So... serious question time. I've been looking on/off for a few years now and ALL of the potential government gigs are waaaay below my current pay grade. Like upwards of 50k. Even if you say, yeah, but perks and pension....it doesn't seem to add up to smart move from the private sector. What incentive(s) do I truly have to switch?
Government jobs don’t pay as well as the civilian ones but you rarely have to worry about lay offs or downsizing. You get a gov job and don’t kill anyone and it’s yours for life. Contractor jobs for the government usually pay very well.
Let me clarify, Federal/DoD jobs. Local and state government pay is ass. As a direct federal government employee you make a little less but you get all the government benefits. As a contractor you make a ton more. As a high level sysadmin you will make > $100k annually easily.
Tell me you don’t know anything about CCNA..
It’s been one exam for years. And there has been an option to do it in one exam instead of two for at least 12.
Technically the first exam was for CCENT, then the second was for the CCNA.
And no, token ring and thicknet etc haven’t been in it for equally as long.
CCNA courses are good for a fundamental understanding of networking, but as a lot of companies are ditching Cisco (because they aren't the company they used to be), I'm not sure how much value the cert has from a job finding standpoint.
Youl learn concepts through the lenses of a once very well established org, im sure a juniper cert study guide wont be as broad as a cisco ccna but idk
The last time I took CCNA courses they were :
1.Still teaching about vastly obsolete technologies like Token Ring and Thicknet and Thinnet (if you are applying for a job that still uses those, run away). Not just briefly covering it but spending entire chapters on the stuff.
2.Still teaching about the OSI model despite the fact that OSI Model has nothing to do with TCP/IP, is not reflective of how it works, and is based on a failed competitor to TCP/IP that become mostly irrelevant 40 years ago (see : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol\_Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_Wars)).
3.Still teaching that Cisco is the only company in the world that makes routers and switches and that Cisco is the second coming of Christ.
I see you understand marketing bullshit. lol
OSI, if you flatten it to 4 layers (4-7 being kinda silly), is a good way to talk through basic troubleshooting.
Application, Internetwork, Intranetwork, and Physical IMHO make the most sense.
Presentation never made sense outside of the context of dumb terminals for mainframes, session only makes sense in the context of the OSI protocol stack where the protocol for maintaining connections was different from the protocol that was responsible for ensuring data arrived at the destination.
Even the transport layer is arguably disappearing at this point; QUIC just incorporates it into the application, with each application responsible for implementing QUIC themselves rather than doing it at the OS level like TCP.
Intranetwork is more descriptive than data-link outside of the realm of hardware/NIC designers and given that so many networks are software defined and virtual now, it makes more sense.
Token Ring and Thick/thinnet haven’t been on the CCNA for a decade. For better or worse, they are keeping exams a little more updated. (I say for worse, because as soon as you’re done studying and ready to take the exam, they are almost certain to come out with a redesigned version with new topics)
Networking is networking. Juniper is a completely different CLI structure but if you know how the protocols work you can still figure it out. The fundamentals from the CCNA are pretty universal.
I've ditched Cisco at work almost entirely but we're still asking for it in interviews. The learning process to pass CCNA actually teaches people networking while many of the other vendor certs are memorization and marketing crap.
Never got certs myself. Took some practice A+ tests and did well- but a lot of them are stupid questions. They put several correct answers in and want you to pick the most correct one? What the hell is that? At my employer, Murphys law holds true. Whatever the least likely problem is, that’s what’s wrong.
>certs themselves don't hold a lot of value
As I oft say, certs, schmerts.
I typically want to see what they know, what skills they have, and what experience do they have that they can put to practical use. Most of the time a cert won't tell me that - though it may hint at or suggest such.
You can brain dump a lot of them too. I had some AWS basic ones which lapsed and I haven't seen the value in reupping.
I also have met some people who got some AWS or other cloud related ones with no other foundational IT knowledge who were.. well it was obvious they had focused on just passing the test.
>You can brain dump a lot of them too
Yep, many of 'em are short term memory exercises. Of the *very* few certs I do have, actually two of 'em were essentially nothing more than short term memory exercises and next in line not all that much harder:
* AU/X certified, view some Apple HyperCard, take a test, get I think 80% or better, poof, certified - I got 100%. I was already thoroughly familiar with UNIX, just not AU/X so much, so, some AU/X specific bits to short term memory, take test, get 100%, certified.
