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Please some help... 4
- Thread starter Stud1905
- Start date
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- #2
butchrecon
MIS
Being 14 years old you still have a few years to go before you can start out into the workforce. You should remember that technology changes constantly and any one certification MAY be obsolete by the time you reach the work force.
First thing you should get is your A+ Certification. Then if you have any experiance or knowlege in any other areas try studying and getting certified there. Being only 14 you should not worry about being FULLY MCSE certified, rather get a few MCP certifications going. Like Windows 2000 Server, and Professional along with Windows XP when they are released. Also Learn UNIX operating systems as well. Like LINUX, AIX, and SCO UNIX. Learning some programming will be very usefull as well. So you see you have many routes you can take. You should start learning now and learn multiple OS's and hardware technologies.
Hope this helps
Jim
First thing you should get is your A+ Certification. Then if you have any experiance or knowlege in any other areas try studying and getting certified there. Being only 14 you should not worry about being FULLY MCSE certified, rather get a few MCP certifications going. Like Windows 2000 Server, and Professional along with Windows XP when they are released. Also Learn UNIX operating systems as well. Like LINUX, AIX, and SCO UNIX. Learning some programming will be very usefull as well. So you see you have many routes you can take. You should start learning now and learn multiple OS's and hardware technologies.
Hope this helps
Jim
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Stud1905 -
What you may want to do is try and get an after-school job at a "white-box" shop (local builder of generic PCs) loading software. They've probably already got someone to build the machines, but if you were to present yourself as being able to load Windows, drivers, and application software onto the new machines, you might could get a job with them.
It will give you experience in software (obviously), but more importantly you'll see how a business is run, which will be more important to you in the long term. Sounds boring, but knowing how invoices, receipts, work orders, time cards, etc. work will be good to know later if you plan to start your own business.
Chip H.
What you may want to do is try and get an after-school job at a "white-box" shop (local builder of generic PCs) loading software. They've probably already got someone to build the machines, but if you were to present yourself as being able to load Windows, drivers, and application software onto the new machines, you might could get a job with them.
It will give you experience in software (obviously), but more importantly you'll see how a business is run, which will be more important to you in the long term. Sounds boring, but knowing how invoices, receipts, work orders, time cards, etc. work will be good to know later if you plan to start your own business.
Chip H.
- Thread starter
- #4
butchrecon
MIS
Thats how I started out. Except I was 23 (I am late 20s now) when I started. Now I am A+ Certified, Microsoft certified (MCP). I have about a Dozen 3rd party Certifications along with being Microsoft Preinstall Certified (not that that means much). Starting out in a computer store can help you learn a lot of Ardware and OS variables. Then setup a LAN at home and play with it. The more mistakes you make the better, AS LONG AS YOU LEARN FROM THEM. Also set up a PC at home with LINUX and learn it.
> did u do that when u were younger chip? <
'Fraid not. There weren't any stores building custom PCs back then. I got my first PC was when I was a sophomore in high school - an Apple ][+ with 48K RAM and two floppy drives! (a big deal at the time) Hard drives were $2000 for 5 megabytes. 5-1/4" floppies held 140k, were $2 each, and the Apple drives were single-sided. I used to cut another write-protect notch on them, flip them over and write on both sides. The Apple ][+ also had a cassette tape interface. It used audio tones to write to a tape recorder. It sucked, so I never used it much.
The IBM PC came out two years later, and $2400 got you 64k RAM, no monitor, a single floppy drive, and a keyboard. You had to buy a parallel card if you wanted to run a 9-pin dot-matrix printer. Modem? 300 baud was top dog! Plus you had to buy a serial card to run it. I couldn't afford an IBM, and didn't see a reason to switch at the time. Probably should have.
But, to get back on-topic....
Butchrecon has a good idea. Once you've worked for a while and gotten some hardware you can play with, set up a small network at home. If you can then run software that talks across the network (and not just double-clicking on the icon on the shared drive!), you'll know quite a lot.
The important thing right now, is for you to accept that you don't know everything. You will spend a lifetime learning new stuff, and if you ever think you know it all, you're in danger of falling behind. My first boss out of college switched from mainframes to PC's because he wanted to get in on the ground floor while they were still new. His expectations were to know everything there was to know about the new machines. Within a year he realized that that was never going to be possible, and just concentrated on one area (software). So approach everything as a learning experience.
Chip H.
