[Wolves] OT: IT career advice

[Chris Ball]

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Paul Harrison wrote:
> Ideally I would like to be involved in open source IT work, but this
> may be difficult/impossible from a standing start.  I rather get the
> impression that it is hard to get away from Microsoft, whatever befall.
> 
> I don't actually know anyone working in IT, so I thought I would ask
> you good people:
> 
> * What might a mid-30s teacher have to offer in the IT sector?
> * Despite what we might think about Mr Gates, is MCSE a good means to
> getting into the industry?
> * What other avenues might I explore in terms of advice on
> qualifications, training or employment?
> 
> Grateful for any pointers,
> 
> Paul

- From what I've been told, certification will help you get your first
job, but is pretty useless from that point on. The MCSE is commonplace
to the point it's almost meaningless (or so I'm led to believe), but
I've noticed from my own job hunting that it seems to be a required of
most 'Network Monkeys' especially if you want to work with a network
using  Windows Server 200*.

If you are looking for a course, I suggest Computeach
(http://www.computeach.co.uk), they have been rather good with me and
did (I don't know if they still do) a combined MCSE/CCNP course for
about £5,000. They are also an agency and guaruntee to find you some
work if you pass the course (they start looking once you've got three
units of your MCSE under your belt).

It really depends what you want to do in the IT sector, it's a huge
field. As you are from an Education background, have you considered
doing IT training? With the popularity of the new ITQ and the ECDL I'm
sure you could get some work teaching that (although I fear the money is
not great in most places).

As I'm still training really, I can't offer you more advice at the
moment, but good luck. Remember though, it's never as fun as it looks :P







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