Anyone work in IT?

I have a several years of IT related experience, my comptia certs are still valid but I’m not in an IT role at the moment. I have a STEM bachealors degree that isn’t IT focused.

I could complete an associates degree in cybersecurity by completing 3-4 courses. I think it could be fun and keep my mind occupied.

Would this additional degree help at all in securing an IT position or help in regards to salary?

Thanks!

 

Nowadays, experience is worth more than a degree or certificate.

Many companies were burned during the great certification races of the early 2000's where certification "Boot Camps" sprang up everywhere.

These places taught people how to take the exams, not how to actually work in IT. Companies hired a "Certified Professional" to do work for them and got someone who knew nothing that could be practically applied.

It's been a while since I've been involved with the training portion, but surprisingly I still find myself explaining to IT "professionals" how DHCP leasing and DNS works.

If you have experience to go along with your certifications, you should be golden.

 

10+ years of experience. sec+ A+ net+ and valid TS/SCI clearance. STEM degree and 22 years in the army.

idk what that’s worth in the civilian market. 50k? Maybe a chance at a remote job? Idk…

 

IT seems to be a career these days that you work your way up and up and up, then you hit 50 and get layed off and find you can't get hired because nobody wants to pay you what you figure you're worth or they figure they can hire some young person and live with the learning curve. I've seen it happen to a couple of people. Starting a new career after 50 is really hard.

 

Makes sense. Good thing I’m 40

 

I'm a jack of all trades, current job is a fun one since I get to wear all the hats. Help desk to building technician to network admin to Sysadmin haha. Department of one at a remote site is kind of a dream job though. I think if I went back to working as part of a team I'd stay on the network admin side, interesting work but hardly any of the overarching administrative BS. But I don't hardly have any certificates I just cut my teeth at a whole bunch of different places and learned from all the guys that were willing to teach what they know.

 

I didn't think people still used the term IT. I just say I work in the tech industry, or Cybersecurity for me. It's a really good way to go for any young people out there thinking about careers. Where I work it is a large majority of people from India, and I love them. But more young people could be jumping in on these peak careers. Young people I know seem to be too lazy for it. And it's not hard! It's not hard at all! Just do it fuckers!

Employee stock grants: yes
Employee stock purchase: yes
Matching 401k: yes
Generous annual AND spot bonuses: hell yes

I did certifications, around 20 of them, when I was young and was getting into the job. For me, I don't keep up on them and don't even renew CISSP. Work experience is way better than papers.

 

I work in IT. I specifically create reports and forms most using SQL queries, Database Admin and I do plenty more things such as maintain parts of my companies websites and help other employees with software related issues/requests. My background: Associates in Information Systems. In college I took many programming courses like Java, C#, C, SQL and web development with PHP and C#. My capstone I created a simple ticket system using Ruby on Rails for a local dentistry but that didn't really take off afterwards.
But my recommendation is get a degree in a field you want to work in. Depending on the company they may require a degree like my current job. And the courses taken will give you real skills for knowing IT systems.
This definitely is not a area where you wanna "fake it till you make it" because depending on what you do you could be dealing dealing with your companies data and if you didn't pay attention in SQL class you may drop a precious table of data.

 

Oof yeah I suck at programming

I had to pay someone to do my python class for me

 

I've been in IT since 1990. I work in IT operations, backend applications and server hardware. I think some of your options depend on where you are at. Being in California, I think the options here are pretty much endless for IT jobs. Cybersecurity is still an emerging and growing part of IT as a whole even though it's been around for a while. As stated above, many companies were burned by the whole Certifications thing in the 90s but I think that certifications can help you get a job as it shows you are willing to spend time learning. It's not going to get you a advanced position or high pay like it did in the 90s but it may get you in the door. Especially if you have no work experience directly in the field.

 

Looking to move back to Arizona. I’d take a lower paying remote job compared to a more lucrative one. But that’s probably most people….

 

Honestly I've done a lot of hiring the last few years and, IMHO, I would rather hire someone with less knowledge that has ambition and fits with the team than someone who has more knowledge and does not.

 

Yup, I can teach someone who wants to learn and has a decent attitude. But it is hard to work with know it all types that don't truly know it all.

 

I hate my job. Currently in an Endpoint Roundtable call talking about Windows 11 deployments/upgrades.

 

That's fun, 11 deployment is on the horizon for me too

 

Not ‘deploying’ 11.
if it needs an upgrade it’s end of life for me.
Smarter not harder. New hardware, image, what’s next?
Continue to automate all my tasks.

 

I wish we could be so wasteful here, I just barely got enough budget to get the 2 year old machines we have now

 

There’s an equation for this.
Licensing cost, replacement cost, computers needing upgrade, upgrade timeframe, warranty expiration, quantity discounts, incentives with purchase. Create your own equation and make it happen captain.

 

It’s a race to the bottom. We’ve been through 2 buyouts and I lost count of how many reorgs

 

There are so many different roles in tech today. I'm sure somebody out there could use your skills and knowledge. AI can't do everything, lol.

There's still a lot of people in roles that they are not qualified to be in. I'm in a situation now where I have to deal with some of these people, and it's a constant "I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" situation with some of these folks. Some actually listen and learn, others think they already have it figured out and refuse to adjust their mental model.

Anyway, the current trend for many companies seems to be for people to return to the office. I'm sure there will be some companies that try to capitalize on this a bit and snatch up good people that prefer to work from home or wherever. If you have time and can be picky, it never hurts to see what bites you get. You can always say no.

But yeah, lately, this is me.