IT Career Navigation: Chart Your Way to Success

By Douglas Mechaber

About 15 years ago, most professionals came to IT via other fields of study, having prepared through computing's hobbyist roots. That's no longer the only avenue, as many colleges and online universities offer specific IT preparation-including certifications-as part of the curricula. How do you earn those salaries that IT magazines list as median income in each category? How do you advance your career?

Don't just use a salary report as the basis for deciding which IT sub field to pursue - find something you like to do. Median salary reports might reflect trends about which fields have higher salaries, but missing from the reports is information about company type, other possible forms of compensation and a copy of the pay stub for verification. Because surveys are based on self-reporting, some IT categories are subject to wage inflation. Still, these reports are valuable for surveying which fields to target in your goal to increase responsibility and salary, and relative experience required to earn those wages.

My college dean scoffed at the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook on what jobs and areas would be in demand. His rationale was that the government wanted to project favorable statistics to justify economic forecasts, and he recommended deviating nearly 180 degrees from the government projections. Present descriptions of most IT fields seem more accurate, if somewhat general and simplistic. Nevertheless, for those unfamiliar with projections and what specific IT people do, the BLS Web site is a good place to begin.

My dean was more of an adherent of guerrilla marketing and alternative search methods. He was a big fan of John C. Crystal and Richard N. Bolles' "Where do I Go From Here With My Life?" and Bolles' "What Color is Your Parachute?" methods. These alternative approaches to self-discovery and job finding - if you faithfully follow the workbook examples, coupled with more realistic BLS and IT magazine salary surveys - should put you on the right path.

Building a Great Resume

The best way to attain advancement or get a new job is by building your resume through relevant experience. The best way to build experience is in jobs with a variety of environments: different hardware, software and infrastructure. Create a record of successful, completed projects. Another way to build a resume is through advanced IT degrees, though unless you are moving to management, master's degrees might not translate into high increases in salary. Don't forget that some school projects are just as much work as job accomplishments and should be listed on your resume.

How do you gain experience with no work history? Try volunteering: Many non-profits would be happy to have some IT help, even at the desktop. You could collect and re-purpose old PCs for senior citizens or join a local user group that does so. At school, you could try setting up an interactive training Web site for a particular course.

For those who don't have time to pursue an additional degree, try certificates. Many online and brick-and-mortar colleges also offer certificates for completing a sequence of courses, usually with no comprehensive exam or report required. Geared to adult education, metropolitan universities usually offer coursework at convenient evening or weekend times through ancillary alternative/extension schools in areas that traditional coursework skips. These courses also are invaluable taken one at a time. Generally, coursework of this type will be more comprehensive but less specific than vendor certification. One advantage of traditional schooling is that more companies provide tuition reimbursement versus computer-only schools.

Because of the proliferation of cheat sites and, in one case, paid test-takers, certification no longer has the guaranteed job-placement allure of only a few years ago. Some certifications represent an entry-level step. Certification courses in this category represent a minimum knowledge level required by those working with that product. In some jobs, the certificate may be secondary: You still need the knowledge, and the most efficient way of getting that is through that course work. The same holds true for advanced certification, but there are more options. For advanced-level engineers, practical experience may substitute. If you alone have an MCP in MS Server 2003 and a company is looking to promote someone from the help desk, who would be the first candidate chosen? Other certifications represent intermediate stages, such as the RHCE, CLE and CLP. Again, these certifications cover a broader area than typically seen day to day, so having that knowledge as well as specific work knowledge will make you a better candidate. Advanced certifications, such as a CCIE or even Microsoft's new Architect, may no longer command guaranteed six-figure salaries, but with appropriate experience, their holders are not only in demand, but command great remuneration.

What else does certification represent to an employer? At a minimum, it represents that you have the stick-to-it-iveness to follow through and complete a time-consuming challenge, that you value the preparation time it took to study, and that (intellectually, at least) you have an understanding of the specific problems in that tested skill set. Those certifications with enhanced simulations or real-time testing (such as Red Hat or new Novell certifications along with any of the CCIE suite) show that you have hands-on skills at the tested level. In short, certifications are still valuable, particularly when you accumulate more than one. That additional certification shows more flexibility to a prospective employer and solidifies certain knowledge.

Certification is still relevant, if only because studying for the examinations forces you to review the entire subject, not just what you see in practice. We all know that what is reflected in a test is not something you might see or do in the field, but the breadth on a certification test is usually more comprehensive.

Adding a third skill set, such as expertise in SANs with certification from Brocade or EMC, not only increases your value, but might move you to an advanced position. You become more flexible, and some items, such as backup and recovery, are second nature, merely because you have been exposed to it so often - "learning by osmosis." Few people in this category would be "paper certified." Even then, the normal experience attained from going through the study and practice will make you stand out from your peers.

