Career Advice - I.T Assistant

[Qs]

Hi everyone,

I've only just discovered this fantastic site, which will hopefully prove useful in my prospective IT career. Just to say that the wealth of information available and advice is very impressive.

Right, a little about me. My name is Neil and I've been working in I.T for the past three years or so. I went through the usual rigmoral of GCSE's then on to A-levels (Maths, Physics, History and English Language if you're interested ) and then didn't do the whole university thing. At the time I thought it was a huge debt to get into and I still believe so now.

I finally managed to get a job in Finance due to my decent GCSE and A-Level at a very low wage. I ended up doing a lot of fixing general I.T problems for fellow finance members so as to not bother the I.T guys, this news spread, and I got offered a position as I.T Assistant, with an even worse wage. I wasn't too fussed though as I was getting experience in the field. I'd been considering doing a HND in an I.T field prior to getting a job and mentioned it to my boss. He said that there may be a possibility for the company to pay for the course, and that's exactly what they did, no ties or anything. Although they have paid for the course (which funnily enough includes a CCNA course) my wage was drastically cut as I worked part time whilst completing the HND. I'm now one exam away from completing the HND. I'm also one exam away from completing CCNA4 (the fourth assessment module for CCNA).

I'm not totally confident with the CCNA stuff (I have passed CCNA1 through CCNA3 inclusive, though I fear CCNA4 and the Voucher exam etc will escape me).


I'm currently only going to be getting 12k full-time wage as an I.T Assistant, 3k less than my colleague who is doing exactly the same job, experience, and title. (My workplace refused to increase my wage any as they were paying for the course even though with the additional wage I could have paid for the HND myself, *sigh*).

Which brings me to the requesting of advice part

My pay-review is in June and as such I'm curious as to what wage I should expect to receive. We only have a small I.T department at work, so the company isn't exactly I.T oriented. By this time I should have passed my HND completely and have three years of experience in IT and as such it would be taken into consideration, though I'm not holding out much hope for the CCNA.

My second question as it was, is how would you guys advice me to advance my qualifications so that I appear more attractive to prospective employers? I'm not a fan of networking and therefore the onus for additional studies isn't directed towards this. I was think about Microsoft certification but is this the best way forward?

Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Qs
PS - Apologies for the essay of an explanation. I'm a little too wordy at times.

[greenbrucelee]

Money wise every employer is different but with your experience I think being on 12k is a little low.

As for certifications you should get compTIA A+ and N+ and then do the MCDST and once you have a bit more experience look at the MCSA or MCSE but not untill you have the experience to go along with those.

Good luck

Welcome to CF

[wagnerk]

First of all, Hi & welcome to CF

OK, about the pay review, it really does depend on your experience and what you actually do. For me, when I hear IT assistant, I think of an entry level person with a wage of about £9k to £14k-ish. As you are going for a pay-review or appraisal I would then list everything that you do and then match it up with IT job adverts in your local/surrounding areas and then go with an average of that (before hand).

As for which way your IT education should go, I would recommend finishing your HND first of all (as that's already 2/3's of a degree). If you don't like networking, then I'm afraid you're not going to progress very far. Certs to look at would be the A+, Network+, MCDST and then build on those. But as soon as you go above the A+, networking starts to make an appearance, especially when you start looking at the MCSA and higher certs (even the MS entry level cert, the MCDST, has referencing to networking).

Other certs to consider would include the ITIL foundation cert & the HDI Helpdesk Analyst cert, etc. You may also want to join an IT association for career development and social/work networking.

-Ken

[BosonMichael]

Originally Posted by Qs

My second question as it was, is how would you guys advice me to advance my qualifications so that I appear more attractive to prospective employers? I'm not a fan of networking and therefore the onus for additional studies isn't directed towards this. I was think about Microsoft certification but is this the best way forward?

Ken's right - just about everything ahead of you in IT deals with networking. Now would be a good time to attack it headlong or hit the eject button.

I also agree with the recommendation to knock out the A+, Network+, and MCDST. That will give you a solid foundation with which to advance your IT career.

You'll find those certifications to be much easier than the CCNA stuff. Even if you conquered the CCNA, it wouldn't do you a lot of good at this point in your career. Eventually, that CCNA knowledge will be golden to you.

Welcome to the forum!

[Qs]

Thanks for the detailed and informed replies.

To wagnerk - It's not that I particularly dislike networking nor am horrible at it, it's really that I find command line configuration of routers etc very boring, and this is what the majority of the CCNA qualification was focused upon - command line driven configuration techniques. If I was to do this all day, every day as a job then I don't think I could stick it

Everything else concerning networking I actually quite enjoy. I do a lot of tech support stuff at work which requires networking knowledge, VOIP phones, repatching of cables etc, and that side of things is actually good fun. Even reconfiguring the phone system through a GUI is alright now I think about it, maybe I just have an innate fear of command lines.

What I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't avoid qualifications if networking is involved somehow (otherwise I wouldnt have taken the HND with the included CCNA). My preferred future role would be a higher level technical support job as I really enjoy interacting with people and figuring out computer problems for them.

I've heard a lot about the A+ and the N+ qualifications on these forums but they have never been mentioned in my University nor by my employer. I'll have a dig around on the internet for more information as to where I can study for these and what they entail.

To greenbrucelee - What would be an appropriate wage for my current position? A quick look on monster.co.uk has tech support roles in the region of 17-20k. I assume this is more accurate?

