I am thinking about looking for a new job because I am not making much at my current job.

I have ~2 years working with small networks(setup and maintenance) and windows 2000/XP. A+ certified and learn very quickly.
Expert with Office suite, Ghost.
HP Warranty Tech Authorized for Laptops/Desktops and Printers.
Degree in Marketing with 3.2 GPA.

I am not looking to make a lot, because I make less than nothing now... (High 30's or above for the new job)

Where would be the best place to look for a new job? Classifieds, Dice.com, etc??? Where have people had luck.

What skills could I add to make myself more marketable in the future. I have thought about taking classes for SQL programming, or buckling down and getting MCSE.

My goal would be to be president of IT in a medium-large company. Anything along that path is helpful. And if anyone knows specific opportunities, they would need to be close to Indian Trial (Matthews) NC or south Charlotte.

Thanks in advance.

3/14/2006 4:00:22 PM

Quote :

"My goal would be to be president of IT in a medium-large company"

the how to would start off by telling you to not getting a degree in marketting - with that degree you are going to need more experience than someone who has say a CPE or CSC degree

the best way is via networking - joe amazing off the street that has a solid resume has nothing on joe average who knows people

[Edited on March 14, 2006 at 4:11 PM. Reason : never heard of a president of IT...ever - if you start your own company you can pick your own title]

3/14/2006 4:10:34 PM

CIO = "president of IT"


CIO = Chief Information Officer

3/14/2006 4:14:28 PM

I'm not hiring you, so no need to lie to me (or yourself) but do you really think you are qualified to keep a medium or large enterprise level network together by yourself? Keeping a few machines running is one thing, but fast deployment, consolidation of builds, problem solving, and keeping the back end running smoothly is just the tip of the iceberg. I'd say these days, the real task is keeping all of it secure and fast. To be honest, with what you've said, I don't see you being qualified (on paper atleast) to do much more than help desk, which you will grow to hate very quickly. Look into getting CSSSP, mcse, and learn extensively about as much networking as you can, get a help desk job in the meantime.

ps: be prepared to be repeatedly overlooked in favor of someone with a better gpa and/or more pertinent degree who is completely underqualified.

3/14/2006 4:20:41 PM

go to grad school for CSC/EE/MIS?

just a thought

3/14/2006 5:20:09 PM

IT by itself doesn't allow much potential for growth or learning in the long-term. Look up the average CSC starting salary ... I'm making near/about that, and my primary role right now is the "IT guy". The big difference is that I have the ability to switch roles in a heartbeat ... if they need to pull an extra developer, I'm there. Going strictly IT usually doesn't offer this sort of flexibility.

I agree about getting a grad degree. You mentioned being a C__ of a company ... I would recommend going for an MBA if you want to pursue that a bit further. You can concentrate in an E-Business, IT Enterprise, or whatever track you care to and get a bit more technical background. If you have a good company, they'll sponsor you as you go through the program on a part-time basis.

3/14/2006 5:31:17 PM

IT is so dead-end...thank goodness i dodged that train and picked a different major before i wasted my life

not saying this new major is much better, but this area is so clogged with IT that you'd have to be pretty darn amazing to get a job that doesn't suck

[Edited on March 14, 2006 at 6:06 PM. Reason : .]

3/14/2006 6:05:39 PM

^ i landed an engineering job within like one month of graduating with a 2.6 gpa CPE/EE

and it doesnt suck


[Edited on March 14, 2006 at 6:14 PM. Reason : .]

3/14/2006 6:12:21 PM

if you want to be CIO/president/chief of anything be prepared for a long road.

get in at a low low level position at a company that needs or has a similar position, learn, get a masters and or phd along the way, learn, get certified in the things your company needs, learn some more.

To get where you want to be is going to be a 15-20 year process at this point, seeing as you have very few connections in industry, little to no experience in what you want to do, and don't have any direction to get there.

3/14/2006 6:21:20 PM

^^ i wish i was as lucky as you.. i have a 2.8 GPA in CPE and haven't landed a job yet.. I'm even willing to start low (help desk, network technician) and work up the ladder (sys admin, network admin/engineer)

3/14/2006 7:07:16 PM

Quote :

"do you really think you are qualified to keep a medium or large enterprise level network together by yourself?"

smoothcrim, I know I am NOT qualified right now. I have no skills that would transfer. I am not lying tomyself about that. I appreciate your comments, but please reread this.

Quote :

"My goal would be to be president of IT in a medium-large company. Anything along that path is helpful."

This is long term, like, what steps need to be taken to be a CIO. (TY granite for the exact title, I posted this quickly on my lunch break)


I have thought about going back for a masters, but money might be an issue.

1)What would allow my job to be "not dead end". What is the best way to get a better job now AND prepare for a job in management?

