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CharmingButIrrational
Roswell Project Victimz
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Posted - 2010.04.26 17:45:00 -
[1]
I started work as an IT Admin / Technician / Assistant / Dogsbody a while ago with no real qulifications in that area, just home learnt knowledge and my employers knowing I'd be learning alot on the fly. I've been an enthusiast for a long time now, but I'm quickly finding alot of the stuff I know is only a small part of maintaining equipment in a work enviroment. Luckily what I'm working with currently is reletivly simple, and this is a good enviroment to fill in the gaps and learn more for future career progression in this area.
I've been looking at doing some reading up and part time courses to help me progress. So far I'm not sure what's worth my time, and would look good to prospective future employers on my CV. Some areas I'm interested in learning about are building / managing / using: databases, servers, networking, and general troubleshooting in a work enviroment.
Any suggestions and adivce would be greatly appreciated!
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Exploding Tukey
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Posted - 2010.04.26 18:00:00 -
[2]
Edited by: Exploding Tukey on 26/04/2010 18:02:47 Edited by: Exploding Tukey on 26/04/2010 18:02:32 Know what you are going to do and read on that. Make sure you know atleast the basics of routing and networking, windows and linux setup and configuration, hardware and software setup and basic computer troubleshooting.
From there it depends on what sort of IT you do.
read up on networking hardware setup, domain management, shared storage, sql database management (mssql is usually the most popular in offices, oracle second), as well as the most important skill any IT professional can ever learn:
Google error codes and reading forums.
Oh, and always pretend you know what people are talking about, but say you need to do a little more research before you can confidently answer the question. don't just say ur not sure.
Sadly most of the time you will be installing windows on laptops or fixing mundane issues.
Edit: if available where you are, try to get certified in at least a few known courses. MS certifications are not bad, as well as CompTIA A+ if you can get access to it.
Read this too
GL!
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Wuff Wuff
The Oliver Postgate Appreciation Club
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Posted - 2010.04.26 22:22:00 -
[3]
I started out like you 10 years ago this August. I got put in the same position, supporting 450 odd users in a team of 6-7, it's wonderfully deflating to go from thinking you have a fair idea of how computers work to realising you know next to nothing in the space of a few days. But then the real learning starts, which is awesome.
You may or may not know already, people who generally start out like this will do their MCSE first and then branch off into either (people) Management, networking (read Cisco), database design/management, programming or various other niche subjects, generally anywhere between 3-10 years after their first job. What you actually end up doing will be a matter of what you enjoy/hate but are good at, how much you want to earn and a large dose of fate. 18 months into the job and without so much as an MCP to my name, I was better at support than some people with 3 year computer science degrees + MCSE + field experience. However, lack of qualifications will hold you back on the pay front after not very long though I believe employers still value experience over bits of paper.
That is about as general as it gets and just because other people generally do things this way doesn't necessarily mean you should and indeed, you probably shouldn't.
4 years in and I realised IT wasn't for me and went and finally got a degree in the creative field. The lessons I learnt have and continue to earn me money and opportunities that I would never have had otherwise. So whatever direction you decide to take I would just say reach for the stars and whether you end up as CIO of a global megacorp or a book writer with distant memories of a time in IT, enjoy the ride, you're going to meet some cool people and have some fun.
- Wuffles
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Vogue
Mercurialis Inc. RAZOR Alliance
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Posted - 2010.04.26 22:33:00 -
[4]
As a minimum i would suggest learning some TCP/IP essentials.
For web development stuff with databases Microsoft do 90 day version of Visual Studio. Three are lots of examples to learn based around Visual Studio web development - for example VB.NET with IIS web server and SQL Server 2008.
For a test environment download free VMWare Player. Lets you have another OS inside a window on your existing one. Then you can mess about with Windows server trial versions - active directory and so on.
There are many IT fields. It's best to specialise in a few as well as having pc\server building skills.
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CharmingButIrrational
Roswell Project Victimz
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Posted - 2010.04.27 22:09:00 -
[5]
Thanks for the great advice guys. I'm trained as a graphic designer (but going into it without professional experiance is a hinderance), which is my main pursuit, but having the building blocks on a pair of careers isn't a chance I want to let slip me by.
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Barakkus
Caelestis Iudicium
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Posted - 2010.04.27 22:59:00 -
[6]
Learn Oracle and/or MSSQL. (if you do this learn Java and .Net as well)
Learn the Cisco IOS.
Learn Active Directory and MS Exchange.
That skillset will get you a job anywhere.
Originally by: CCP Dropbear
rofl
edit: ah crap, dev account. Oh well, official rofl at you sir.
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jason hill
Caldari Clan Shadow Wolf Fatal Ascension
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Posted - 2010.04.28 00:07:00 -
[7]
quote "IT Admin / Technician / Assistant / Dogsbody "
is this role what we in the UK call 1st/2nd line support .essentially first point of contact for user issues ? if so then this is a good start if this is what you want to get into. I myself have just moved from that into spending most of my time to freezing my gonads off in the server room from doing 10 plus years running around the office fixing various user issues. im currently supporting 70 servers 2008 x64 bit monsters and trust me whilest im not spending as much time "customer facing" .supporting these behemoths are a major pain as most of the software our developers /testers are using are not x64 bit ( its a bloody mare)..but its good challenging stuff .
what you may want to look into if this is the type of stuff you like doing is the virtual server /desktop enviroment because when it does take off and it will ...there wont so much of a need for 1st/2nd line support peeps anymore
I hope this helps
destroy everything you touch |
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