Always a different time, but always around then. I spent two night there staring at the server. The second night, the cleaning lady walked in, unplugged the server's UPS, and plugged in her vacuum cleaner. She never noticed the UPS alarm because of her headphones and the UPS kept the servers up until she was out of the room and into her cleaning so she had no idea the havoc she was wreaking. Thus the danger of an unsecured side closet doubling as a networking closet instead of assigning a proper access-controlled server room.
Site Supporter
Staff online
-
mom45Momerator
Members online
- oDbCo
- shotgun131313
- mom45
- rwilky78
- A. Ramon
- Nice_Ron_
- indyblue
- hoosierdaddy1976
- Splagt
- Bugzilla
- gassprint1
- Trapper Jim
- dweezil
- Amishman44
- Squid556
- Romero Zombie
- Andyccw
- Longhair
- Revdev86
- indianagenius
- Jim5528
- Trebor657
- kotaoz
- nm0369
- RJW
- HoosierHunter07
- DoggyDaddy
- frenchiectfd2203
- cakndsn
- smokenfire10
- cmstuard
- TJ Kackowski
- cobber
- KLB
- chef larry
- blueskies
- jwamplerusa
- keger
- Wstar425
- Loar
- zoglog
- Taurus the turtle
- AndreusMaximus
- Firehawk
- OneBadV8
- LokhXIV
- Hayden F
- ditcherman
- Magyars
- Defensive Shooting Concepts