|
Roger (long winded)
10-27-2003 09:17:36
|
|
Re: OT: Computer network installer JOB? in reply to Rod MI, 10-27-2003 08:14:41
|
|
|
Rod, I don't know where you are, but I went this route a few years ago and I am sorry for it. It was a bad year. I just learned my dad was dying from cancer, I lost my job and lost my apartment. I decided it was time to get some education and take a serious run at a career. I went to a local IT school and was dazzled by all the BS I was fed. The promise of jobs,jobs,jobs was pretty compelling at the time, considering my situation. They told me that the students at the school were often recruited before they finished writing their exams, and that there was basically an insatiable demand for network support people. It sounded great. Considering that, at the time, my job skills consisted of some unticketed heavy-duty mechanic/millwrighting experience related to the compressor field, it seemed like a good bet to get some more education in a field that seemed to be really taking off. So, despite the $12k price for ONE year of school, I signed on the dotted line. I took a job at a welding shop where my brother worked, sanding weld spatter and grinding ragged beads smooth on new trash compactors and roll-off containers. I worked 10 hour night shifts, like a damn slave and managed to save $8000 towards school. I went to school,passed all my exams in the 80%-100% range and graduated near the top of the class. Funny, before I went to school, they were saying I would probably be recruited before I graduated. About halfway through, they said it took about six months to find a job. Near the end, they were saying maybe we should volunteer to get some work experience. So, from being recruited before we graduate, to having to work for free to get some experience, it was quite a change in one short year. Very few people I went to school with ended up with jobs, and many who did were making less than I did when I was "unskilled". I know for a fact that the school I went to take their students on a tour of the local HP call center to introduce them to the people they will be probably be working for when they graduate ($10 a hour, taking abuse from HP owners who barely know how to switch their computers on). Yeah, you're kinda overeducated for that sort of work, but that's about the only thing anybody found to do. Some people got work doing DSL or cable modem installs, but that didn't last long, and it used maybe 2% of what you learned in school. Oddly enough, I ended up working on compressors again in another town. Not having learned my lesson the first time, I decided to spend ANOTHER $1000 on writing 6 Microsoft exams to get certified on Windows NT, IIS etc. I wrote those exams, passed all of them on the first go, and was MCSE certified in July 2000. I moved back to my old city, snowed it with resumes, with my shiny new MS credentials, and got offered one job fixing printers. I did a short stint in that call center, but went back into mechanics shortly after. When THAT job went belly up, I did manage to find a job with a compter sales/ISP/computer repair business, as a PC tech, network support person and DSL installer. I wasn't making any more money than I did as a mechanic, but it was nice, clean light work. Unfortunately, the local telephone company started to screw my employer with the rates they charged for providing DSL service, so they stopped doing that for awhile. The computer repair and sales business was then sold, so I became redundant (sense a pattern developing here?). Two days after I was laid off, I saw a job for a compressor mechanic. I didn't really want to go back into it, but the money was good, and it was a good company, so I went for it. Considering that there aren't many jobs for a compressor mechanic, I took it as some sort of sign that maybe it was meant to be somehow...Of course, a year later, the economy slowed to a halt, and I was let go, YET AGAIN. I moved directly into another compressor repair job, but oddly enough, just after I was hired, they laid off all the welders. The they laid off all the night shift of machinists. The the President was fired. The the shop foreman was fired. I began to get that sinking feeling again. Instead of waiting for it this time, I pulled the plug, moved 3000km east and I am currently back in school, doing a three year engineering diploma in Photonics. I worked all last year in a compressor shop (hopefully for the last time, knock on wood). I did apply for computer work last year. I got one response, had a decent interview, then heard nothing more. So take it for what it's worth. The whole networking thing, to me, was a pig in a poke. I got nothing but a big bill. If it is something you truly want to do, do your homework beforehand. Find out if there really is a demand for those skills in your area. Find out if the school you plan to attend is well regarded. Make sure you get excellent hands on experience with the gear and the software. Don't go to any school that hires their own graduates to teach. Don't go to any school that has a campus in a shopping mall(it's a dead giveaway that they are only in it to make a quick buck). And most of all don't pay more for the education than you can comfortably write-off as a waste of money.
Just my experience, for what it's worth.
Personally, I would do the A+ certification to test the waters and see how much work is avalable in your area first. Not a whole lot of money in it, but it won't break the bank to get certified.
|
|
|
