Black man goes from 37k to 6 figures 6 certs in two years

[Mission249]

As a breh in IT with certs I would still definitely tell young ppl to get the four year. Certs expire and need to be renewed degrees dont. The networks you build in college are worth the price a lot of the times. My advice knock out electives and prerequisites at a community then transfer to a four year for the degree. If they can get scholarships or cheap tuition then go straight to the four year.

I'd actually do it the other way. Do as many hard classes as possible in the community college then transfer those credits to the four year. At the community college you get smaller class sizes so more personalized learning; you also get lower standards - easier to pass. And most times your grades from the community college just get transferred as "Pass or Fail" so you meet the requirement without it affecting your GPA.
Doing electives and classes you're passionate about at the 4 year means you get to coast your senior year, party, and talk to all the women who are in those electives with you.

 

[Sonic Boom of the South]

AWS Certifications: Everything You Need to Know to Start
https://insights-dice-com.cdn.amppr...errer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s

Are AWS certifications important? How many are available, and what do they cost to obtain?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosts and services many of the properties you see online, from the smallest mom-and-pop websites to the largest streaming portals. If it ever suffers an outage, the impact on the broader web is catastrophic.

If you do anything web-based, in other words, it’s important to know the services and tools available via AWS (and also familiarize yourself with Microsoft’s Azure, which is rapidly gaining market-share, as well). But do you actually need to earn a certification (or two) if you want to land a job that utilizes AWS? That’s a very good question.

For this walkthrough of AWS certifications, we’ll tell you how to get one, how much it costs, and if the process is truly worth your time.

Does AWS have an official certification?
The short answer is: Yes. AWS certifications break down into a handful of categories:

Foundational: This certification represents “six months of fundamental AWS Cloud and industry knowledge,” in Amazon’s words.

Associate: “One year of experience solving problems and implementing solutions using the AWS Cloud,” according to Amazon. There are three subcategories of Associate: Architect, Operations, and Developer.

Professional: “Two years of comprehensive experience designing, operating, and troubleshooting solutions using the AWS Cloud” (Amazon, again). As you’ll see in the chart below, Professional certifications break down into two categories: Architect and DevOps. In other words, get ready to know everything about databases in an AWS context.

Specialty: These AWS certifications cover specific areas such as Alexa, machine learning, and data analytics.

Here’s how certifications break down within those categories:

In short, Amazon’s certification path is exhaustive. Specialty certifications are more like mini-courses for learning the Amazon way of doing very specific things (such as the aforementioned machine learning), while Associate and Professional are a ladder that eventually leads to full knowledge of the AWS approach to DevOps.

Fortunately, Amazon also offers quite a bit of documentation around its exams. Which brings us to…

How do I get an AWS certification?
You have to register for an AWS certification account, first and foremost.

The foundational Cloud Practitioner certification requires “six months of fundamental AWS Cloud and industry knowledge” and successful completion of a 90-minute multiple choice quiz.

Each of the AWS Associate certifications (Solutions Architect, SysOps Administrator, and Developer) require “one year of experience solving problems and implementing solutions using the AWS Cloud,” and then passing a two-hour multiple choice quiz.

On the next tier, the Professional Solutions Architect and DevOps Engineer certifications each require the aforementioned two years of “comprehensive experience designing, operating, and troubleshooting solutions using the AWS Cloud,” followed by a three-hour multiple choice quiz.

How much does it cost to get these certifications?
This largely depends on which certification you want to earn! Also keep in mind that, technically, you’re not paying Amazon for the certification; you’re paying to take the test.

The AWS Cloud Practitioner exam costs $100; you can also get practice exams for $20 each.

Solutions Architect, SysOps Administrator, and Developer certifications all cost the same: $150 for the final exam, and $20 for practice quizzes.

Amazon’s Professional Solutions Architect and DevOps Engineer certifications cost $300 for the exam, and $40 for practice tests.

Each of the AWS specialties cost $300, and $40 for practice exams.

Can I take an AWS exam without a course?
The short answer is “yes.” But for an AWS specialty or certification, it’s not that easy.

