Welcome to Gaia! ::


Powerful Spirit

7,200 Points
  • Demonic Associate 100
  • Millionaire 200
  • Elysium's Gatekeeper 100
I'm someone who has no idea what to do. I have a bachelor's degree in Networking, but realized far too late that I was paying for nothing but a piece of paper. My college courses taught me nothing except fundamentals and some terminology. My personal experience with IT includes little more than a bit of hardware installation on my PC, Windows use, and hooking devices up to our home network. I'm at a loss for what to do next. I know I need certifications to get an IT career, but I need to know what I'm doing in order to get them and function at an IT job. Where do I go to learn what I need? I have no connections, no one in the computer industry who can help me, I'm completely on my own with no resources. Someone, anyone who is starting out or experienced in this field, please give me your advice. Thanks!

Magical Neko

24,275 Points
  • Survivor 150
  • Nerd 50
  • Magical Girl 50
User Image - Blocked by "Display Image" Settings. Click to show.
I'm in the same boat with my degree. I have an Associates in Web and Interactive Media Design.
Unfortunately, most of what coding I learned focused on Flash, which is no longer industry standard.
What little I learned of HTML and CSS is great and all, but I know nothing of PHP or SQL,
so connecting to servers or setting up databases is beyond me. And no one wants to hire someone
just to do the pretty layout stuff, you need to know it all. I feel you, I wish I could help.
A lot of this type of stuff is easier to learn on the job, but you can't get a job without the experience.

Powerful Spirit

7,200 Points
  • Demonic Associate 100
  • Millionaire 200
  • Elysium's Gatekeeper 100
Neko Athena
User Image - Blocked by "Display Image" Settings. Click to show.
I'm in the same boat with my degree. I have an Associates in Web and Interactive Media Design.
Unfortunately, most of what coding I learned focused on Flash, which is no longer industry standard.
What little I learned of HTML and CSS is great and all, but I know nothing of PHP or SQL,
so connecting to servers or setting up databases is beyond me. And no one wants to hire someone
just to do the pretty layout stuff, you need to know it all. I feel you, I wish I could help.
A lot of this type of stuff is easier to learn on the job, but you can't get a job without the experience.

Thanks for responding, new friend. Yeah, I had originally wanted to do website design myself, but I was convinced it would be much less valuable than other fields. For all that talk and effort I put into my degree ina field I wasn't very familiar with, it sure didn't amount to much. A degree in the IT industry is just like a cherry on top. My impression is that you and I need certifications. It's just a test really, but you have to know the answers to the test questions. I've been told just to find an internship or mentorship, but where do you even go to find things like that?

Magical Neko

24,275 Points
  • Survivor 150
  • Nerd 50
  • Magical Girl 50
Insincerity as an Artform
Neko Athena
User Image - Blocked by "Display Image" Settings. Click to show.
I'm in the same boat with my degree. I have an Associates in Web and Interactive Media Design.
Unfortunately, most of what coding I learned focused on Flash, which is no longer industry standard.
What little I learned of HTML and CSS is great and all, but I know nothing of PHP or SQL,
so connecting to servers or setting up databases is beyond me. And no one wants to hire someone
just to do the pretty layout stuff, you need to know it all. I feel you, I wish I could help.
A lot of this type of stuff is easier to learn on the job, but you can't get a job without the experience.

Thanks for responding, new friend. Yeah, I had originally wanted to do website design myself, but I was convinced it would be much less valuable than other fields. For all that talk and effort I put into my degree ina field I wasn't very familiar with, it sure didn't amount to much. A degree in the IT industry is just like a cherry on top. My impression is that you and I need certifications. It's just a test really, but you have to know the answers to the test questions. I've been told just to find an internship or mentorship, but where do you even go to find things like that?


User Image - Blocked by "Display Image" Settings. Click to show.
Me either, I even tried with one of my old instructors' companies, but they are all about e-learning and training and I know nothing about that field. :/

Shadowy Sleuth

20,750 Points
  • Jolly Roger 50
  • Peoplewatcher 100
  • Hunter 50
i don't have any college education, certifications, or documented work experience for that matter but i work at a college IT department. i only got the job from a recommendation from a previous instructor.

kinda sucks that even if you have an expensive piece of paper it won't matter unless you have experience behind it.

