What are the most Practical Fields to Study?

[sammichoffate]

Take out a six figure loan to get your masters in French poetry, and then complain that the government isn't paying off your loans for you with other peoples money when you can't find a decent job.


That's as practical as it gets brother.

Bu-But this is America though

[outbreak]

Is the certification difficult to get?

I didn't actually sit my CCNA, I did their course though and got 4 other certificates through them that certify I'd passed their courses but I got a job and never got around to sitting the actual exam. The exams I took in their course weren't too hard once you get your head around it all, a lot of what I learnt though has no relevance in my real world job although I don't work at an ISP or anything. I'd think a more rounded thing to do would be to take a course that covers CCNA preparation as well as course work for the MCSE (microsoft) certification as well so that you can get into anything computer/server/network related which opens things up more.

[outbreak]

It's not easy, but it's not ridiculously hard.

You can get study guides, reading material, etc. I chose to go the community college route and took the Cisco classes, which gave me hands on experience with routers, switches, firewalls, access points, etc. Made it much easier.

I personally love the job, but it's not for everyone. I work for a company that places engineers at client sites for short-medium length time periods for staff augmentation or project management. Trying to troubleshoot outages while the CIO is in your ear telling you about all the money they're losing each second can be both incredibly stressful and rewarding at the same time.

I think it'd be really hard without taking a course or having access to the equipment to get practical experience on. Some things just don't start clicking until you set it up in a lab and see how it all works.

[sammichoffate]

I'm a network administrator. Pay is good and there's a bunch of jobs around, lots of job security too as you are very vital to a company if you are the sole admin. In terms of programming it isn't as lucrative as it appears any more unless you are very talented or lucky, there's a lot of programmers around these days which makes it harder to get work especially if you don't live in certain areas. You hear stories about so and so making a shit load working for google or making their own app that makes them a shitload but you don't hear about all the other guys who can't get real work and go broke trying to make their own app. If you are going down the programming road you should do a project management degree on top of it.

I'll keep it in mind if I ever apply for Red Hat or something

[code green]

Oh wow, that kinda sucks haha What other certifications do you have?

CCNA Voice
CCNA Security
MCSA (Microsoft)
A+ Hardware

Working on my CCNP routing right now.

[sammichoffate]

I didn't actually sit my CCNA, I did their course though and got 4 other certificates through them that certify I'd passed their courses but I got a job and never got around to sitting the actual exam. The exams I took in their course weren't too hard once you get your head around it all, a lot of what I learnt though has no relevance in my real world job although I don't work at an ISP or anything. I'd think a more rounded thing to do would be to take a course that covers CCNA preparation as well as course work for the MCSE (microsoft) certification as well so that you can get into anything computer/server/network related which opens things up more.

That's a good plan, I might do that after the spring semester is over

[sammichoffate]

CCNA Voice
CCNA Security
MCSA (Microsoft)
A+ Hardware

Working on my CCNP routing right now.

Nice

[outbreak]

That's a good plan, I might do that after the spring semester is over

Over here they have some companies that offer 4 month courses that get you prepared for CCNA and a couple of MCSE exams and then help find you work afterwards. Might be something similar over in America but a friends brother did this and it was a lot of work in those 4 months but got him what he needed to start out. I did a degree and then took a short traineeship to get some experience in the field because everywhere I went wanted on the job experience.

[ace23]

I'm a network administrator. Pay is good and there's a bunch of jobs around, lots of job security too as you are very vital to a company if you are the sole admin. In terms of programming it isn't as lucrative as it appears any more unless you are very talented or lucky, there's a lot of programmers around these days which makes it harder to get work especially if you don't live in certain areas. You hear stories about so and so making a shit load working for google or making their own app that makes them a shitload but you don't hear about all the other guys who can't get real work and go broke trying to make their own app. If you are going down the programming road you should do a project management degree on top of it.

That's because they are few and far between and usually retarded.

[russwest0]

Communication.

[outbreak]

That's because they are few and far between and usually retarded.

No it's not. Programming has become a field that is packed. Everyone thinks they can make easy money quickly now just by learn a couple of languages. I know a couple of guys who worked for large companies who were laid off in the last few years and have had trouble finding working as a programmer that pays much now. One of them worked for a major software company and now he's doing regular I.T admin work, the other worked for a major bank in another country but since moving back here he's had trouble finding work. Might just be Australia at the moment but there's a lot of stories about programmers moving to silicon valley and going broke around as well.

[ace23]

No it's not. Programming has become a field that is packed. Everyone thinks they can make easy money quickly now just by learn a couple of languages. I know a couple of guys who worked for large companies who were laid off in the last few years and have had trouble finding working as a programmer that pays much now. One of them worked for a major software company and now he's doing regular I.T admin work, the other worked for a major bank in another country but since moving back here he's had trouble finding work. Might just be Australia at the moment but there's a lot of stories about programmers moving to silicon valley and going broke around as well.

"learning a couple of languages" doesn't make you a good programmer. If they suck, I can understand why they're having trouble.

Do they have degrees? In what fields?

[outbreak]

"learning a couple of languages" doesn't make you a good programmer. If they suck, I can understand why they're having trouble.

Do they have degrees? In what fields?

My point is they haven't just learnt a couple of languages. I don't know their exact degrees but one has 30+ years experience as a team leader, the other I know did a masters degree and was working for 10 years or so as a lead programmer in a banks security division. They don't suck and both held very high level high paying jobs for a long time, one was laid off when the company was re structured and the other resigned to move back to Australia.

But my point is what I said earlier, it's much better if you want to be a programmer to add in some team leader courses and things like that to bulk up your skill set. Some people think they can just learn the basic languages and walk in to money which isn't true because every man and his dog is trying to do that these days.

[oarabbus]

So STEM programs with some interdisciplinary? Plumbing or electrician will always be a good job imo

Yup. Another big one is being skilled in animation/art, but specifically for the purposes of UI/UX design (user interface/experience).

[ace23]

My point is they haven't just learnt a couple of languages. I don't know their exact degrees but one has 30+ years experience as a team leader, the other I know did a masters degree and was working for 10 years or so as a lead programmer in a banks security division. They don't suck and both held very high level high paying jobs for a long time, one was laid off when the company was re structured and the other resigned to move back to Australia.

But my point is what I said earlier, it's much better if you want to be a programmer to add in some team leader courses and things like that to bulk up your skill set. Some people think they can just learn the basic languages and walk in to money which isn't true because every man and his dog is trying to do that these days.

At least they're employed/employable.

There is still a great demand for code monkeys even if you're clueless with theory. You might not be making six figures or close, but there'll always be somewhere you can fit in if you're at least a halfway competent programmer.