'Fraid not. There weren't any stores building custom PCs back then. I got my first PC was when I was a sophomore in high school - an Apple ][+ with 48K RAM and two floppy drives! (a big deal at the time) Hard drives were $2000 for 5 megabytes. 5-1/4" floppies held 140k, were $2 each, and the Apple drives were single-sided. I used to cut another write-protect notch on them, flip them over and write on both sides. The Apple ][+ also had a cassette tape interface. It used audio tones to write to a tape recorder. It sucked, so I never used it much.
The IBM PC came out two years later, and $2400 got you 64k RAM, no monitor, a single floppy drive, and a keyboard. You had to buy a parallel card if you wanted to run a 9-pin dot-matrix printer. Modem? 300 baud was top dog! Plus you had to buy a serial card to run it. I couldn't afford an IBM, and didn't see a reason to switch at the time. Probably should have.
But, to get back on-topic....
Butchrecon has a good idea. Once you've worked for a while and gotten some hardware you can play with, set up a small network at home. If you can then run software that talks across the network (and not just double-clicking on the icon on the shared drive!), you'll know quite a lot.
The important thing right now, is for you to accept that you don't know everything. You will spend a lifetime learning new stuff, and if you ever think you know it all, you're in danger of falling behind. My first boss out of college switched from mainframes to PC's because he wanted to get in on the ground floor while they were still new. His expectations were to know everything there was to know about the new machines. Within a year he realized that that was never going to be possible, and just concentrated on one area (software). So approach everything as a learning experience.
Chip H.
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Stud1905 - I salute yoour forward-thinking! I wish more young people would look ahead to their future while thay are still young enough to do something about it!
What the folks here have said is right on track. Learn all you can. I just wanted to add on thing: remember that you don't have to get paid to get experience. There are a lot of organizations, like schools and churches, who would be glad to have someone to help them for the experience only - they don't have a lot of money...
Start with your A+ certification - it covers a lot of BASIC information. Then you'll have to decide where you want to go from there: networking, programming, web development, etc. There are a lot of specialties in this field.
Best of luck to you
- Bill
"You can get anything you want out of life, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want" - Zig Ziglar
What the folks here have said is right on track. Learn all you can. I just wanted to add on thing: remember that you don't have to get paid to get experience. There are a lot of organizations, like schools and churches, who would be glad to have someone to help them for the experience only - they don't have a lot of money...
Start with your A+ certification - it covers a lot of BASIC information. Then you'll have to decide where you want to go from there: networking, programming, web development, etc. There are a lot of specialties in this field.
Best of luck to you
- Bill"You can get anything you want out of life, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want" - Zig Ziglar
- Thread starter
- #8
butchrecon
MIS
Basically it covers Windows (98 and now 2000) and Hardware, including printers. Go to a book store (or look online) for A+ Certification study books. There are many good books. The one I used that was very helpful was the A+ for dummies series. It was very easy to read. (I hate to read LONG boring books). I ended up only missing a hand full of questions on my test.
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
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- #10
Stud1905,
Some more food for thought. I feel that you should not only develop your technical skills (aquire vendor certifications, etc.), but you should consider college to help you develop the "other" but also, very important skills of written, verbal and group communication.
Some more food for thought. I feel that you should not only develop your technical skills (aquire vendor certifications, etc.), but you should consider college to help you develop the "other" but also, very important skills of written, verbal and group communication.
Stud1905 -
MMB is right. Social skills are important too. There was a guy I worked with several companies ago that we called "PhD" -- stood for "Personal Hygene Deficit". He was a heavy perspirer (he could work up a sweat just standing still), and the guy stank! He would also show up for work in a new shirt, but he would forget to remove the plastic loop that held the pricetag on. You would go to lunch with him, and dread that someone would say something fuuny, as he would spray food when he laughed. Needless to say, his promotion prospects were Not Good.
A personal pet peeve of mine is poor spelling. Comes from having a British mom, I guess. But every time I see people choose the wrong homonym (choose, chose; lose, Loose; their, they're, there; discreet, discrete; etc.) it makes me ill.
One of the things that the university that I went to did was have a "cultural events" requirement for graduation. Yes, it was a pain. But I did get to see some interesting events. Chamber music, Japanese Kabuki theater, Modern Dance (not my favorite), Foreign language films (rent "Wages of Fear" if you can, excellent film!), and a guy from NASA who spoke about the Space Shuttle computers. It definately made me more well-rounded.
Chip H.