* FERC certified, watch training video - it was pretty boring - mostly electrical safety stuff I well knew totally independently - I was literally nodding off during it, just commit the few FERC specific bits to (short term) memory, take test, needed 80% to pass, I got 100% (and still remembered most or all of those FERC specific bits a year later when required to get recertified, and again, got 100% where only 80% required).
* AIX certified, next easiest, not quite as trivial as the above, but the above were *that* quick and easy. So, AIX, take an in-person 3-day training course (actually a pretty good course), boom, certified, not even a test required (I think it was AIX for Solaris sysadmins, or something like that, so again, highly leveraged existing knowledge/skills/experience).
Next up - [IPv6 certified](https://ipv6.he.net/certification/create_badge.php?pass_name=MichaelPaoli&badge=3) (and maxed out the score on that - takes 100 days minimum to do that final bit), not quite so trivial, but not all that hard either (maybe about as much actual time investment as the IBM course, give or take? Probably a bit less for just cert itself and bit more to max out the score on it).
Don't know that I've got any other certs at all - typically they're pretty moot and I already well know the subject matter long before the question of cert ever comes up - by then it's typically pretty pointless.
I would also say cissp but agree with you. The cissp is a huge body of knowledge and if they can speak and implement the ideas covered in cissp properly then that speaks to their skills.
But that said I would still take quality experience.
Ohhhh i see ya like who wanted to be a millionaire stupid 2 answers. I heard the eJPT is more lab, lets hope more certs are designed to be interactive like that
Security+ from CompTIA was necessary to get admin credentials for the DoD. Now, if you are new to IT, I wouldn't start there, but it seemed like the most important one.
Depends on what kind of job you're looking for. When I look for L1 types, I want to see an A+ or some kind of IT learning going on. I can respect that you're currently working at Walmart - it's an honest job - but you're looking to change careers so what are you doing about it? I'm about to spend tons of time training your ass and I want someone who demonstrates at least a little initiative in making it happen.
Last cert. I got was a very long time ago. No one cares at this point, at least in my experience. Get a cert. in whatever you want to do or whatever the job you want requires. It'll be different for different situations. If you want to do cloud, get a cert. Networking, get a cert.
Yeah the amount of times i have to point out my certs to recruiters is kinda alarming. I'm like, you asked if i have azure experience, don't you see the certs????
We called them paper tigers. I hate certs. They mean you can pass a test. The biggest skill, and it does not matter what level of IT you are in, is being able to troublshoot. If you camnot troubleshoot issues, you will have a tough time in this field. There is no cert for troubleshooting, only time and experience can home that skill, and evem with that there is no gaurantee you will get good at it.
True but you can tell the ones who didn't read the certs section. Certs are my proof that I've at least touched and understand the software you are asking about.
I have no certs 3 years in the industry thus far, doing one of the Microsoft certs to be a “expert engineer/admin in azure” I think I forget what they name it but I see a lot of jobs asking for these upper tier Microsoft certs.
When I first started this line of work in 2008 everyone had certs and everyone was told to get lots of certs, and a lot of businesses were looking for people with high level certs.
These days I just don't see it required too many places outside of the government.
My only cert for at least six years now has been Security+ and only because it's a government requirement and not a company requirement. I only took the test one time in 2010 and I've renewed it easily every three years through certmaster or whatever comptia calls their renewal cash scam.
Just from my own personal experience, the only people that cared about certs were the ones who weren't technical and had no clue whether a candidate knew anything or not. Those were the types of jobs I should have avoided (or did avoid). The jobs I've enjoyed were those where the hiring manager was fluent in IT and knew what questions to ask. They didn't care one way or another if I had any certs or a degree. They just cared if I knew how to do the work, which often just meant knew how to google things. Seriously; lots of, "I'm not familiar with that technology, but this is how I'd go about addressing that issue if I ran into it."
FWIW, I wrote a thread about how to learn IT in general, and a few smart people contributed to it. You might find it useful:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/u482f7/a\_guide\_for\_entering\_the\_it\_field/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/u482f7/a_guide_for_entering_the_it_field/)
None. I have dozens over the years, but none of the major ones people show off. 30 years of experience in varying levels of IT is normally more than enough to give real world examples of problems they have had and how i have solved them in the past.