2) What are places to look for a job. Put out feelers with everyone I know? I am a member of a leads group and the Matthews Chamber. Would those be good places to start?

Thanks for all the advice. I know I have a long road ahead of me, my degree was awesome, I loved all the classes. But I can not get a job in it. I have great computer aptitude and I enjoy that also. Prolly a lot more than I would have a CSE or CSC. I am where I am and I need to get down the road some more.

3/14/2006 7:27:32 PM

Quote :

"^^ i wish i was as lucky as you.. i have a 2.8 GPA in CPE and haven't landed a job yet.. I'm even willing to start low (help desk, network technician) and work up the ladder (sys admin, network admin/engineer)"

well he got an engineering job, you're pursuing an IT jobb)judging from your explanations)
that owuld be one difference

3/14/2006 8:47:18 PM

to admin an enterprise-level network you have to be really good at portscanning

3/15/2006 2:34:54 AM

"initiate the ip trace... now!" - ECPI

3/15/2006 2:37:48 AM

ty, look into a couple of the different SANS courses they offer if you want to expand your current IT skillset. Again, your employer SHOULD sponsor you attending one. Usually they will offer discounts at various points. I took SANS504 last week ... hands-on hacker techniques. All the non-textbook stuff NC State was afraid to teach you (due to bad PR, liability, etc.) in a one week workshop. Can't speak for all workshops, but this one was absolutely excellent. Day 6 was capture the flag.

3/15/2006 6:58:28 AM

I'm not trying to make fun of you and say you can't do it, I'm just saying you've got a lot of work to do, probably a lot more than you're estimating. Information security is going to be the next hot thing, like CCNA was in the late 90's. Get your CSSSP and work from there. No one has a parts monkey that sits in the server room and builds stuff anymore, everyone has a contract from dell and a lease agreement, so worry about the software side specifically deployment and security.

3/15/2006 8:36:22 AM

^^^ HAHA... where does that ecpi quote come from, and what is your point... (just curious)

My father teaches the cisco classes over at ecpi, and is moving to a program directors job for the security department.... Seems like a pretty good program that they have going.

If you have $$ to pay for a short IT education, you could try ECPI. They will graduate you in a year and they actually do a very very good job of placing qualified graduates in jobs locally. I think they have a campus down there in charlotte too...

3/15/2006 9:12:11 AM

Quote :

"look into a couple of the different SANS courses they offer if you want to expand your current IT skillset. "

where are these at? ecpi?

Partial thread hijack: where can i take courses in Crystal Reports, Advanced Excel and Data Analysis/ Data Mining? I currently work as a database manager and need to start offering more advanced reporting and data analysis... anyone have any ideas? NC State CTU has classes but they're like $700-$1000 which seems a bit stupid for me, they don't seem to have a discount for students either. Wake Tech has some offerings but not quite what I'm looking for. Maybe I'll have to take some sort or internet based course or some cd tutorial thing for some of it

[Edited on March 15, 2006 at 11:05 AM. Reason : ]

3/15/2006 10:48:09 AM

my team at IBM is hiring for an entry level position

3/15/2006 10:58:38 AM

which team

3/15/2006 11:07:01 AM

RTP NS Recovery

3/15/2006 11:09:18 AM

NS = Nigga Stole?

3/15/2006 11:35:34 AM

out of the names listed in bluepages - i pegged you as Bobby Jones

3/15/2006 11:57:06 AM

nah Bobby is a cool guy, though

you on S/T?

3/15/2006 12:05:32 PM

yeah - during work hours - project is on central time tho

3/15/2006 1:19:51 PM

^good to know about IBM, but I am in Indian Trail, just outside of Charlotte.

3/15/2006 2:09:45 PM

what makes you think you can't live there and work for ibm - i can live anywhere in america right now as long as i can make it to a decent sized airport in a reasonable amount of time -reasonable being defined as how long i'm willing to drive - and decent sized determined by how much i want to connect each year

[Edited on March 15, 2006 at 2:18 PM. Reason : andrew brown is next guess]

3/15/2006 2:12:56 PM

haha nah, but Brown is a hell of a foosball player

3/15/2006 2:32:39 PM

i only make it over to campus every once in a while on fridays - but i'll challenge any 2 you can put up with either watkins or knowles as my partner - i might even take a nap in the middle

3/15/2006 2:35:25 PM

Quote :

"HAHA... where does that ecpi quote come from, and what is your point... (just curious) "

I can't vouch for the networking/computer security curriculum, but every person I have either worked alongside, been contracted to work with, or interviewed that graduated from ECPI have been the absolute most incompetent people I've dealt with in the IT world.

But my point was just the absolute laughability of the commercials, not really the program, since I know nothing about it. The commercials are comical at best.

3/15/2006 6:14:05 PM

Quote :

"No one has a parts monkey that sits in the server room and builds stuff anymore"

but wait...