MMB is right. Social skills are important too. There was a guy I worked with several companies ago that we called "PhD" -- stood for "Personal Hygene Deficit". He was a heavy perspirer (he could work up a sweat just standing still), and the guy stank! He would also show up for work in a new shirt, but he would forget to remove the plastic loop that held the pricetag on. You would go to lunch with him, and dread that someone would say something fuuny, as he would spray food when he laughed. Needless to say, his promotion prospects were Not Good.
A personal pet peeve of mine is poor spelling. Comes from having a British mom, I guess. But every time I see people choose the wrong homonym (choose, chose; lose, Loose; their, they're, there; discreet, discrete; etc.) it makes me ill.
One of the things that the university that I went to did was have a "cultural events" requirement for graduation. Yes, it was a pain. But I did get to see some interesting events. Chamber music, Japanese Kabuki theater, Modern Dance (not my favorite), Foreign language films (rent "Wages of Fear" if you can, excellent film!), and a guy from NASA who spoke about the Space Shuttle computers. It definately made me more well-rounded.
Chip H.
Hmmmm......
You're 14.....you're not going to be working or looking for a job for some years to come.....do what interests you with PCs, not what might look good in 5+ years time......interest is everything at your age.....don't fuss about what you MIGHT need to get a job.....
Craig
You're 14.....you're not going to be working or looking for a job for some years to come.....do what interests you with PCs, not what might look good in 5+ years time......interest is everything at your age.....don't fuss about what you MIGHT need to get a job.....
Craig
Stud1905-
What Craig0201 has just said does have some merit. You have to remember that you are only 14, and should be trying to enjoy the time you have before you have to jump into the real world.
However, I do applaud you for thinking about the future. If you are that interested in computers, then spending the time to learn new skills and possibly get some certifications would be beneficial to you in the future.
The other posts have given you a lot of good information to get you on the right track. I am only going to give you one extra piece of advice. Enjoy being young!! Try not to rush into the real world too soon, as you will have lots of time to do that when you are older.
Good luck,
mot98..![[peace]](/data/assets/smilies/peace.gif "[peace] [peace]")
"Where's the beer?"
What Craig0201 has just said does have some merit. You have to remember that you are only 14, and should be trying to enjoy the time you have before you have to jump into the real world.
However, I do applaud you for thinking about the future. If you are that interested in computers, then spending the time to learn new skills and possibly get some certifications would be beneficial to you in the future.
The other posts have given you a lot of good information to get you on the right track. I am only going to give you one extra piece of advice. Enjoy being young!! Try not to rush into the real world too soon, as you will have lots of time to do that when you are older.
Good luck,
mot98..
"Where's the beer?"
>mot98..
>
>"Where's the beer?"
come on man there are kids present.
Hmm 14. best thing you can do is talk your parents into buying you a non dell non compaq non proprietary computer (buyabs, or other whitebox OEM machine) take it start messing with the software aspect of it.
read all the tech articles you can get your hands on ( then tear into that machine upgarde tweak play. not only will you end up with a kickassmachine you'll learn alot about hardware drivers conflicts and the sort.
this would be the best prep for the A+ I can think of (thats what I did and i only missed 1 question in the 2 tests)
Next remember your 14 live it up man (don't be stupid) just live it up.
Chip sorry bout the spelling I'm from Idaho give me a break.
Matt
>
>"Where's the beer?"
come on man there are kids present.
Hmm 14. best thing you can do is talk your parents into buying you a non dell non compaq non proprietary computer (buyabs, or other whitebox OEM machine) take it start messing with the software aspect of it.
read all the tech articles you can get your hands on ( then tear into that machine upgarde tweak play. not only will you end up with a kickassmachine you'll learn alot about hardware drivers conflicts and the sort.
this would be the best prep for the A+ I can think of (thats what I did and i only missed 1 question in the 2 tests)
Next remember your 14 live it up man (don't be stupid) just live it up.
Chip sorry bout the spelling I'm from Idaho give me a break.
Matt
Stud1905, the above voices are exactly right. A+ certification is a great grounding to cover how everything fits together and will make your future knowledge a lot easier as you'll know how things fit together. Someone said its basic - its low level computing that most people don't think about or take for granted, but its NOT basic.
Buy yourself a computer in bits (if you get a white box job speak to them about getting payment in components rather than cash) and build it yourself, then once it works (he he he) start loading software, understand what is happening and pretty soon you'll either be hooked or hate it.
Remember that at 14 you should be having some fun too, but as several people have already said, this is a very mature attitude and you are in a minority of people who are looking ahead.