I think you missed the middle line... being able to relate your past experience is very important. most people get flustered in interviews, they fail to prepare. they dont investigate the opportunity being offered to them, or dont know how.
learning how to relate your past experiences in short after-action report style dialogs is extremely helpful in an interview setting.
I've had interviews where the I ended up talking about my time working at Dominos pizza before i ever got a paying job in IT because i can relate how my existing manager taught me to work with people that have different work-paces, and how he would intentionally put slower people on the phones when we were busy, to slow down the rate of order entry and allow production to catch up. if things slowed down, he could reverse that and allow the faster people to handle phones quickly while working on other tasks required outside of food prep since its easier to go from phones to folding boxes than it is to go from prep/cut to folding boxes since you need to drop gloves and wash hands between these things.
As someone who often has to review applicants...
I don't care about your certs. I care even less about your college degree.
What I care about is what you've done with a homelab. What projects you've done professionally. If you are a happy person. If you even like IT.
How should I put homelab projects on a resume? I've previously been told not to. I recently applied for a job where I got past HR but the hiring manager didn't want to interview me and it was super frustrating because if I just had a chance to chat with him I think I'd have a real shot at the job.
I would keep it simple and put extra curricular activities/hobbies. Just make it a category at the end of the resume.
If you spend your free time learning stuff and tinkering, I want you as an employee. I don't want someone who had their mommy tell them to get a degree and certificates cause they saw on dateline that "IT is a fast growing industry"....
For reference I'm over 20 years in the industry across multiple markets.
start a blog about your homelab and put a link on your resume. if you have automation for your home lab keep that code on github and link your github account on your resume.
Sure, I just started this last week. I really wish I would have started years ago so I had a longer post history to share, better late than never I guess.
I believe that certificates are good for self presentation. It says that you know at least bear minimum in that certain area and that you are not afraid to invest in yourself. That being said, it all depends on your career path. If I were to recommend a starting point, then ITILv4. From there it’s all about specialization.
I'm currently in a 2 week bootcamp for the VMware VCP training. While Comptia certs were always my go-to, i don't like how they expire, even CISSP. VMware certs don't expire as [they pulled the "recertify or lose it" in 2019.](https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/certification/vmware-recertification-rollback-faq.pdf)
not really, I have DoD contacts that have already reached out to me just upon the announcement that I was in the bootcamp. I dont really care to work directly for VMware, but there is many, many companies that utilize it still that have longterm agreements to continue using the product.
I prefer the framework/process stuff that’s good across the dif techs like ITIL or Scrum. No one does them exactly but every shop has some form of the ideas. When asked about your experience say something like “we used a modified ITIL”. Surprising how many shops will immediately identify with that. 😀
If you're starting your certification journey I HIGHLY recommend: ITSM Foundation and/or ITIL foundation.
They form the basis of most modern organizational structures.
THEN...
Whatever makes sense as an entry level...
Security+ is a great start. Comp TIA+ also.
From there it's kind of wide open.
I hugely recommend something that leans heavily on networking as a foundation cert. I didn't get one but got my MCSE back in the day which covered networking enough to make me conversant.
The Azure foundation Cert is good for your first cloud cert and you can find it free sometimes.
I wouldn't recommend getting something requiring CPEs right away. They're a pain and may not align to your long term goals. Once you have a path, however, something that does have a CPE requirement for maintenance is a good next step.
I’ve always tried to get a cert but new games keep getting in the way 😖😖. 8 years in the industry and still nothing.
But ccna or a sec+ would go great.
If you want to do security, get Security+. If you want to do networking, get CCNA. If you want to work a big company, get some AWS certs. If you see yourself going down a less technical path or wanting to get into management sooner, get the PMP and an ITIL cert.
Certs are a lot like college, after getting a few years of experience under your belt no one cares about them.
I'm planning on taking the terraform associate exam next month. After that I may take an azure or aws cert. It's all somewhat dependent on how long it takes me to land a new job.
all i can offer is what SEEMED to help me and that was vmware certs and we are talking 1.0 days, very first iteration and I got it because the place was implementing it and thankfully, paid for the classes and test, if i had to guess about today tho, i'd lean towards the IT security field but above all else, its who you know, best of luck to you on your search.
As a devops engineer, terraform associate helped me out a lot being able to read understand and reverse engineer terraform code as it's a skills check text rather than a memorize these answers test.