Amazon suggests you rack up the indicated amount of experience before moving on with its AWS certifications. For example, from the description for AWS Certified Solutions Architect:

“Associate examination is intended for individuals who perform a solutions architect role and have one or more years of hands-on experience designing available, cost-efficient, fault-tolerant, and scalable distributed systems on AWS.”

Each specialty and certification has similar language. But Amazon doesn’t check your work history, either, and you can download the practice materials for every level of certification and each specialty. To take the exams, you simply have to register (and pay, of course).

Is it worth getting an AWS certification?
If you’re dedicating even part of your career to working with AWS, earning a certification doesn’t hurt. Keep in mind that, when applying for jobs, your interview (and the associated testing) will inevitably focus on how well you actually know the necessary skills—for example, if they ask you about managing AWS EC2 programmatically with Node.js, you better know what they want.

Here’s a breakdown of top occupations that often ask for AWS skills (based on data from Burning Glass); as you can see, the number of jobs that require these skills is likely to grow over the next few years. If you’re interested in cloud architecture, software development, and networking, at least some familiarity with the basics of AWS will certainly serve you well.

Nonetheless, possessing the right certifications can give you a proverbial leg up when competing for jobs—especially if you’re in the running for a highly specialized position, such as working with Alexa.

Related Jobs
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[Sonic Boom of the South]

14 Tech Certifications Increasing in Market Value
https://insights.dice.com/2020/05/18/14-tech-certifications-increasing-market-value/

Average market values for hundreds of non-certified tech skills rose in the first quarter of 2020, according to a new analysis by research firm Foote Partners. Meanwhile, roughly 505 tech certifications continued to decline in market value. But did any certifications actually gain?

“The average cash pay premium for a tech certification is currently at its five-year low,” read the group’s report. “In the quarter ending April 1, 2020, 505 tech certifications lost even more value, down an average of 1.9 percent in the quarter. Pay performance from January to March 2020 was lower for all but one certification segment, Applications Development & Programming Languages.”

What’s behind this decline in certification value? That’s a difficult question to answer. Foote Partners hypothesizes that the popularity of certifications might actually drive down pay premiums, because the market is flooded with certified technologists. As supply fattens, demand slackens.

Certifications also age or become less useful as the overall technology industry evolved. “Also, there remains a lingering bias that taking a proctored exam does not confer expertise in a subject on the test taker, especially when the pass rate is 70 percent correct answers,” the report added. “The certification industry has fought back against this bias by adding laboratory requirements and even peer review panels that decide if the candidate has qualified to receive designation.”

All that being said, which certifications are actually gaining value? Here’s how Foote Partners breaks it down:

Cybersecurity Certifications
Cybersecurity is a highly specialized field, as well as one much in demand. Based on that combination of factors, you’d figure that many cybersecurity certifications would be worth a significant salary premium—and you wouldn’t be wrong. Whether you’re trying to land a job as a cybersecurity analyst, white hat hacker, or a professional tasked with hardware defense, a certification can help you stand out within a large application pool.

Foote Partners suggests that the following cybersecurity certifications have enjoyed the biggest compensation increases:

EC-Council Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI)
CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP)
Average Pay Premium: 13 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 30 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

GIAC Certified Forensics Analyst (GCFA)
Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP)
Average Pay Premium: 13 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase:18.2 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

EC-Council Certified Incident Handler V2 (ECIH)
Average Pay Premium: 12 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 33.3 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

GIAC Certified Penetration Tester (GPEN)
Average Pay Premium: 12 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 20 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

EC-Council Certified Encryption Specialist (ECES)
Average Pay Premium: 12 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 9.1 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

GIAC Certified Enterprise Defender (GCED)
Average Pay Premium: 11 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 22.2 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

GIAC Certified Forensics Examiner (GCFE)
Average Pay Premium: 10 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 11.1 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

Architecture, Project Management and Process

Project and product management are vital elements within any company’s roadmap, and technology teams depend on these leaders in order to keep initiatives on-schedule and under budget.