A quick note on the relevance of the HND. How vital is this particular qualification in comparison to the A+ and N+ as previously advised? I'm just thinking in which particular order emplyers would rate different qualifications....

As usual your comments are very much appreciated

Eek... it's turned into another essay. Bad Qs!

[Qs]

Originally Posted by BosonMichael

I also agree with the recommendation to knock out the A+, Network+, and MCDST. That will give you a solid foundation with which to advance your IT career.

You'll find those certifications to be much easier than the CCNA stuff. Even if you conquered the CCNA, it wouldn't do you a lot of good at this point in your career. Eventually, that CCNA knowledge will be golden to you.

I'm assuming that all three of the aforementioned qualifications are less difficult than the range of areas (and the appropriate knowledge required) for the HND and CCNA.

My only concern would be that I'd be covering things that I've already learnt about. I'm guessing that regardless of the small amount of backtracking involved, that this would provide me with a better overall base and is therefore worth it?

Also how quickly would I be able to complete the A+, Network+ and MCDST? I've spent the past 2 years studying hard for the HND/CCNA so I don't really want to be stuck studying solidly for the next 2 years too.

[greenbrucelee]

Originally Posted by Qs

Thanks for the detailed and informed replies.

To greenbrucelee - What would be an appropriate wage for my current position? A quick look on monster.co.uk has tech support roles in the region of 17-20k. I assume this is more accurate?

A quick note on the relevance of the HND. How vital is this particular qualification in comparison to the A+ and N+ as previously advised? I'm just thinking in which particular order emplyers would rate different qualifications....

As usual your comments are very much appreciated


Eek... it's turned into another essay. Bad Qs!

I would say the higher end of the scale that ken mentioned 14k maybe more.

Originally Posted by Qs

I'm assuming that all three of the aforementioned qualifications are less difficult than the range of areas (and the appropriate knowledge required) for the HND and CCNA.

My only concern would be that I'd be covering things that I've already learnt about. I'm guessing that regardless of the small amount of backtracking involved, that this would provide me with a better overall base and is therefore worth it?

Also how quickly would I be able to complete the A+, Network+ and MCDST? I've spent the past 2 years studying hard for the HND/CCNA so I don't really want to be stuck studying solidly for the next 2 years too.

I would say since you have being doing your HND recently then it shouldn't take you long at all to knock of the A+ and with what you have learned on the CCNA the N+ probably wont take long at all either.

I completed my HND in 99 so I found I had to relearn things and also learn new things since IT has changed a lot since then. You could do the A+, N+ and MCDST by self study with your knowledge just by going through some recommended reading material and then booking the exams.

You may be able to do atleast the A+ and N+ by the end of the year.

[Jiser]

I.T. and learning come hand in hand! Studying is the name of the game. Ive come to realise that an I.T. career is going to involve possibly doing alot of studying or should I say learning, in the future, thats just the way so get used to it!

[greenbrucelee]

Originally Posted by Jiser

I.T. and learning come hand in hand! Studying is the name of the game. Ive come to realise that an I.T. career is going to involve possibly doing alot of studying or should I say learning, in the future, thats just the way so get used to it!

yep totally agree, IT is a profession where you must constantly learn so you can adapt to new technologies.

[BosonMichael]

Originally Posted by Qs

I'm assuming that all three of the aforementioned qualifications are less difficult than the range of areas (and the appropriate knowledge required) for the HND and CCNA.

I don't know about the HND, as we Americans don't have that. But all three are less difficult than the CCNA.

Originally Posted by Qs

My only concern would be that I'd be covering things that I've already learnt about. I'm guessing that regardless of the small amount of backtracking involved, that this would provide me with a better overall base and is therefore worth it?

Certification isn't designed for you to learn new material... it's for you to prove to employers that you already know the material. Thus, the A+, Network+, and MCDST would be excellent for you to pick up. They'll certainly help when applying for a job so you can take that next step in your IT career.

Originally Posted by Qs

Also how quickly would I be able to complete the A+, Network+ and MCDST? I've spent the past 2 years studying hard for the HND/CCNA so I don't really want to be stuck studying solidly for the next 2 years too.

That depends entirely on you. Some people need no study; others need years. Some never pass. The category you will fall into depends on your knowledge, your aptitide, your experience, your prior commitments, and your desire to achieve the certs.

[wagnerk]

Originally Posted by BosonMichael

I don't know about the HND, as we Americans don't have that.

Just for your info BM, the HND's (academic route) or Foundation degrees (the new vocational route) are like the Associate Degree's over there in the US.

-ken

[BosonMichael]

Originally Posted by wagnerk

Just for your info BM, the HND's (academic route) or Foundation degrees (the new vocational route) are like the Associate Degree's over there in the US.

-ken

Yeah, I think someone told me that before... but I seem to have a hard time remembering. Thanks!

[wagnerk]

Originally Posted by BosonMichael

Yeah, I think someone told me that before... but I seem to have a hard time remembering. Thanks!

Mate once we get over 30 our minds tend to go That would explain my memory...

-Ken

[dmarsh26]

Just for your info BM, the HND's (academic route) or Foundation degrees (the new vocational route) are like the Associate Degree's over there in the US.

BTEC's were set up to be vocational in nature, the HND is therefore at the very top of a hierachy of vocational course types. As such it is more academic than the lower BTEC quals but not as much as a degree, I'd put it at the same level as a foundation degree. Foundation degrees seem to be a new approach in the same vien as the HND, except they allow even more flexibility on average and thus attract more mature students.

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowP...rial/p!edcbfji