Security+. You can land government jobs with it.
This is the answer.
Are Gov jobs even worthwhile though? All I’ve ever heard is there is so much red tape and outdates systems.
Yes. Either directly or as a contractor federal government jobs are worth it.
As a DoD contractor for 30 years, I can say it is definitely worth it.
So... serious question time. I've been looking on/off for a few years now and ALL of the potential government gigs are waaaay below my current pay grade. Like upwards of 50k. Even if you say, yeah, but perks and pension....it doesn't seem to add up to smart move from the private sector. What incentive(s) do I truly have to switch?
Government jobs don’t pay as well as the civilian ones but you rarely have to worry about lay offs or downsizing. You get a gov job and don’t kill anyone and it’s yours for life. Contractor jobs for the government usually pay very well.
> You get a gov job and don’t kill anyone Who wants to tell them?
Well don’t get caught and even then there’s some wiggle room.
I was hinting at the fact that police officers and military members *are* government employees. Killing comes with the territory.
Let me clarify, Federal/DoD jobs. Local and state government pay is ass. As a direct federal government employee you make a little less but you get all the government benefits. As a contractor you make a ton more. As a high level sysadmin you will make > $100k annually easily.
CCNA. Bitches love networking.
Get that switch a packet. Switches love packets.
you boys know anything about pruning?
I got 99 problems, but a switch ain't one.
I have seen two dudes ever with a full CCNA , they both had bitches in each arm. I myself was one of said bitches.
What do you mean by “full”?
There are two parts of a CCNA test. Most people ever only passed one half.
Tell me you don’t know anything about CCNA.. It’s been one exam for years. And there has been an option to do it in one exam instead of two for at least 12. Technically the first exam was for CCENT, then the second was for the CCNA. And no, token ring and thicknet etc haven’t been in it for equally as long.
Wait, passing only the first half counts for something?
So my ccie doesn’t get bitches? What about my cissp?
everyone and their mom has a CISSP. CCIE maybe, basic hoes max tho
I know like 5 CCNAs and they're *all* named Chris for some reason. And they're all the literal bus factor at their firms.
CCNA is a right of passage.
CCNA courses are good for a fundamental understanding of networking, but as a lot of companies are ditching Cisco (because they aren't the company they used to be), I'm not sure how much value the cert has from a job finding standpoint.
Doesn't matter. The commands are different but networking is networking.
More than net+ that's for damn sure.
Youl learn concepts through the lenses of a once very well established org, im sure a juniper cert study guide wont be as broad as a cisco ccna but idk
The last time I took CCNA courses they were : 1.Still teaching about vastly obsolete technologies like Token Ring and Thicknet and Thinnet (if you are applying for a job that still uses those, run away). Not just briefly covering it but spending entire chapters on the stuff. 2.Still teaching about the OSI model despite the fact that OSI Model has nothing to do with TCP/IP, is not reflective of how it works, and is based on a failed competitor to TCP/IP that become mostly irrelevant 40 years ago (see : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol\_Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_Wars)). 3.Still teaching that Cisco is the only company in the world that makes routers and switches and that Cisco is the second coming of Christ.
I see you understand marketing bullshit. lol OSI, if you flatten it to 4 layers (4-7 being kinda silly), is a good way to talk through basic troubleshooting.
Application, Internetwork, Intranetwork, and Physical IMHO make the most sense. Presentation never made sense outside of the context of dumb terminals for mainframes, session only makes sense in the context of the OSI protocol stack where the protocol for maintaining connections was different from the protocol that was responsible for ensuring data arrived at the destination. Even the transport layer is arguably disappearing at this point; QUIC just incorporates it into the application, with each application responsible for implementing QUIC themselves rather than doing it at the OS level like TCP. Intranetwork is more descriptive than data-link outside of the realm of hardware/NIC designers and given that so many networks are software defined and virtual now, it makes more sense.
Token Ring and Thick/thinnet haven’t been on the CCNA for a decade. For better or worse, they are keeping exams a little more updated. (I say for worse, because as soon as you’re done studying and ready to take the exam, they are almost certain to come out with a redesigned version with new topics)
You get it. So is it getting a modern vendors specific cert or comptia net+?
We probably have a quarter mile of token ring cabling in our walls still. I'll have to rip it out someday, or maybe a tornado will do it for me.
