Useful IT skills for a network admin
Discussion
Ok, I have worked in IT for around 15 years.
Last 12 years in the same place - Waiting for a redundancy payout that has been on the cards for the least 4 years!!
So it finally looks like it's going to happen. The question I have is what skills/experience/certs would be useful in addition to the obvious.
I have
MCSA in Win2k3 (+ messaging)
ITIL foundation v2
My plan at the moment is to do the CCNA & upgrade the MCSA to MCSE
Don't know if its worth upgrading the MCSE, Microsoft doesn't really seem that desirable any more as a cert (was it ever?)
Doing some VMware at the moment, looks like a good buzzword & looking at linux to get some basics under my belt.
I am a network admin but still put my hand to a number of other tasks. I seem to be the stereotypical 'Jack of all trades - Master of none'
To be honest should have gone a few years back but wasnt confident enough and didn't want to take the risk due to home life. I have picked up some additional skills in the meantime but looking at it honestly seems a bit peicemeal - I can do some SQL reporting but I wouldn't say my SQL was good enough for it to be a full time job.
I still have some time to get more experience but obviously not enough time to get a degree for example. Good at learning myself once I get focused (redundancy certainly focuses the mind)
Cheers
Last 12 years in the same place - Waiting for a redundancy payout that has been on the cards for the least 4 years!!
So it finally looks like it's going to happen. The question I have is what skills/experience/certs would be useful in addition to the obvious.
I have
MCSA in Win2k3 (+ messaging)
ITIL foundation v2
My plan at the moment is to do the CCNA & upgrade the MCSA to MCSE
Don't know if its worth upgrading the MCSE, Microsoft doesn't really seem that desirable any more as a cert (was it ever?)
Doing some VMware at the moment, looks like a good buzzword & looking at linux to get some basics under my belt.
I am a network admin but still put my hand to a number of other tasks. I seem to be the stereotypical 'Jack of all trades - Master of none'
To be honest should have gone a few years back but wasnt confident enough and didn't want to take the risk due to home life. I have picked up some additional skills in the meantime but looking at it honestly seems a bit peicemeal - I can do some SQL reporting but I wouldn't say my SQL was good enough for it to be a full time job.
I still have some time to get more experience but obviously not enough time to get a degree for example. Good at learning myself once I get focused (redundancy certainly focuses the mind)
Cheers
king God), but virtualisation was getting massive in my area anyway.Scan the jobs sites, look at what they are advertising heavily for at the moment.
The question of whether to get a depth of knowledge (CCNP rather than CCNA) or wide knowledge (CCNA plus MCP etc) is not any easy one to answer.
Maybe you could look at doing a Cisco ASA course or a VOIP course?
There are no qualifications that guarantee you a job but they can help immensely with the "keyword sift" that a lot of agencies use, especially if the agency themselves do not know an awful lot about the "real world" skills of people.
It might be a good idea to state where you are in the country, as someone on here may know of jobs going in their local region
The question of whether to get a depth of knowledge (CCNP rather than CCNA) or wide knowledge (CCNA plus MCP etc) is not any easy one to answer.
Maybe you could look at doing a Cisco ASA course or a VOIP course?
There are no qualifications that guarantee you a job but they can help immensely with the "keyword sift" that a lot of agencies use, especially if the agency themselves do not know an awful lot about the "real world" skills of people.
It might be a good idea to state where you are in the country, as someone on here may know of jobs going in their local region
I'm a ICT Operations Manager and know that ITIL is worth having. It all depends what you want to do. If you like the cisco route then I would suggest CCNA then the unified comms exam, UC consultants are looking at over £300 per day and a article in a email newsletter I read UC is still huge.
Taita said:
MCSE has been superseded by MCITP or similar hasn't it? ).
CorrectWMWare or the MS Hyper-V equiv certs would be useful
depends what jobs are wanting where you are.
Here (NZ) VMWare before Hyper-V
I am using a HP Microserver with 8GB RAM and a couple of TB drives running ESX 4.1 booting off a USB Stick, and using evalation MS products to run through the MCITP exams
I think HP are still offering 100 pound cashback on the 230 pound server (need to add the 8gb ram and disk to the price)
http://www.serversdirect.co.uk/HP_Proliant_N36L_Mi...
cheers guys, some helpful info. I think at the moment I would ideally like a similar role to the one I have now (3rd line support, sorting out everything seemingly) but in an organisation that has a bit more money or inclination to invest.
I guess the Microsoft question is what certs to get - MCSE is a definite, it's just is it worth getting a MCITP or MCTS. searches aren't showing a lot of demand for the M$ certs.
Is it worth even worrying about M$ certs beyond the MCSE nowadays ? It doesn't look like it.
Working on virtualisation and linux - this is something I need to use more of anyway and have been playing with but from a test environment point of view - time to think of it for a production environment.
Job searches are helpful but not many jobs about at the moment it seems for most skills - guess thats the way of the global economy now!
