Some IT advice

[tennisfreak]

I am a Microsoft developer with a BS in CIS.

In my market .net is huge and pays very well. You can easily make over 6 figures (which is pretty dang good for Texas).

I work with C#, WCF, WPF, MVC, MVVM, javascript, jquery, sharepoint with getting a fair mix between web/windows/mobile business apps.

I'd say that if your going to program definitely stick to business programming and shy away from game and "app" (android, ios) development as those are not nearly as lucrative (or stable).

I may be biased but .net is a really good and easy recommendation. In the last 10 years I have never had to worry about "finding" a job. In fact usually I have problems picking which job I want and then getting recruiters to leave me alone.

[Jahdai42]

20+ years here as well in the IT field. I was a jack of all trades as well and now manage a global IT department.

From my experience the grass in never really greener. Dont let greed take you from a job you like because it will bite you in the ass, I made that mistake during the Dot Com era and paid for it.

How much you enjoy your job and the people you work with is actually more fulfilling that the salary you make. We are all underpaid and overworked and think we should make more no matter how much we actually make. If you make between $40-$50 an hour and are not management, you are doing well.

I've got 4 college degrees and a bunch of certs. All they do is get you in the door or announce that you are over qualified. If you dont have the skillset or experience in the trenches, pieces of paper dont mean squat.

[Sivtec]

Originally Posted by Jahdai42

20+ years here as well in the IT field. I was a jack of all trades as well and now manage a global IT department.

From my experience the grass in never really greener. Dont let greed take you from a job you like because it will bite you in the ass, I made that mistake during the Dot Com era and paid for it.

How much you enjoy your job and the people you work with is actually more fulfilling that the salary you make. We are all underpaid and overworked and think we should make more no matter how much we actually make. If you make between $40-$50 an hour and are not management, you are doing well.

I've got 4 college degrees and a bunch of certs. All they do is get you in the door or announce that you are over qualified. If you dont have the skillset or experience in the trenches, pieces of paper dont mean squat.

Hmm very true. I didn't think about that but maybe having a degree in thus field would make you overqualified. My good friend got a programming job that he has no schooling for. He just learned what he needed to online and now he makes pretty good money. Hopefully I can do the same

[n2oinferno]

I'll also chime in that experience is valued over school and certs, followed by a willingness to learn new stuff. I have an AS in computer technology with networking focus, but that's just to get me in the door. My resume with several years of IT work does the rest of the talking for me. I'm a sysadmin now, but since our whole operation is fairly small I'm a jack of all trades. Desktop support, servers, and even A/V. All of the networking stuff is contracted out to our managed service provider, which is sort of a shame because most of that Cisco knowledge is just leaking out of my head, never to be retained again. I've also heard from several IT managers that they're more wary of candidates with a ton of certs. It doesn't really show that they're good at the job, just that they're good at acquiring certs.

[Sivtec]

Originally Posted by n2oinferno

I'll also chime in that experience is valued over school and certs, followed by a willingness to learn new stuff. I have an AS in computer technology with networking focus, but that's just to get me in the door. My resume with several years of IT work does the rest of the talking for me. I'm a sysadmin now, but since our whole operation is fairly small I'm a jack of all trades. Desktop support, servers, and even A/V. All of the networking stuff is contracted out to our managed service provider, which is sort of a shame because most of that Cisco knowledge is just leaking out of my head, never to be retained again. I've also heard from several IT managers that they're more wary of candidates with a ton of certs. It doesn't really show that they're good at the job, just that they're good at acquiring certs.

I guess it is going to depend alot on who the employer is. I think I will go down the cert path to get me started. I've gotten this far just as you have. I only have my A+ and learned the rest from experience. Just have to push and can't get complacent

[kanundrum]

Since you already in IT with lots of experience instead of going the programming route I would go the IT infrastructure and security route. With your background and knowledge get a CISSP (along with a few certs from SANS.org) and You will be in the $120k+ job market in no time (area dependent) not to mention you will learn lots of cool things and will always have to stay up to date with the latest trends on hacking etc.

But essentially where its really at right now is security in today's market. Thank you China!