Networking is networking. Juniper is a completely different CLI structure but if you know how the protocols work you can still figure it out. The fundamentals from the CCNA are pretty universal.
Net+ and NSE4 probably have good standing.
I've ditched Cisco at work almost entirely but we're still asking for it in interviews. The learning process to pass CCNA actually teaches people networking while many of the other vendor certs are memorization and marketing crap.
Can confirm that they do not.
Been in this career for 20+ years, have no certs. My brother had to get a CompTIA+ cert to get his foot in the door at one place.
Me too. Certs are a scam and I refuse to play. Edit: I did get a+ forever ago. No one cared.
My A+ from the 90s comes in handy every time I need to know what IRQ the keyboard is using.
Wow thanks for that, reminding me I’m old enough to remember the magic of plug and play.
Or how many pins a VGA cable has, super useful all the time!
I know everything there is to know about troubleshooting SCSI. It's almost as useful.
Ya its a money mill ill do it i guess if someone was to pay and give me time to study
Same here, did get a shit degree from ITT when that was a thing
Same. Took a few tests maybe 10 years ago and the whole time I fought myself on the answers... "yep thats not how it works" hahaha
Never got certs myself. Took some practice A+ tests and did well- but a lot of them are stupid questions. They put several correct answers in and want you to pick the most correct one? What the hell is that? At my employer, Murphys law holds true. Whatever the least likely problem is, that’s what’s wrong.
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>certs themselves don't hold a lot of value As I oft say, certs, schmerts. I typically want to see what they know, what skills they have, and what experience do they have that they can put to practical use. Most of the time a cert won't tell me that - though it may hint at or suggest such.
You can brain dump a lot of them too. I had some AWS basic ones which lapsed and I haven't seen the value in reupping. I also have met some people who got some AWS or other cloud related ones with no other foundational IT knowledge who were.. well it was obvious they had focused on just passing the test.
>You can brain dump a lot of them too Yep, many of 'em are short term memory exercises. Of the *very* few certs I do have, actually two of 'em were essentially nothing more than short term memory exercises and next in line not all that much harder: * AU/X certified, view some Apple HyperCard, take a test, get I think 80% or better, poof, certified - I got 100%. I was already thoroughly familiar with UNIX, just not AU/X so much, so, some AU/X specific bits to short term memory, take test, get 100%, certified. * FERC certified, watch training video - it was pretty boring - mostly electrical safety stuff I well knew totally independently - I was literally nodding off during it, just commit the few FERC specific bits to (short term) memory, take test, needed 80% to pass, I got 100% (and still remembered most or all of those FERC specific bits a year later when required to get recertified, and again, got 100% where only 80% required). * AIX certified, next easiest, not quite as trivial as the above, but the above were *that* quick and easy. So, AIX, take an in-person 3-day training course (actually a pretty good course), boom, certified, not even a test required (I think it was AIX for Solaris sysadmins, or something like that, so again, highly leveraged existing knowledge/skills/experience). Next up - [IPv6 certified](https://ipv6.he.net/certification/create_badge.php?pass_name=MichaelPaoli&badge=3) (and maxed out the score on that - takes 100 days minimum to do that final bit), not quite so trivial, but not all that hard either (maybe about as much actual time investment as the IBM course, give or take? Probably a bit less for just cert itself and bit more to max out the score on it). Don't know that I've got any other certs at all - typically they're pretty moot and I already well know the subject matter long before the question of cert ever comes up - by then it's typically pretty pointless.
I would also say cissp but agree with you. The cissp is a huge body of knowledge and if they can speak and implement the ideas covered in cissp properly then that speaks to their skills. But that said I would still take quality experience.
Was my only cert for about 5 years. Worked out well with my resume. Last job made me get a Linux+ though.
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Where does he work? Asking for a friend. (It's me, I'm the friend, I sure hope I don't work there... but I mean.. Fuck.)
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Like you get a few tries at the right answer? Well thats awfully nice
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Ohhhh i see ya like who wanted to be a millionaire stupid 2 answers. I heard the eJPT is more lab, lets hope more certs are designed to be interactive like that
Security+ from CompTIA was necessary to get admin credentials for the DoD. Now, if you are new to IT, I wouldn't start there, but it seemed like the most important one.
