What to do after A+?

[acoustictech]

I am currently a one man IT department for a company with 70 users. I plan on finally taking the A+ exams at the end of February. I'm a university grad with a major in business management/economics, have 5-6 years experience in the IT field, and was wondering if anyone could give me pointers on what to look at for my next career move. I'm learning alot here and it's been GREAT experience, but it may be time to find a better paying position. Any tips on the next exams I should take or the next move in general? Thanks in advance.

 

[tfg13]

What are you interested in? With that much experience in the IT field, you should be able to go any direction you want.

Is your interest networks, Operating systems, security, applications, or programming? I could probably go on for quite a bit on which direction you could go, but you have to find what interests you. If you go with something that doesn't, you'll become bored, and complacent. Not a real good thing for an employer to see......

 

[acoustictech]

Ah yes, apologies. I'm not sure how, but I would EVENTUALLY like to become some sort of technology trainer or teacher for any age group, children or employees at a mid-large sized company. I'd be comfortable with handling OS's, Network infrastructure, or Hardware. Since I only have basic programming skills, I would probably not want to venture too far into that. Even if teaching doesn't come around, maybe consulting would do the trick, but I'm not too familiar with how IT consulting companies work. What do you think?

 

[tfg13]

The consulting companies that I have worked with usually had a smattering of everything (networks, operating systems, applications). As far as the teacher positions, there are several technology driven "firms" that employ consultants to teach certain courses. One that comes to mind is Learning Tree International. From the instructors that I had, they had to prove themselves in the consulting world in order to teach. Not sure what they meant by "proving themselves", and not one of them would go into it very deeply (I think time constraints had something to do with it).

As far as your programming comment, I think you have to have that special niche to do programming, and I don't have it either.

Now back to the consulting companies. They usually actively seek out companies/people who need computer assistance, in which they will provide a person to do "whatever" for a nominal fee. Basically, and not to sound perverted or anything, consulting companies are nothing more than technology pimps, and the consulting company's employees are nothing more than technology ho's. Hope that was easy to understand.....

 

[wabob]

I like your technology pimps and technology ho's analogy (seriously).

I never worked for a "consulting company". Do they expect you to be a Jack-of-all-Trades, a one-stop shop?

Reason I'm asking is because they seem to be doing most of the I/T hiring right now....

 

[glister]

I'd say get your Network+ just to get your feet wet. Then I would abandon the CompTIA certification track. Most CompTIA exams are targeted at the entry-level tech. You state that you have 5-6 years experience. Figure out what you want to teach and then start developing some expertice in that area. Without a college degree in a given subject, certification will be the quickest way to demonstrate a mastery of the subject matter. If you try and train for a particular cetification without holding that particular certification yourself, well, you would have to have considerable experience in that field, but still no one will take you seriously. With your BA and some certs. there is no reason you couldn't teach. You might contact area votech schools to inquire about teaching night classes. That could help you develop some training skills and get some experience on your CV. best of luck.

A+,N+,S+,L+,I+,HTI+,e-Biz+,Security+,CETma,CFOT,CCNT,CCTT,ACSP,ISA CCST3

 

[tfg13]

wabob,
With the consulting companies I worked for, we had people of every discipline (Network, OS, Application). On the other hand, one of the consulting companies, really wanted me to know everything (it was more or less a 2 man shop anyway, me and the owner). The larger consultants seem to go the avenue of multiple people for multiple jobs. Wouldn't hurt to know a little of everything, but don't be surprised if you then start getting more and more of the work (sometimes too much).