IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[Rawtid]

A dude I know has a BS in Electrical Engineering from a good school, went through a coding bootcamp, and still can't get a job (in New York). He's looking for advice, but I dunno what to tell him.

Look outside New York? Go to networking events and actually talk to people? Don't be so negative went the career people at the bootcamp are trying to help you?

Sounds like he needs to figure out what he wants to do. It's hard to market yourself when you have a broad skill set. The coding and Electrical engineering dont really tie hand in hand.

What he may want to do is drop the electrical part and just focus on "engineer", which is generic then use the coding as experience and his emphasis. If he's not getting hits from his resume, he may want to consider having it looked at professionally and if he lives in the same town as his school, he could try to ask for a job in his department. Maybe assist with grading papers or something. He could also check with the alumni office to see what networking opportunities may be available. Looked at LinkedIn as well and check for remote positions too. It may require infrequent travel to office, but mostly working from home.

Any idea why he chose coding? I looked up a couple of Electrical Engineering jobs and most of them wanted experience in AutoCad. That seems like it would have been a better move.

 

[Silkk]

fukk waiting on my lying ass teacher, copped my CySA+ Voucher this morning. So on July 29th, CySA+

 

[Artenche]

So... I after following up on a ton of applications I finally had something of a breakthrough. This exam prep company finally answered my call, and luckily for me it was the HR manager herself who connected with me. She seemed really cool and apologized about being behind on stuff. So I explained my situation, and told her I'm going to school for Network Security and working part-time. I let her know I was taking a course that prepares me for my A+ exam, but she was asking what other experience I had since they wanted someone with experience (even though the only requirement I didn't meet was actually having my A+ and under "Experience" on the job posting it said "Entry Level" lol). So I let her in on my knowledge of computers up to this point, and she seemed pretty up on me.

So... she said since they are testing facility, she give me a shot and schedule a skills test to see how much I know lol. I'm actually not nervous at all, but I'm not even sure what I should study. Right now, I've just been going over CompTIA A+ stuff and going through Mike Meyers' Udemey course again. Should I look into Linux or Powershell at all? My gut tells me it will just be general A+ stuff but I want to be as prepared as possible.

Anyway, I'm just glad ya boy has a shot. Wish me luck.

 

[el_oh_el]

Im getting bored with networking. Finding it very hard to will myself into studying for this CCNP route test. I have to get it out the way before I go back to school though.
I want to develop. I think having a job where I can be creative and solve puzzles would be best for me.
Im also trying to figure out what my next steps would be after I hit 100k and want to make 200...

 

[NapKingCole]

To anyone trying to get certs, TestOut has a holiday sale going on from now to July 8th- $4 for the 1st month. I used a similar promo link posted in here & just passed the Comptia 901 test last week using only TestOut & Prof. Messer videos. It's the best study source I've come across since it has actual simulator ?'s plus practice exams. Has a lot of certs to study for including Network+ & Security+.

Library Suite Monthly Subscription

 

[Artenche]

To anyone trying to get certs, TestOut has a holiday sale going on from now to July 8th- $4 for the 1st month. I used a similar promo link posted in here & just passed the Comptia 901 test last week using only TestOut & Prof. Messer videos. It's the best study source I've come across since it has actual simulator ?'s plus practice exams. Has a lot of certs to study for including Network+ & Security+.

Library Suite Monthly Subscription

Are Messer vids on YouTube?

Or is it a course?

 

[slikkp]

Sounds like he needs to figure out what he wants to do. It's hard to market yourself when you have a broad skill set. The coding and Electrical engineering dont really tie hand in hand.

What he may want to do is drop the electrical part and just focus on "engineer", which is generic then use the coding as experience and his emphasis. If he's not getting hits from his resume, he may want to consider having it looked at professionally and if he lives in the same town as his school, he could try to ask for a job in his department. Maybe assist with grading papers or something. He could also check with the alumni office to see what networking opportunities may be available. Looked at LinkedIn as well and check for remote positions too. It may require infrequent travel to office, but mostly working from home.

Any idea why he chose coding? I looked up a couple of Electrical Engineering jobs and most of them wanted experience in AutoCad. That seems like it would have been a better move.

An electrical engineer that can code is a computer engineer. All computer engineering curriculum is electrical engineering with classes in discrete math, data structures and some advanced algorithms classes.

Autocad is only of use to power engineers. The problem with electrical engineering is the jobs have different titles like Integrated Circuit engineer, embedded software engineer, Rf engineer. All of those are electrical engineering job titles but you just have to know where to look.

 

[EnzoG]

What are some tech blogs to be up to date on the current tech trends brehs??

 

[NapKingCole]

Are Messer vids on YouTube?

Or is it a course?

Here’s the youtube link. He does have a course that costs $ but I didn’t join it. Professor Messer's CompTIA 220-901 A+ Certification Training Course - YouTube

 

[Mirin4rmfar]

Anyone from a non coding background...how long did it take you to learn to code? I am trying to get really good at Python by the end of the year. I am learning of Udemy. lol, I honestly want to learn this shyt in a month,

 

[MR. Conclusion]

How much subnetting is actually on the network+?

Also is it true that there is a "gotcha" algorithm on these exams? In other words if you get a question wrong you get more questions on the subject the wrong question was based on?

 

[FreshAIG]

I really need to get back on my grind with this. Just got a good paying job recently, so I haven't been studying like I should be. smh.

 

[wastedmermaid]

Been at this programming job for about 6 months now and frankly I’ve had enough. I just don’t really enjoy sitting at a desk and writing code all day. I’m thinking about making a switch to another area of I.T. My knowledge of actual hardware is basically none so it looks like if I do this i’ll probably have to start with the A+ and go from there. Any of you breh’s ever made a similar transition & have any advice?

 

[David_TheMan]

Been at this programming job for about 6 months now and frankly I’ve had enough. I just don’t really enjoy sitting at a desk and writing code all day. I’m thinking about making a switch to another area of I.T. My knowledge of actual hardware is basically none so it looks like if I do this i’ll probably have to start with the A+ and go from there. Any of you breh’s ever made a similar transition & have any advice?

You are in the IT field, you don't need to start at A+ level. LOL
Just read up and bullshyt it.

 

[David_TheMan]

fukk waiting on my lying ass teacher, copped my CySA+ Voucher this morning. So on July 29th, CySA+

Good luck man, you got this.

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End of the month I'll start prepping to take my CISM