Powerful Spirit

7,200 Points
  • Demonic Associate 100
  • Millionaire 200
  • Elysium's Gatekeeper 100
Miserable pile of secrets
i don't have any college education, certifications, or documented work experience for that matter but i work at a college IT department. i only got the job from a recommendation from a previous instructor.

kinda sucks that even if you have an expensive piece of paper it won't matter unless you have experience behind it.

right, but how does one even get that experience in the first place? That's my problem right now. I'm desperate to find the solution to this.

Shadowy Sleuth

20,750 Points
  • Jolly Roger 50
  • Peoplewatcher 100
  • Hunter 50
Insincerity as an Artform
Miserable pile of secrets
i don't have any college education, certifications, or documented work experience for that matter but i work at a college IT department. i only got the job from a recommendation from a previous instructor.

kinda sucks that even if you have an expensive piece of paper it won't matter unless you have experience behind it.

right, but how does one even get that experience in the first place? That's my problem right now. I'm desperate to find the solution to this.
couldn't you list your experience as pc consultant? or do you really have no experience what so ever, fresh off the boat? have you looked into internships?

Powerful Spirit

7,200 Points
  • Demonic Associate 100
  • Millionaire 200
  • Elysium's Gatekeeper 100
Miserable pile of secrets
Insincerity as an Artform
Miserable pile of secrets
i don't have any college education, certifications, or documented work experience for that matter but i work at a college IT department. i only got the job from a recommendation from a previous instructor.

kinda sucks that even if you have an expensive piece of paper it won't matter unless you have experience behind it.

right, but how does one even get that experience in the first place? That's my problem right now. I'm desperate to find the solution to this.
couldn't you list your experience as pc consultant? or do you really have no experience what so ever, fresh off the boat? have you looked into internships?

I have no experience working on computers professionally, just doing stuff to my own pc/home network, and a very limited number of things. An internship would be nice, but how do I even go about finding someone or some company willing to offer that? basically, I'm fresh off the boat, yes.

Dapper Noob

You can find internships off basic job networking sites like linkedin, indeed, or company websites themselves, even your schools job board, thats what I did for this summer.

You can even google "[your job title here] [location]"

It's hard without connections but if you have solid grades you can at the very least get your foot into the door.

I'm not too experienced with the IT (networking/databases) field unfortunately, I myself am in CS.

From what I do remember with networking, you are going to need some certificates. I'm sure you can find a list of applicable certificates by:

1) researching on your own
2) finding linkedin profiles and looking at common certifications. I know theres a lot of MS networking certifications that are used in the industry (from lurking on IT resume's over the years)

Hope this helps.

Aged Lunatic

Insincerity as an Artform
I'm someone who has no idea what to do. I have a bachelor's degree in Networking, but realized far too late that I was paying for nothing but a piece of paper. My college courses taught me nothing except fundamentals and some terminology. My personal experience with IT includes little more than a bit of hardware installation on my PC, Windows use, and hooking devices up to our home network. I'm at a loss for what to do next. I know I need certifications to get an IT career, but I need to know what I'm doing in order to get them and function at an IT job. Where do I go to learn what I need? I have no connections, no one in the computer industry who can help me, I'm completely on my own with no resources. Someone, anyone who is starting out or experienced in this field, please give me your advice. Thanks!


What kind of networking degree exactly did you get?

For what it's worth, there are some, such as CCNA's and related that are some of the few actual technology degrees treated as more than just a piece of paper due to the difficulty it is to learn actual networking administration in freelancing or self-taught on the kind of hardware a CCNA course would get you learning on.

Divine Sage

Insincerity as an Artform
I'm someone who has no idea what to do. I have a bachelor's degree in Networking, but realized far too late that I was paying for nothing but a piece of paper. My college courses taught me nothing except fundamentals and some terminology. My personal experience with IT includes little more than a bit of hardware installation on my PC, Windows use, and hooking devices up to our home network. I'm at a loss for what to do next. I know I need certifications to get an IT career, but I need to know what I'm doing in order to get them and function at an IT job. Where do I go to learn what I need? I have no connections, no one in the computer industry who can help me, I'm completely on my own with no resources. Someone, anyone who is starting out or experienced in this field, please give me your advice. Thanks!


Go to an IT convention. There are a TON of recruiters there. Look up one near you.

Quick Reply

Submit
Manage Your Items
Other Stuff
Get GCash
Offers
Get Items
More Items
Where Everyone Hangs Out
Other Community Areas
Virtual Spaces
Fun Stuff
Gaia's Games
Mini-Games
Play with GCash
Play with Platinum