Six Sigma Black Belt
Average Pay Premium: 12 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 20 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

Certification of Capability in Business Analysis (CCBA)
Average Pay Premium: 11 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 22.2 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

Six Sigma Green Belt
Average Pay Premium: 10 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 25 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

ITIL Expert Certification
Average Pay Premium: 10 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 11.1 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

Application Development and Management
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is an enormously popular service among developers, cloud architects, and others tasked with managing their companies’ IT infrastructure, so it’s no surprise that one certification enjoying considerable compensation gains is related to it. (If you’re interested in bulking up on your AWS skills and certifications, there are quite a few foundational, associate, and professional certs you can pursue, including some that are very highly specialized).

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
Average Pay Premium: 10 percent of base salary equivalent
Market Value Increase: 11.1 percent (in the six months through April 1, 2020)

Remember, certifications aren’t vital for every job. For example, according to Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country, only 1.1 percent of postings for software developers and engineers requested certifications. However, some employers place a premium on them, especially for highly specialized roles in cybersecurity and other fields.

 

[BaggerofTea]

Broski, you need to chill with giving advice in this thread, you sound like you're still getting over a fresh bad breakup that's really a decade old..

Maybe this game just ain't for you.. truth be told, it's not for everyone, and MOST of the people who come into this thinking it's easy bread without putting in the work, will get stuck resetting passwords, but for the brehs with some grind in them there are real lifestyle changes out there to be had if you can just focus.

NO! You don't need a degree to crack 6 figs
NO! You don't need a degree to get into cloud
NO! It's not that hard to get into this field; However, how far up the ladder you make it depends entirely upon you and how much you're willing to sacrifice; bar a minute few things that are out of your control.

Chill with the defeatist fukkshyt, don't discourage or set mental hurdles for people who don't know the game as everyone isn't built the same. What's a mountain for you, may be an anthill for the next breh.. let them eat, if they fail, at least they were allowed the opportunity to.

If you can get a degree, get the degree

I didn't get one cert until being in a job paying 6 figs

 

[aXiom]

If you can get a degree, get the degree

I didn't get one cert until being in a job paying 6 figs

Don't misunderstand me.. I'm not saying to not get a degree.. you can even work on your degree when on the grind from the bottom, but the most important thing in this field is experience. The quicker you get in, the quicker you get hands on and get out of the lower tier positions. So telling people they need to invest time and money to get a degree before getting into the field is counter productive since green techs aren't gonna be getting into positions that require degrees for a few years.

Tech is of those careers with a very low entry bar while still having a high pay ceiling, but how far up the ladder you get is entirely up to you.

One more thing that I see glossed over a lot.. location, location, location... If you're single and not tied to any property and you're in an area that's no really a tech hub.. just up and move.

 

[Carlton Banks]

Good stuff !

 

[Ashtrey]

Subs

 

[TheAnointedOne]

For those who want an IT degree, I'd recommend Western Governors University https://www.wgu.edu/online-it-degrees/bachelors-programs.html#close. Tuition is about 7K/year.


This doesn't get mentioned much, but it really is. You can rack up a gang of certs and still be stuck in help desk.

I had a A+, Network+, Security+, Project+, and a CCNA (but no degree at the time) and could not get a job in networking/security. I wasn't able to get anything beyond help desk roles until I got my degree and switched to development.

I've been looking into wgu. But isn't an online degree seen as a joke?

 

[Be Strong Blackman]

No excuses just beliefs and actions

chill. you know white supremacy runs rampant. That twitter post is fake news

 

[SolesKing305]

I’m in ecomm, and it’s boomin right now don’t sleep

 

[Vaselclean]

I've been looking into wgu. But isn't an online degree seen as a joke?

I got my degree from WGU. I look at it similar to a degree from a mid tier state school. It's not prestigious, of course, but you're not going to get any pushback either.

 

[DJ Paul's Arm]

Brehs what accredited online schools offer IT/Cyber security courses?

 

[Cereal_Bowl_Assassin]

I basically did the same thing...was making 18k now I make well over 6 figures..you really gotta cut out all of the distractions (useless relationships, thecoli....) and grind..

Edit: Cybersecurity is hard to get into if you're just starting out

 

[UberEatsDriver]

I basically did the same thing...was making 18k now I make well over 6 figures..you really gotta cut out all of the distractions (useless relationships, thecoli....) and grind..

Edit: Cybersecurity is hard to get into if you're just starting out

What do you do?

 

[Carlton Banks]

You can also learn how to code too

I was so naive