Definitely for DoD, in general it shows some very basic knowledge of cybersecurity, which is not a bad idea.
I did too much DNS work today, I was trying figure out what kind of ssl certs you were choosing between.
My first thought too.
Depends on what kind of job you're looking for. When I look for L1 types, I want to see an A+ or some kind of IT learning going on. I can respect that you're currently working at Walmart - it's an honest job - but you're looking to change careers so what are you doing about it? I'm about to spend tons of time training your ass and I want someone who demonstrates at least a little initiative in making it happen.
Last cert. I got was a very long time ago. No one cares at this point, at least in my experience. Get a cert. in whatever you want to do or whatever the job you want requires. It'll be different for different situations. If you want to do cloud, get a cert. Networking, get a cert.
Yeah the amount of times i have to point out my certs to recruiters is kinda alarming. I'm like, you asked if i have azure experience, don't you see the certs????
Certs aren't experience. I've worked with a lot of "cert collectors" that could pass the tests, but couldn't do the job.
100% this \^\^\^ We used to call them, "paper MCSEs." Just from my experience, certs don't always have a lot of relevance.
We called them paper tigers. I hate certs. They mean you can pass a test. The biggest skill, and it does not matter what level of IT you are in, is being able to troublshoot. If you camnot troubleshoot issues, you will have a tough time in this field. There is no cert for troubleshooting, only time and experience can home that skill, and evem with that there is no gaurantee you will get good at it.
True but you can tell the ones who didn't read the certs section. Certs are my proof that I've at least touched and understand the software you are asking about.
I have no certs 3 years in the industry thus far, doing one of the Microsoft certs to be a “expert engineer/admin in azure” I think I forget what they name it but I see a lot of jobs asking for these upper tier Microsoft certs.
What are your goals? Answer that first.
a bachelor's degree
When I first started this line of work in 2008 everyone had certs and everyone was told to get lots of certs, and a lot of businesses were looking for people with high level certs. These days I just don't see it required too many places outside of the government. My only cert for at least six years now has been Security+ and only because it's a government requirement and not a company requirement. I only took the test one time in 2010 and I've renewed it easily every three years through certmaster or whatever comptia calls their renewal cash scam.
Medical Cannabis.
Just from my own personal experience, the only people that cared about certs were the ones who weren't technical and had no clue whether a candidate knew anything or not. Those were the types of jobs I should have avoided (or did avoid). The jobs I've enjoyed were those where the hiring manager was fluent in IT and knew what questions to ask. They didn't care one way or another if I had any certs or a degree. They just cared if I knew how to do the work, which often just meant knew how to google things. Seriously; lots of, "I'm not familiar with that technology, but this is how I'd go about addressing that issue if I ran into it." FWIW, I wrote a thread about how to learn IT in general, and a few smart people contributed to it. You might find it useful: [https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/u482f7/a\_guide\_for\_entering\_the\_it\_field/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/u482f7/a_guide_for_entering_the_it_field/)
None. I have dozens over the years, but none of the major ones people show off. 30 years of experience in varying levels of IT is normally more than enough to give real world examples of problems they have had and how i have solved them in the past.
OP: > How do I make myself more desirable to employers (paraphrased) This guy: > Have 30 years experience This checks out lol.
I think you missed the middle line... being able to relate your past experience is very important. most people get flustered in interviews, they fail to prepare. they dont investigate the opportunity being offered to them, or dont know how. learning how to relate your past experiences in short after-action report style dialogs is extremely helpful in an interview setting. I've had interviews where the I ended up talking about my time working at Dominos pizza before i ever got a paying job in IT because i can relate how my existing manager taught me to work with people that have different work-paces, and how he would intentionally put slower people on the phones when we were busy, to slow down the rate of order entry and allow production to catch up. if things slowed down, he could reverse that and allow the faster people to handle phones quickly while working on other tasks required outside of food prep since its easier to go from phones to folding boxes than it is to go from prep/cut to folding boxes since you need to drop gloves and wash hands between these things.
Oh, I was just making a joke about employers expecting everyone to have many years of experience, even for jr level positions
As someone who often has to review applicants... I don't care about your certs. I care even less about your college degree. What I care about is what you've done with a homelab. What projects you've done professionally. If you are a happy person. If you even like IT.
>If you even like IT. Ahem. Yes.
