Which IT cert for employability

VeilOfSun

Nowadays IT is experiencing amazing times.
Cloud providers are continuing to kill IT Engineers(System Administrators) like a profession and replacing them by DevOps.

If you are thinking about to go to the IT field, them you can choose a few perspective paths:
1) Software development
2) Clouds technologies(Public and Hybrid). DevOps or Solution Architect & Consultant.
3) Security & GRC
4) System Integration
5) Business/Enterprise Architecture.
6) Project Management.
7) Networking(Virtualization)

I didn't take into account CRM/SAP systems.

IMHO.

Thargor

VeilOfSun wrote: »

Nowadays IT is experiencing amazing times.
Cloud providers are continuing to kill IT Engineers(System Administrators) like a profession and replacing them by DevOps.

If you are thinking about to go to the IT field, them you can choose a few perspective paths:
1) Software development
2) Clouds technologies(Public and Hybrid). DevOps or Solution Architect & Consultant.
3) Security & GRC
4) System Integration
5) Business/Enterprise Architecture.
6) Project Management.
7) Networking(Virtualization)

I didn't take into account CRM/SAP systems.

IMHO.

Yeah that was a concern alright as thats exactly whats happening where I currently work, IT department moving out and we're all moving to doing stuff in Sharepoint.

robarmstrong

Thargor wrote: »

Yeah that was a concern alright as thats exactly whats happening where I currently work, IT department moving out and we're all moving to doing stuff in Sharepoint.

If you get the MCSA in Office 365 you can then open yourself up to the roadmap to get an MCSE in SharePoint 2013 - you can either choose to be a SharePoint consultant specializing in migrating documents/data, building sites and sub-sites along with administration and app development (via contracting) and earn around 400-650 a day on the LOW end of the scale.

VeilOfSun

MCSE in SharePoint 2013 won't give you 400-650 a day, never.
Five or more years of experience of working with big/huge deployments + in addition you should have consulting skills.

Eire Go Brach

It's very positive reading this thread. I'm 38 and decided to change my career. Just got my MCSA in Windows sever 2012.
I'm a bit confused about what job to look for. It's been while since I looked for jobs. I was in the same job for 18 years.
Should I just look for a Level 1 support to get experience, or aim higher with the MCSA?

There are great resources for the unemployed out there to upskill.

VeilOfSun

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

It's very positive reading this thread. I'm 38 and decided to change my career. Just got my MCSA in Windows sever 2012.
I'm a bit confused about what job to look for. It's been while since I looked for jobs. I was in the same job for 18 years.
Should I just look for a Level 1 support or aim hire with the MCSA?
There are great resources for the unemployed out there to upskill.

Hi,
Congratulations with your certification achievement!
You can try to apply for L1 support or Junior System Administrator/Engineer.
I would recommend to take a glance to Office 365,Azure, AWS and Google Compute(choose one of them at the beginning).

VeilOfSun

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

It's very positive reading this thread. I'm 38 and decided to change my career. Just got my MCSA in Windows sever 2012.
I'm a bit confused about what job to look for. It's been while since I looked for jobs. I was in the same job for 18 years.
Should I just look for a Level 1 support or aim hire with the MCSA?
There are great resources for the unemployed out there to upskill.

Hi,
Congratulations with your certification achievement!
You can try to apply for L1 support or Junior System Administrator/Engineer.
I would recommend to take a glance to Office 365,Azure, AWS or Google Compute(choose one of them at the beginning).

robarmstrong

VeilOfSun wrote: »

MCSE in SharePoint 2013 won't give you 400-650 a day, never.
Five or more years of experience of working with big/huge deployments + in addition you should have consulting skills.

Yes, it does. Try Nigel Frank International, I was on 350 a day for 3 months for an Exchange 2003 to 2013 migration including an intertenancy migration involving a heap load of AD. Their SharePoint projects even for junior developers go between 550-650 a day for 3-6 months. Even basic SP admins get around 250 sterling a day.

Musicman2000

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

It's very positive reading this thread. I'm 38 and decided to change my career. Just got my MCSA in Windows sever 2012.
I'm a bit confused about what job to look for. It's been while since I looked for jobs. I was in the same job for 18 years.
Should I just look for a Level 1 support or aim hire with the MCSA?
There are great resources for the unemployed out there to upskill.

You would need to go for a level 1 position if you have no experience , but a great cert to have.

VeilOfSun

robarmstrong wrote: »

Yes, it does. Try Nigel Frank International, I was on 350 a day for 3 months for an Exchange 2003 to 2013 migration including an intertenancy migration involving a heap load of AD. Their SharePoint projects even for junior developers go between 550-650 a day for 3-6 months. Even basic SP admins get around 250 sterling a day.

Wow!
That's sound really great!
This means that after those young professionals, I will have enough work to bring everything to production level

BTW, I hate SharePoint. I will never go with it. For me it's a nightmare, despite I am working with a team on multi-national conglomerate customer )

robarmstrong

It's definitely worth looking into, I mean it's all well and good at my age to take those sort of contracts on for that money.

I interviewed for an Exchange Migration Specialist role with Nigel Frank a few days ago for 400GBP a day, works out at around 570 euro a day for 4 months, not too shabby for a 22 year old.