Moving on at work is not just about being technically minded - you need to be rounded. If you can install any piece of software correctly but can't talk to a senior manager you'll be unemployed a lot. Learn people skills, administration, do as much schoolwork as you can (get a degree if you can, don't just leave school and think that computers will make you a fortune!).
Oh yes and don't forget that Lottery winners are OTHER people, not you...
Buy yourself a computer in bits (if you get a white box job speak to them about getting payment in components rather than cash) and build it yourself, then once it works (he he he) start loading software, understand what is happening and pretty soon you'll either be hooked or hate it.
Remember that at 14 you should be having some fun too, but as several people have already said, this is a very mature attitude and you are in a minority of people who are looking ahead.
Moving on at work is not just about being technically minded - you need to be rounded. If you can install any piece of software correctly but can't talk to a senior manager you'll be unemployed a lot. Learn people skills, administration, do as much schoolwork as you can (get a degree if you can, don't just leave school and think that computers will make you a fortune!).
Oh yes and don't forget that Lottery winners are OTHER people, not you...
CharlieJax
MIS
Stud1905,
Do not focus solely on IT. The business of IT is not only to understand technology but how it is applied in today's business, how it will help the business to grow for tomorrow, and where it will be in the future (the business and IT).
Having experience working with PCs is great, and it will help you in your future, but remember to also take classes on Business econ, supply and demand, management, and COMMUNICATIONS!
Getting a job, in any field, comes down to one thing, how well you interview.
Your resume (skills) will get you the interview, but its how you do there that gets you the job. Managers, especially people outside of IS, want to know what you are going to do to help the company, you are an investment and you have to prove that they will get a good ROI (Return on Investment).
Ten years ago IS was a cost center (something companies didn't expect to make them money) but that isn't the case anymore, you can't just be in IS, you are in the business of serving your customers, either inside the company or the actual public.
At 14 my recommendation is to (if possible find the white shop, if not offer help to family and friends, maybe post something in the supermarket offering free or low cost services). But remember you are 14 so you are still affected by child labor laws. (Check out you can sign up to help people on the web).
I would not spend all of your time focusing on computers or technology, spend a few hours a week working with technology and most of your time enjoying being young. You have plenty of time to worry about your future later.
People who spend all their time preparing for their future end up missing what is happening today. High School and College will do enough to help you prepare for the working world.
Age 14? Go have fun buddy!
CJ
- Paper MCSE in training
Do not focus solely on IT. The business of IT is not only to understand technology but how it is applied in today's business, how it will help the business to grow for tomorrow, and where it will be in the future (the business and IT).
Having experience working with PCs is great, and it will help you in your future, but remember to also take classes on Business econ, supply and demand, management, and COMMUNICATIONS!
Getting a job, in any field, comes down to one thing, how well you interview.
Your resume (skills) will get you the interview, but its how you do there that gets you the job. Managers, especially people outside of IS, want to know what you are going to do to help the company, you are an investment and you have to prove that they will get a good ROI (Return on Investment).
Ten years ago IS was a cost center (something companies didn't expect to make them money) but that isn't the case anymore, you can't just be in IS, you are in the business of serving your customers, either inside the company or the actual public.
At 14 my recommendation is to (if possible find the white shop, if not offer help to family and friends, maybe post something in the supermarket offering free or low cost services). But remember you are 14 so you are still affected by child labor laws. (Check out you can sign up to help people on the web).
I would not spend all of your time focusing on computers or technology, spend a few hours a week working with technology and most of your time enjoying being young. You have plenty of time to worry about your future later.
People who spend all their time preparing for their future end up missing what is happening today. High School and College will do enough to help you prepare for the working world.
Age 14? Go have fun buddy!
CJ
- Paper MCSE in training
kevthomas15
MIS
Stud1905,
Forget all that kid stuff! If you’re like me, this is what you do for fun; there’s nothing wrong with that. Learn everything you can, and get as far ahead of the game as possible, so that when you’re 16, they’ll be asking you the questions. When I was your age, I heard the same crap, and tossed away my first two business plans for another year of baseball.
Forget all that kid stuff! If you’re like me, this is what you do for fun; there’s nothing wrong with that. Learn everything you can, and get as far ahead of the game as possible, so that when you’re 16, they’ll be asking you the questions. When I was your age, I heard the same crap, and tossed away my first two business plans for another year of baseball.
- Thread starter
- #19
CharlieJax
MIS
Business Plan at 14? HA! I still don't have a plan other than to retire far away from computers! CJ
- Paper MCSE in training
- Paper MCSE in training
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