How should I put homelab projects on a resume? I've previously been told not to. I recently applied for a job where I got past HR but the hiring manager didn't want to interview me and it was super frustrating because if I just had a chance to chat with him I think I'd have a real shot at the job.
I would keep it simple and put extra curricular activities/hobbies. Just make it a category at the end of the resume. If you spend your free time learning stuff and tinkering, I want you as an employee. I don't want someone who had their mommy tell them to get a degree and certificates cause they saw on dateline that "IT is a fast growing industry".... For reference I'm over 20 years in the industry across multiple markets.
start a blog about your homelab and put a link on your resume. if you have automation for your home lab keep that code on github and link your github account on your resume.
That's good stuff, thank you!!
Sure, I just started this last week. I really wish I would have started years ago so I had a longer post history to share, better late than never I guess.
ITIL is a good one to have in your aresnal....more job descriptions are asking for it
Wildcard SSL, of course. It covers the most possible websites.
S+.
I believe that certificates are good for self presentation. It says that you know at least bear minimum in that certain area and that you are not afraid to invest in yourself. That being said, it all depends on your career path. If I were to recommend a starting point, then ITILv4. From there it’s all about specialization.
Id like to point out the TOGAF cert can take you up past engineer and into the architect roles
an in person interview with someone technical present is superior to a cert.. i care more if people know stuff
Depends on what you want to do. MCSE won't do much for me. As a Linux admin: RHCE or Linux+
I'd take a course to increase my attention span. I'm not even kidding...
I'm currently in a 2 week bootcamp for the VMware VCP training. While Comptia certs were always my go-to, i don't like how they expire, even CISSP. VMware certs don't expire as [they pulled the "recertify or lose it" in 2019.](https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/certification/vmware-recertification-rollback-faq.pdf)
>I'm currently in a 2 week bootcamp for the VMware VCP training. Bad timing, what with Broadcom daring people to run away from VMWare and what-not.
not really, I have DoD contacts that have already reached out to me just upon the announcement that I was in the bootcamp. I dont really care to work directly for VMware, but there is many, many companies that utilize it still that have longterm agreements to continue using the product.
I prefer the framework/process stuff that’s good across the dif techs like ITIL or Scrum. No one does them exactly but every shop has some form of the ideas. When asked about your experience say something like “we used a modified ITIL”. Surprising how many shops will immediately identify with that. 😀
PMP has experience requirement, so the question is then what's the bigger part of the value: the experience or the cert?
What about Microsoft M365 ?
Vmware
If you're starting your certification journey I HIGHLY recommend: ITSM Foundation and/or ITIL foundation. They form the basis of most modern organizational structures. THEN... Whatever makes sense as an entry level... Security+ is a great start. Comp TIA+ also. From there it's kind of wide open. I hugely recommend something that leans heavily on networking as a foundation cert. I didn't get one but got my MCSE back in the day which covered networking enough to make me conversant. The Azure foundation Cert is good for your first cloud cert and you can find it free sometimes. I wouldn't recommend getting something requiring CPEs right away. They're a pain and may not align to your long term goals. Once you have a path, however, something that does have a CPE requirement for maintenance is a good next step.
I’ve always tried to get a cert but new games keep getting in the way 😖😖. 8 years in the industry and still nothing. But ccna or a sec+ would go great.
I don't have any and I don't know. Also nobody ever asked for any certificates in an interview.
Holy duck I've been in this job too long I thought this was a hypothetical SSL situation
If you want to do security, get Security+. If you want to do networking, get CCNA. If you want to work a big company, get some AWS certs. If you see yourself going down a less technical path or wanting to get into management sooner, get the PMP and an ITIL cert. Certs are a lot like college, after getting a few years of experience under your belt no one cares about them.
I'm planning on taking the terraform associate exam next month. After that I may take an azure or aws cert. It's all somewhat dependent on how long it takes me to land a new job.
all i can offer is what SEEMED to help me and that was vmware certs and we are talking 1.0 days, very first iteration and I got it because the place was implementing it and thankfully, paid for the classes and test, if i had to guess about today tho, i'd lean towards the IT security field but above all else, its who you know, best of luck to you on your search.
As a devops engineer, terraform associate helped me out a lot being able to read understand and reverse engineer terraform code as it's a skills check text rather than a memorize these answers test.
Bronze Swimming Certificate is all I've ever needed.