Any IT professionals here?
 

My oldest son is thinking about a career in IT, I was suggesting Cisco cert training, maybe a focus on security. I know the cloud architect is growing as well...

Just wondering if any IT pro's have input.

I've been on the software side for 20+ years. I can't comment much on the hardware side.

I've never had a certification on anything. They are useful if you plan to move from company to company, but pretty worthless if you stay at the same place. I've used 7 languages over those 20 years, so being able to learn something new is the most important thing.

I would encourage AWS or Azure cloud training and certs. Even though we've been hearing "Cloud" for many years, a lot of companies are ramping up their 'digital transformations' . I've been in technology and Cyber Security for 30+ years. A keynote speaker once said if you want a successful career, get into IT, if you want a successful career for life, go into Cyber Security.

To echo Legion, I'd much rather hire attitude and aptitude than a bunch of certs. Takes a certain type of person, who likes to dork around on their own time, to be successful. Technologies can be learned....

If there is an interest in Cloud, acloudguru.com is pretty good as a training and certification source.

Akron U has a four year degree that leverages off of Cisco certification.

My kid did it and was earning a very solid income, $60k in two years, in a depressed economy eight-ten years ago. I think the certification was more important than the degree for getting into the door.

I've been out of the game for 12 years now, but "network stuff" was my career (Computer Science degree 4 decades ago). I'll echo Legion....

A very few have the ability and "network guys/gals" with certs galore are a dime-a-dozen.

Just like my degree was... that will help landing a first gig. Then no one gives a damn ;).

I worked for peanuts fresh out of college in r&d (IBM's Advanced Communications) at Research Triangle... had an awesome corporate career after paying my dues for a few years.

I loved what I did ... hated corporate life... so I retired at 48... no regrets!

Just my .02 ... worth even less :D

Good luck to him!

Security is big at the old salt mine right now. Why? The auditors said so. So they get all the new hires, the other departments have to get by with what we've got.

They're always out for training.

The last time we had a real issue, their lead guy said "I see the issue" - after we found it on our own, not proactively, like he's supposed to be doing with all his different systems.

I'm in IT, working on virtualization, we had a mandate from our CIO to cut capital spending and move systems to the cloud, but she got canned, so that project is pretty much dead. Waiting for finance to complain about all the operating costs of the stuff that was moved to the cloud.

Security is a good area to be involved in no matter the part of IT you are in.

I don't look at certs as much as attitude and aptitude. A cert means you can do tests well. That is just me though. I know other directors or CIOs that look for certs to prove something to them.

There are some savings out there, but moving stuff to the cloud just because it is the buzzword of the day is not a good reason to move to the cloud.

For example, a large employer here lost communications by phone because they use a cloud provided VoIP vendor and the storms in central Iowa affected us way over here. They couldn't even make inter-office calls.

Cloud or Security would be good fields. There are on-line/virtual programs available. Georgia Tech has a Cybersecurity program - I was talking with one of the advisors yesterday about it.

I've made a pretty good career out of Network (started with a Cisco focus) (>20 years now).

If you're good, then 6 figures is not hard to manage. I would expect folks getting into networking with some certs, but no experience to potentially be able to managed 45-60. Then depending upon how hungry you are, how much you learn how quickly, and how good you are at networking (interpersonal) I would think you could make anywhere from 100k -- several hundred (those guys are the rock stars with multiple CCIE certs, etc...).

What I feel like is hot right now, and all of these go hand in hand with Networking.

Security (has been and will be)
Cloud (hot and probably will be, it can save companies big money and only bites them in the ass if not done right)
Programming/automation. (again, money saver)
VoIP (not as hot as the rest, but I still regularly get emails from headhunters for VoIP positions)

I've been in IT for 30 years (get off my lawn!), so take what I say with a grain of salt. I started my professional career coding in COBOL, C/C++ and Assembler (x86 and M88k)

Security is hot - and always will be - and a lot of other guys are headed that direction. "Cloud" is also really hot, but again, a lot of people are getting on that bandwagon too.

The problem with spending your energy (and money!) on certs is you're hitching yourself to someone else's wagon - you live or die by the market share of that platform.

Most of the "certified in everything" people I've known can't function outside of a particular vendor's walled garden.

The most successful IT guys I know have diverse backgrounds and don't have certs in anything; they've learned in the trenches to be able to be competent in a wide variety of disciplines.

In this realm infrastructure-as-a-service tools are hot, eg puppet, chef, salt, Kubernetes, helm, etc, etc, etc

Nope, not one. Where'd you find us anyway? :D;)

20+ years wearing many hats. Currently senior software engineer. They wisey stopped letting me touch code and forced me to manage an organization :D

I think a certification in AWS or Azure would be valuable if he were looking at software engineering. If he were going down the developer path, I think going to a highly regarded boot camp could be a faster path to employment IF he has a genuine interest. If he really loves it, then building a portfolio to show your skills will be a pleasure.....which brings me to....

Build a portfolio of your work. We ask every applicant if we can see their public bitbucket repo (this is a site where you can share code with others).

On the networking side, I don't know how certifications are regarded today. My salary doubled when I got my MCSE 4.0 back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The Cisco certifications helped as well.

For a career changer, I think certifications can be a viable path to getting you foot in the door. If you took the initiative to get the certification, and can back in up with genuine interest and appropriate knowledge, I think that's a compelling narrative.

^^^ absolutely spot on.

*sigh*

Currently experiencing a wave of terrible ideas being floated by executives who read a white paper.

I had a Computer Science degree with a specialization in hardware, but started as a developer. I moved up and across and now in the business side, not the IT side. There is a part of me that misses the joy of a successful compile. But hey, I'm in it for the money and so learning new skills has always been my mantra.

For a time, I coded. Then it became all declarative/configuration. Now I just tell people what to do.

But as previously pointed out, "The language may change, but the logic stays the same."

My sister just graduated college (major in electrical engineering/minor comp sci) starting salary of $95k at an aerospace company out in the suburbs (not boeing).

Take it to the engineering level if at all possible, then you can pretty much do what you want.

I have been in IT for decades. The industry is on the verge of a major shakeup, software will be code generated start to stop in just a few years. Focus is on cloud and cyber security, however the small folks cannot compete with the big $$ industry giants going forward. I suggest a career outside of IT, if comfortable or trainable with tools, plumbing and electrical. Difficult industry to automate.

Excellent point. I see certs potentially as a way to get your foot in the door. Getting hired into IT with a good salary with no experience isn't easy. If you can get a couple of certs, many (not all) folks will throw some questions at you to try to figure out if you've retained anything and then may give you a shot. With no experience and no certs, you may have a tough time even getting started.

I got a few Cisco certs way back at the beginning. I'm pretty sure they all expired almost 20 years ago. Several years back, a middle manager said "I want everyone certified." I went and got the Cisco CCNA. Come end of the year I could say "you asked for it, here you go." We never heard about that again. That manager is long gone, and the managers since have all said "I don't GAF about certs as long as you can do the job." But when I was first getting started, I got jobs because I had certs.