starting over ?

horgan_p

OK couple of quick facts first.....

Been working in IT for 15 years (senior network / systems engineer - onsite)
Dont have a college degree of any description.
I have held previous IT accreditation (MCSE etc.) which has expired.


I'm getting back into the jobs market for the first time in a long time and noticing that even for the most junior role companies are looking for college graduates.

What is my best way to retrain / upskill (hate that word) ?

In my head redoing my microsoft / cisco exams makes most sense to me , and would be the quickest solution.
However is it not worth a damn if my cv wont reach someone's desk without a 3rd level qualification ? I.E would I be better off doing a degree which (in my opinion) has very little relevance in my chosen field.

I'm sure this is a common enough problem for people in the more "hands on" (not programming) side of IT.

mickman

horgan_p wrote: »

OK couple of quick facts first.....

Been working in IT for 15 years (senior network / systems engineer - onsite)
Dont have a college degree of any description.
I have held previous IT accreditation (MCSE etc.) which has expired.


I'm getting back into the jobs market for the first time in a long time and noticing that even for the most junior role companies are looking for college graduates.

What is my best way to retrain / upskill (hate that word) ?

In my head redoing my microsoft / cisco exams makes most sense to me , and would be the quickest solution.
However is it not worth a damn if my cv wont reach someone's desk without a 3rd level qualification ? I.E would I be better off doing a degree which (in my opinion) has very little relevance in my chosen field.

I'm sure this is a common enough problem for people in the more "hands on" (not programming) side of IT.

do a few certst that are in demand. vmware + citrix and upgrade the mcse to 2008. you will walk into jobs then - degree or no degree

CorkFenian

mickman wrote: »

do a few certst that are in demand. vmware + citrix and upgrade the mcse to 2008. you will walk into jobs then - degree or no degree

I am trying to do above, working on ccent 1 and ccna first, (always wanted to get them out of the way), currently looking at vmware ahead of citrix, even though citrix would be a lot cheaper to do..

yeppydeppy

I'm the same as you OP, I've 11 years experience and no qualifications to speak of. However there seems to be a lot of roles available at the moment and I have agencies ringing me almost every day. You're 15 years experience is enough to get a new role as is.

halkar

Most IT jobs advertised as "Some Degree or equivalent employment experience".
You will not have any problem. Certs will help. I am in the same boat as you, over 20 years working in IT and I keep myself up to date by doing certs in my field (databases).

Spacedog

I agree that you don't need a degree to find work in IT, as most prefer experience. IMO MS and cisco courses are a money spinner since they made them to expire. They are expensive a,d only cover their product as opposed to the understanding of the underlying technology.

Your experience would stand to you. contact yuor local university or Institute of Technology, explain you experience, and ask if it qualifies you to be admitted to a 1 year degree or 2 year honors degree course (normally for students who complate 2 year national certificates) this can save you a couple od boring years learnign stuff you already know.

krissovo

Would you consider ITIL, LEAN, 6 Sigma, prince or something similar rather than tech certs? These stand out from the technical certs and are often requirements for senior roles or you would be trained in them when get to that level.

horgan_p

Well , thanks to all for the replies.
Booked in to do a+ exams , which with a weekends study I should pass easily.
Next will be the n+ , followed by ccna and ccne.
In the new year I'll devote my time to regaining my MCSE (they seem to have splintered that off into (what seems like) a million certificates .
Vmware will also be on my list of things to do.

Not really seeing huge demand for citrix certs at the minute.

After that , to be honest , if an employer wont take me on it'll be their loss.

I'm amazed from asking around how many IT companies wont pay to train / certify their staff. Obviously the thinking is that the staff will demand more money or leave the company once they have the certs under their arm.

mickman

horgan_p wrote: »

Well , thanks to all for the replies.
Booked in to do a+ exams , which with a weekends study I should pass easily.
Next will be the n+ , followed by ccna and ccne.
In the new year I'll devote my time to regaining my MCSE (they seem to have splintered that off into (what seems like) a million certificates .
Vmware will also be on my list of things to do.

Not really seeing huge demand for citrix certs at the minute.

After that , to be honest , if an employer wont take me on it'll be their loss.

I'm amazed from asking around how many IT companies wont pay to train / certify their staff. Obviously the thinking is that the staff will demand more money or leave the company once they have the certs under their arm.

i have found that the american companies will train you until the cows come home. irish companies dont

horgan_p

Untrusting feckers, bit like the way home working is still viewed with suspicion by some Irish companies.

yeppydeppy

I hated working from home but that may have been because I'm single.

druidhill

Agree with most replies here in that you should have quite a lot of interest with your experience.

You might want to be able to handle the questions that you could get asked about why you let your certifications expire and not kept them up to date, why you never thought about obtaining a degree part-time etc. (these are only just questions that a potential employer might throw at you so be ready for them).

Also, if I were in your position, my first port of call would be with recruitment agencies.

Good luck OP.

Dardania

A little bit of a hijack, but on topic:

I am hoping to get into network engineering, from electrical building services engineering, but have no experience in network engineering. I have CCNA, but finding it difficult to get a look in without experience. (had one recruitment agent calling me last week after I applied for a role with BT, and when she realised she was calling me after reading someone elses CV, she hung up as fast as she could on the grounds I had no actual experience:rolleyes:)

Would anyone have any suggestions, or is it a case of looking out for entry level jobs where the employer won't be prejudiced against someone with experience in a different field?

horgan_p

Sorry for Zombie thread......

Quick update : I got the A+ and N+ sorted , working towards updating my MSCE.

However the big news ...... Got me a new job Managing a desk side support desk for one of the larger Companies in the country.
I contacted the recruitment company - took them only 40 minutes to return my call with an invite to interview !
Major pay rise , regular hours - happy days all round.
Experience obviously does count for a lot.

Just said I'd give the happy ending to the story.

mbiking123

Hello

Have you considered Open University

If you want a Foundation Degree in Computing and IT Practice, and if you are prepared to study 120 points in one year, you could complete it in 2 years. personally I would not attempt it in that short a time scale. I have a Diploma from OU but I think they have dropped that option as I cant find it on their website however using google I can find it http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/qualification/d12.htm but its finishing in 2014. At 120 points in one year you could get a third level qualification in one year if that is what you want. You would want to contact them and seek clarification as I cant find any Diploma qualification on their website and possibly they are phasing them out

Well done on new job

BostonB

Well done.

I'd consider the Degree's carefully. They have a big workload, you'd have clear a lot of time to do one. Certs can be done in short blast, but don't cover the same ground obviously. Lots of places put a high value on a degree though.

Kur4mA

Congrats! I'm in a similar situation. I used to work in IBM internal Customer Support and got a huge amount of training for networking and hardware support. I was quite clued in at the time.

I've been working for another company for almost 8 years, mostly in Customer Support but for the past 2 years doing QA/Site/Tools issues triage and now I'm trying to upskill by doing the Network+ and Security+. The idea is to try move towards more IT side stuff, but everywhere I look it's all about degrees.