Quote :

"everyone has a contract from dell"

presumably, then, Dell needs a lot of parts monkeys? Stick to port scanning, I don't think market analysis is your deck of cards...

3/15/2006 8:46:15 PM

Quote :

"I can't vouch for the networking/computer security curriculum, but every person I have either worked alongside, been contracted to work with, or interviewed that graduated from ECPI have been the absolute most incompetent people I've dealt with in the IT world. But my point was just the absolute laughability of the commercials, not really the program, since I know nothing about it. The commercials are comical at best. "

I've had the same experiences. Hell, I've seen guys with decent tech instincts come out of ECPI and be afraid to work on a computer. You can tell they kinda know what to do but are too damn afraid of the computer boogey man to fix it.

3/15/2006 9:29:48 PM

^^ you're a damn idiot if you think dell spends anytime with tech support on their machines. it's far more cheaper for them to outsource someone to just swap in a new board that cost them $20 than it is for them to actually investigate what's wrong. you should forget about trying to troll, and stick to deliverin pizzas

3/16/2006 1:29:53 AM

I approve of this thread. It makes me happy about life, and more importantly, happy in my pants.

Co-oping should be required as part of the undergrad curriculum. It's too bad more people don't take advantage of the fucking motherload of positions in RTP. Every semester I watch 10 people interview for 5 coop/intern spots, and it makes me sick. Get your resumes out there early, the end of your freshman year is the right time to start. Make sure to file a resume w/ the coop office, but by no means rely solely on those cronies to do your recruiting. Make contacts, attend AITP meetings, go to resume clinics, and every job fair available. There's absolutely no reason that in this market, that a capable cs-ncsu student should graduate without an offer in hand.

/rant

[Edited on March 16, 2006 at 2:11 AM. Reason : .]

3/16/2006 2:03:57 AM

I applied for a Coop and never got called back.

/fuck you statement.

3/16/2006 12:32:01 PM

You applied for just one?

3/16/2006 12:33:37 PM

You applied for just one?

3/16/2006 12:43:23 PM

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE

3/16/2006 12:47:15 PM

Quote :

"haha nah, but Brown is a hell of a foosball player"

Where the foosball table? What is "NS?"

3/16/2006 1:09:01 PM

we have a shitty one that is falling apart

the switch team has a nice tornado, though

3/16/2006 1:16:40 PM

air hockey building 502

3/16/2006 1:22:30 PM

Quote :

"it's far more cheaper for them to outsource someone to just swap in a new board that cost them $20 than it is for them to actually investigate what's wrong."

what the fuck do you think troubleshooting hardware usually consists of? swapping in a new board that costs Dell blah blah what the fuck am I talking about ISN'T BROKEN, and if it doesn't fix the problem, that wasn't the broken board! It's a pretty ubiquitous procedure, because actually troubleshooting the high frequency microcircuitry is prohibitively time-consuming, expensive, and complicated.

and I don't think many onsite calls get outsourced

3/16/2006 4:41:45 PM

My degree was in Business Management, and I am a Corporate Data Warehouse Developer/Administrator. Beat out quite a few CSC's for it too.

3/16/2006 5:46:46 PM

I didn't plan on getting into IT, degree in Mechanical Engineering, but ended up as a Network Engineer/Admin for a large financial services company in Charlotte. Here's what it took to get there in my case:

1) Diverse experience: help desk, small networks, starting your own network-contracting side business... for about 6 years.
2) A technical degree. There isn't anyone that I work with that has a non technical degree, math and hard sciences are even pretty slim.
3) Knowing someone on the inside, preferably in management.

The last bit is the most important part it seems. Before getting this job I sent out a few dozen applications to positions I was well qualified for to no avail.

However now that I'm in I see a reasonably stable job/department, and it's a good place to be, however limited. Lots of lateral movement possible, but less growth. Which is part of the many reasons I'm starting an MBA program in the fall.

IT is very highly competitive now in the corporate (even non technical companies) world, and there are lots of people that really know their shit with tons of experience (saturated market).

All the advice I can give is to network everyone you know and their parents. This will get you a starting network admin job somewhere, probably with round the clock on call schedules. It'll be years until you even get out of the on call rotation and into management, longer if you chose to live with only an undergrad degree.

3/16/2006 8:26:59 PM

foosball tables

i haven't seen many on main campus - there is one in every break room in the 500 buildings on the 1st and 3rd floors - i thought everyone @ ibm was a tornado though

3/16/2006 8:31:50 PM

psh 500 buildings arent a good example of campus haha software snobs!

if it wasnt so damn far from 062 i might waste some time over there

3/16/2006 8:58:45 PM

203 used to have one.

Keywords being "used" and "to."

3/16/2006 10:19:31 PM