Home Lab

Any beginning computer engineer needs a home network. It helps both your understanding of the field and the ability to pass an exam by using the software or hardware. Cabling is usually trivial: Wireless access points are less than $40.00 after rebate, and almost all include a switch. If you have only two computers, you may use a crossover cable. Discounted, older routers and even complete CCNA or CCNP study kits are available on eBay or through remaindered equipment packagers. For entry-level Cisco exams, simulation software is available. Your local Microsoft office, the Microsoft Web site or some third-party preparation books might have 90-to- 120-day "time bomb" CD versions of server, ISA, Exchange, etc. software. That's more than enough time to configure and become familiar with the software.

Attend Seminars and Get on E-Mail Lists

Another method of obtaining networking software, as well as gaining knowledge in a wider area, is to attend vendor seminars. At these seminars, vendors usually pass out software or product descriptions. Sometimes webinars are superb: Brocade has a series of webinars to review content of their certification exams. If you are able to move to a reseller class of user, most vendors provide free, unrestricted versions of their product. Microsoft has a partner Web site, and depending on the level, the benefits are modest to superb. Members also receive first notifications when major product rollouts are scheduled. Attend these rollouts: Vendors give away training, books and software. Other vendors, such as Novell, have equivalent programs.

It is possible to prepare for many certification tests with little equipment. You might use virtual machine technology: VMWare, Microsoft's Virtual products or Xen are popular choices. Note that trials and R2 candidates are free downloads for Virtual Server. Still, most of you should be able to obtain a second or third PC: an older system from friends who have discarded PCs, or even the inexpensive, sub-$300 boxes that ship without Windows. Check the net for a system that can run Windows if necessary, and if no second monitor is available, try using a two-way KVM.

Changing Fields

Within IT, transitions are usually easy to script. One way to make a lateral change is to attain a certification in that new area-for example, security. Review your background for resume items that are related to security or have a security focus. Make sure your resume highlights those items and seek assignments that make use of your new knowledge and interest. Even though the job position or assignment might not yet reflect full-time security, you are positioning yourself for a full-time job by gaining experience while still working.

Ancillary Aids

Outside work, there is no better way to find a job or find new training opportunities than through networking and professional organizations. Network User's International (Novell) and the Culminis Alliance member groups are much less vendor-specific than their sponsorship indicates, though it is not clear how their main sponsors feel about that. Not only are their programs superb, but member benefits include free software, job boards and low-cost training. Other professional IT organizations, such as the NPA, are not vendor specific but still include free software and particularly good newsletters aimed at providing career and training advice to their members. If you have a local chapter of any of these or other IT groups, make sure you join at least one in your area of interest.

Additional training opportunities include conferences such as Novell's BrainShare, Microsoft's TechEd or Cisco's Networker, where networking and high-level training via seminars is compressed into a few days of intense contact. At this year's BrainShare, for example, there were 10 or so different advanced topics covered in technical hands-on training, in addition to hundreds of other seminars. At most of these meetings, you also can take certification exams at half price.

Other organizations might provide focused training in specific areas. The SANS Institute, for example, though security specific, has both technical and managerial training at regional conferences along with GIAC certification. To save on the cost of their training, you may volunteer to work a SANS conference. Also important to any career are soft skills-the so-called "people" skills. Many organizations lead workshops on communication skills, management and business practices.

Connecting All the Dots

How do you put all this together? Last year, Steve Jobs, a college dropout, addressed Stanford's commencement. He told three stories, and called the first story "connecting the dots." This story told of his decision to drop out of Reed College, partly to spare his adoptive parents the financial burden, which allowed him to sit in on courses that piqued his interest instead of required classes. One of those was calligraphy, which taught Jobs about serif and sans serif fonts, and the relevance of proportional spacing. What is the relevance to computing? A decade later, Jobs insisted that the Mac have proper fonts, and part of its appeal was the beautiful display typography. By looking forward, you cannot connect the dots; only hindsight will reveal that happenstance. You have to trust your inner voice.

Jobs called his second story "love and loss." He was fired from Apple, a company he started, partly by the person he hired to run the company. The firing was public, humiliated Jobs, and the psychological toll was devastating. Not knowing where to turn, Jobs eventually realized that he loved starting computing companies and growing products and that being fired from Apple was a blessing in disguise. Having hit rock bottom, and with no expectations, Jobs was liberated. He went on to found NeXT, then Pixar. To quote Jobs: "Don't loose faith. Don't settle."

Jobs' third story was about death. Death, besides a great equalizer, is liberating in the sense that all earthly fears pale in comparison to death. Jobs was diagnosed with a type of cancer that in nearly all forms is deadly. As he mentally began to plan how he would order his few remaining months of life, Jobs realized that pride, embarrassment and fear of failure are irrelevant. Jobs' tumor turned out to be the very rare type that is curable, but he waxed philosophical, as he realized that in the best of times, death is a necessary counterpart of life.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

This Article Reprinted Courtesy of http://www.certmag.com