I understand I am adding buzzwords to a cv to some extent but if it gets you through the door to the right job thats great. I don't want to lie about the level of my skills though - I would rather not have the job than only have it for a few days/weeks!
(I live in East Birmingham if that helps)
I guess the Microsoft question is what certs to get - MCSE is a definite, it's just is it worth getting a MCITP or MCTS. searches aren't showing a lot of demand for the M$ certs.
Is it worth even worrying about M$ certs beyond the MCSE nowadays ? It doesn't look like it.
Working on virtualisation and linux - this is something I need to use more of anyway and have been playing with but from a test environment point of view - time to think of it for a production environment.
Job searches are helpful but not many jobs about at the moment it seems for most skills - guess thats the way of the global economy now!
I understand I am adding buzzwords to a cv to some extent but if it gets you through the door to the right job thats great. I don't want to lie about the level of my skills though - I would rather not have the job than only have it for a few days/weeks!
(I live in East Birmingham if that helps)
i would suspect that virtulisation (especially vmware) is good to look at. if you want certs do the cisco ones they are much tougher and you can work anywhere with them on any platform as the server os makes no difference.
check out the linux flavours as you are, but don't confine yourself to ubuntu as its perhaps a bit too easy to work with if you walk into a job using clearOS for example (just what i have read). most linux skills will port to unix as well so that's an option.
my only other advice would be to keep up with the desktop and what's happening on it so you are not too back end for places.
check out the linux flavours as you are, but don't confine yourself to ubuntu as its perhaps a bit too easy to work with if you walk into a job using clearOS for example (just what i have read). most linux skills will port to unix as well so that's an option.
my only other advice would be to keep up with the desktop and what's happening on it so you are not too back end for places.
wucheng said:
I guess the Microsoft question is what certs to get - MCSE is a definite, it's just is it worth getting a MCITP or MCTS. searches aren't showing a lot of demand for the M$ certs.
Is it worth even worrying about M$ certs beyond the MCSE nowadays ? It doesn't look like it.
I would enquire abouta few and see what they say.Is it worth even worrying about M$ certs beyond the MCSE nowadays ? It doesn't look like it.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certificat...
For me where I am (NZ), MS certs are being asked for. It just gets you past the recruiters
Cheers guys,
having a bit of a cashflow crisis at the moment so in two-three months when I get some cash from a house I will be sitting the remaining exams to get the MCSE from the MCSA.
I will then be getting the CCNA/CCNP (undecided as yet exactly how far to go).
Along the way will get some Linux and virtualisation practice.
I feel a bit more relieved as I have seen two jobs now which are identical to the job I have now in terms of how I would describe it rather than the job description, these are paying similar to my current role. This means redundancy isn't looking as bad as it was - just need to make sure I get the job - simples!
One thought I had was setting up a support business, the theory was small businesses needing a techie but not big enough for a permanent person. Maybe paying a retainer or for a number of hours.
Backups, Email, website general Break/Fix and Move/Add/Change type stuff.
'What a good idea you are surely a genius - get yourself to the BBC for the next series of the apprentice' I thought until I looked at how much to charge.
Take hourly rate
Add allowance for slack days
Add Sick & holiday days
Add Income Tax
Add National Insurance
Add VAT
= Too high a rate
No wonder people are advertising pc repair businesses in the fish & chip shop. Add to this everyone know someone who is "good with pc's" and you before you know it have a failed business idea.
To be fair it might be worth a crack if you had nothing else happening.
Should have become a sparkie or a plumber at least they get paid for what they do instead of being bought a few cans of lager if you are lucky.
having a bit of a cashflow crisis at the moment so in two-three months when I get some cash from a house I will be sitting the remaining exams to get the MCSE from the MCSA.
I will then be getting the CCNA/CCNP (undecided as yet exactly how far to go).
Along the way will get some Linux and virtualisation practice.
I feel a bit more relieved as I have seen two jobs now which are identical to the job I have now in terms of how I would describe it rather than the job description, these are paying similar to my current role. This means redundancy isn't looking as bad as it was - just need to make sure I get the job - simples!
One thought I had was setting up a support business, the theory was small businesses needing a techie but not big enough for a permanent person. Maybe paying a retainer or for a number of hours.
Backups, Email, website general Break/Fix and Move/Add/Change type stuff.
'What a good idea you are surely a genius - get yourself to the BBC for the next series of the apprentice' I thought until I looked at how much to charge.
Take hourly rate
Add allowance for slack days
Add Sick & holiday days
Add Income Tax
Add National Insurance
Add VAT
= Too high a rate
No wonder people are advertising pc repair businesses in the fish & chip shop. Add to this everyone know someone who is "good with pc's" and you before you know it have a failed business idea.
To be fair it might be worth a crack if you had nothing else happening.
Should have become a sparkie or a plumber at least they get paid for what they do instead of being bought a few cans of lager if you are lucky.
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