MCSA in Server 2012 is fantastic to have especially when you're going for a L1 role, the knowledge is obviously there but the experience isn't. I sit the final Server exam next Friday, 412 come at me!

IF you're really interested in getting involved in IT, give me a shout and I'll get in touch with a couple of recruiter contacts and see if they can find something for you!

VeilOfSun

Thanks for a hint.

But I am interesting only in permanent Solution Architect positions for MS Exchange, Lync, Cloud and Enterprise Architecture.

robarmstrong

Last part of my post was directed at Eire Go Brach, my bad.

Nigel Frank have some permanent opportunities for Solutions Architects if you check out their website.

Thargor

Whats the best way to get started in getting an MCSA in Office 365 or should I do some other stuff first? Where do you even start looking is my question!

robarmstrong

If you go onto the Microsoft Virtual Academy and start watching their videos on Office 365 you'll find some fantastic material that will help greatly with the exams, I recommend taking a few PowerShell courses too to add onto your study list.

It depends on what route you want to go down Thargor, there's only two exams to take for the MCSA in Office 365, and with an increasing demand for people certified in it even with basic L1 support experience, you'll be headhunted for a position.

Feel free to drop me a PM and I'll try my best to help out.

Thargor

I want the route with the most money

Nah seriously if you were starting again from scratch what would you look into today?

robarmstrong

I'd definitely look into Office 365 and Server 2012 right off the bat if I was to start again from scratch!

Musicman2000

Thargor wrote: »

I want the route with the most money

Nah seriously if you were starting again from scratch what would you look into today?

You might be better starting off with some of the basic MTA'S such as Os fundamentals , Networking and Security. Because if you have no experience using Server 2012 its going to be tricky. Its a lot easier when you are using it on the job every day.

Thargor

Hi again, whats the rough cost of getting certs like the MCSE in sharepoint for example? Ill probably do a few others aswell just wondering about rough costs.

Money really no object though I have to get out of the job Im in now...

robarmstrong

Thargor wrote: »

Hi again, whats the rough cost of getting certs like the MCSE in sharepoint for example? Ill probably do a few others aswell just wondering about rough costs.

Money really no object though I have to get out of the job Im in now...

The exams are usually 150.

Study material is free all over the web!

Thargor

Perfect thanks.

Reactor

Hello,

I am absolutely sick of my current career and would like to give the cert route a go, I have a microbiology background but have worked with Sharepoint day to day and like another poster said I think I could leverage this to look like a bit of experience in the field on my CV, I have very little IT experience apart from this although I would have no problem building a gaming pc from scratch, swapping OS's, partitioning drives etc so not a total novice.

Can I ask people who know about this stuff starting from scratch what they would reccomend? Im 32, should I bite the bullet and go back to college or is it possible to study and get these qualifications in your spare time? What should I do first to build a base from?

Any help appreciated thanks.

robarmstrong

I'd highly recommend throwing a glance towards the CompTIA A+ and Network+ exams to get yourself started off for basic certification in IT, this tends to push you towards the most basic IT Support Desk position.

Once you have those you can pick and choose where you wanna go, I recommend the Office 365 route because it's taking off big time not just in Ireland, but globally.

There's always places to find fantastic course/study material for a fraction of the price. You can go back to college if you want to really dedicate yourself (I don't know your financial situation etc mortgage/rent, so I can't really say for sure) or you could study part time.

Anything else just give me a message.

Reactor

CompTIA A+ looks like exactly what I was thinking of thanks, how do you start? Just pick one of the online course providers and do it? Do you have any reccomendations? Something I could study quietly at work would be ideal.

robarmstrong

I done a course that I managed to grab off of one of those voucher sites like Groupon etc so it cost me around 99e just for the exam.

I bought the book also for about 30 quid but it included the Network+ side of things too so all in all it cost me about 200 for both exams plus the book.

For Microsoft study materials go to Microsoft Virtual Academy, there are literally thousands of extremely helpful videos/links/articles. Also TechNet.

Try YouTube for CompTIA A+ and Network+ along with CBTNuggets!

Reactor

What do you think of this deal?

https://www.groupon.ie/deals/e-careers-com-38-37706474

I know the exams arent included but Im just wondering how you actually start...

Thargor

Reactor wrote: »

What do you think of this deal?

https://www.groupon.ie/deals/e-careers-com-38-37706474

I know the exams arent included but Im just wondering how you actually start...

Thanks for that, looks like a good place to start for the price of a night out anyway. Think Ill go for it tbh, I know it doesn't actually cost hundreds of Euro but still, might focus the mind a bit. Anyone got an opinions on it?

Eire Go Brach

Thargor wrote: »

Thanks for that, looks like a good place to start for the price of a night out anyway. Think Ill go for it tbh, I know it doesn't actually cost hundreds of Euro but still, might focus the mind a bit. Anyone got an opinions on it?

The Comptia A course is changing this year. The 800 series will be out of date soon. So I'd suggest you suss out doing the 900 series. Depends how quickly you plan on doing the exams.

Thargor

Good to know thanks.

Newport81

comptia courses only 12 euro on udemy just got the a+ there