I've got a young woman (early 20's) working for me as a PC technician. The position requires A+ and Network+ certifications, which she has. She was commenting earlier this week that very little of what she learned in the certification process has helped her out in the field. The things you come across in the real world just can't be duplicate in books. That's not to say that certification is useless, but we all know that certs alone aren't worth much.
I've got over 10 years of experience, and the only certs I have are A+, Net+, and I-Net+. When I found myself with time to study, I didn't go for more certs-I finished my Bachelor's degree (I had dropped out of college as a junior, having already earned my AA). The next step for me is a Master's; I'd rather spend my time and energy on that than certs. Certs have a limited shelf life, but degrees are forever. After the Master's, I may look into additional certs. But that will be a few years. John Hornbuckle MIS Department Taylor County School District 318 North Clark Street Perry, FL 32347 www.taylor.k12.fl.us From: Ziots, Edward [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 7:51 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Certs + Experience + which degree? I can see where you are coming from, I find myself at this familiar cross-roads. It seems that re-certification is necessary evil now, but probably going the SSCP/CISSP ISC2 route because its vendor/neutral and it really peaks my interest, and never gets boring. Plus it doesn't pigeonhole me into supporting one OS over another or one technology over another. But honestly, experience is the best teacher. How many times I have sat in a class, and you knew the professor didn't have much real-world experience, and basically was teaching you the theory of how things are supposed to go, which we both know doesn't always work out to what it really does, when you get down to it. Z Edward E. Ziots Netwok Engineer Lifespan Organization MCSE,MCSA,MCP,Security+,Network+,CCA Phone: 401-639-3505 -----Original Message----- From: MarvinC [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 8:41 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Certs + Experience + which degree? The time to study + the time to commit to hands on related work that may intefere with studying for a masters/phd.. I've thought about pursuing one or the other but the current work load just allow time. Of course there's also part-time and/or online schooling as an option. I'd say it could depend on just how much you're looking to get out of the classes and whether you function better in a classroom or working from home. Having the 2000/2003 MS certs I'm now having to consider tackling the 2008 certs or make the jump to another industry platform like Cisco. Talk about wanting to pull the covers back over my head! At this stage in my life I've come to the conclusion that I won't become rich or wealthy working in this field unless I stumble across a nice patent. I believe in the "glass ceiling" and that you can max out if you're not constantly working to stay educated in some capacity. My fear is the same I had when I was in college and that was that my real world experiences were educating me a lot better than the classroom subject matter. So I figure to work towards building some type of residual income, start another venture, build, start etc. At that point I'd be paying for classes or subject matter that's gonna help to keep the cycle going. If I make it back to school it'll be because I'd have the time and flexibility. (nothing like dreaming) On 2/6/08, Jim Majorowicz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: It depends on where you see yourself in 5 to 10 years. Personally, I'd go for the MBA if I had the time, even though I'd never use it. From: Phil Guevara [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 2:45 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: OT: Certs + Experience + which degree? I was wondering what everyone's opinion is on this. Let's say you have your MCSE cert or other industry standard cert and over 5 years solid experience, but no degree. Which degree would be best to compliment this? CIS degree, Computer Science Degree, Business Degree, other? I noticed the CS program deals more with programming and not really the stuff a systems administrator would do. A CIS degree might be aligned with it but wouldn't that just be redundant to the MCSE and experience? Would a Business degree show you as a well rounded person? Best Regards, Phil ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
