IT People Landed a good Job in America

[brian_n_phuong 193]

And you behave like the typical non degreed person that thinks a few hours of classes and a couple hours of tests is equal to years of training and hundreds of hours of testing. I have 2 relatives that work for cicso as degreed engineers and I know what they get paid , the answer is nope they don't get better pay.

When did i say I wasn't degreed, I don't remember saying that? My original intention was to answer the OP's original request for assistance, it was you that instead of attempting to help made a feeble attempt to discredit my assistance. It's interesting that for someone so well educated that you have such poor command of the English language. Oh, and by the way, it's Cisco, not "Cicso".

Have fun paying back all your student debt from your 12 degrees, but not to worry as I'm sure all those non-degreed workers will be paying it through taxes after the feds bail you out.

Since we have not heard from the OP in quite some time, i must assume that he has taken my advice which will promise him a positive future; AND Since your credidibility meter has ran past empty in this thread i will do all the readers in this forum a favor and mercifully end this conversation.

Have a good Day !

Edited November 15, 2011 by Brian_N_Phuong

[jessphil 0]

Dont sell yourself out. There are lots of people looking for IT jobs, but most dont have any experience, and many that HAVE experience DONT have proper certifications.

Certifications + Experience = Job.

Do you mind me asking your skill sets. I have worked in WAN engineering and related IT/Telecom industriesfor a long time. Might be able to point you in the correct direction.

To get an idea of whats out there, log into dice.com which is like monster.com, but is oriented exclusively to IT jobs.

I have decided that I'm going to take some training on Cisco Networking. Can you suggest which certification is the best to specialize

[brian_n_phuong 193]

Are you currently in the US or in the PI? This will effect your access to training. I dont know your background or interests so I am going to recommend that you go the Cisco network route. There are other programs (Oracle, Microsoft) that are available that may be a better choice, but dont want to go into detail on each program and spend all night typing.

'

The BEST way to start, assuming you are in the US, is with a "Cisco Network Academy". These type academies are normally offered at most State sanctioned Vocational type (Vo-Tech) 2-year Community colleges, and often have both night and day classes. They are usually delivered over a 3-6 month time period culminating in taking the Cisco CCNA exam. You can also take the CCNA through self-study, but I would not recommend unless you already have a strong IT background. The Community College programs are often state subsidized which keeps prices low, and scholarships and grants are often easy to obtain depending on your current income. Once you have found a Community College you like, be sure to visit the career counselor that can create a plan for you and provide assistance with financial aid.

One of the advantages of taking the Cisco Academy is that it can be placed directly on your resume along with the CCNA certification. The Cisco Academy holds some weight over just those with the CCNA as it shows that you have had a good solid formal foundation in networking. Another advantage of the Academy is that the instructor's may provide leads to open IT entry level jobs, and sometimes the local IT companies will hold job fairs at the schools to recruit candidates.

Best way to get started is to google "Community Colleges XXXXXXXXXX" where the XXXXXX is the city you are currently located in or where you plan to locate your residence. You can also search for Cisco Networking Academy in your area. I wouldnt try to take the Cisco 1-week bootcamp classes offered by "Global Knowledge" and other vendors; they are VERY expensive, and cramming that much material into one week is not going to give you a good foundation.

Good luck and let me know if you need any other info.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Brian_N_Phuong

[NotworkSte 19]

Perhaps my insight here will be of help to the OP. I migrated at the end of 2009, early 2010 and I did not have a problem finding work. However, like any game, there are rules, they are the US rules and you need to know them to beat them. My credentials? I am a mid level IT Director/hands on network guru who has had a fairly decent career thus far, before and after migrating.

First, there are 3 types of people here looking for IT jobs.

1 - Experienced, qualified

2 - Inexperienced, those wanting a career change

3 - People with some IT skills made unemployed and applying for any IT position.

(I know I am simplifying here, but I don't want to get too icky on the details).

Due to pool number 2 and 3, there are a lot of people applying for jobs that even people from pool number 1 are getting overlooked. IT is not the only area downsized, HR departments are understaffed and hiring managers are overworked. Hiring becomes much more automated, it has to be, there is no time to give careful consideration to those that deserve it when 150 people apply for one position. HR depts use srapeing software to scrape keywords from resumes. So the bad news? Without connections, you're out of luck most of the time unless you have specific certification or degrees. It is a fact that many companies will ditch resumes what don't have CCNA, or MCSE, on them, irrespective of experience. The software doesn't look for "14 years designing global BGP solutions for KPN", but it will yank your resume for futher review if you studied 3 weeks for a CCNA. It sucks, but that's the rules of the game. If you have the experience, get the certification. If you have a degree, flaunt it! I don't give a ####### about degree v's certifications, use what you have and get what you don't.

There are, of course, exceptions, there are good companies who have the time to choose carefully. Or, you can make connections.

Connections connections! Use linkedin.com (yes I am on there) find out who you know. When you move, take part in business lunches, trade shows, meet and greets. Getting hit up by a connection or a referral guarantees someone will look at your resume if they ask for it.

Lastly, you need to approach interviews by selling yourself. Not in a smarmy salesman way, but you know, you're probably in competition with 10 other people at the interview stage.

1 - Don't just lists your skills. Tell them *how* them skills offer them value. Show them!

2 - List $ values for cost savings, list specific metrics for reliability, uptimes, code generated, yadda

I could go on, but I won't, I'm not really that interesting ;-)

Good luck with your searching! Treat job hunting as a job in itself, stay positive. There *are* jobs there.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Perhaps my insight here will be of help to the OP. I migrated at the end of 2009, early 2010 and I did not have a problem finding work. However, like any game, there are rules, they are the US rules and you need to know them to beat them. My credentials? I am a mid level IT Director/hands on network guru who has had a fairly decent career thus far, before and after migrating.

First, there are 3 types of people here looking for IT jobs.

1 - Experienced, qualified

2 - Inexperienced, those wanting a career change

3 - People with some IT skills made unemployed and applying for any IT position.

(I know I am simplifying here, but I don't want to get too icky on the details).

>>> Snipped for Brevity <<<

Lastly, you need to approach interviews by selling yourself. Not in a smarmy salesman way, but you know, you're probably in competition with 10 other people at the interview stage.

1 - Don't just lists your skills. Tell them *how* them skills offer them value. Show them!

2 - List $ values for cost savings, list specific metrics for reliability, uptimes, code generated, yadda

I could go on, but I won't, I'm not really that interesting ;-)

Good luck with your searching! Treat job hunting as a job in itself, stay positive. There *are* jobs there.

This is probably the only useful post in this thread so far. All of the bickering about Degree vs Certifications is simply worthless.

I have neither a degree or certification but have been on the job for 15 years making a fair salary. I've worked my way into the position of "Enterprise Architect" and am quite comfortable here.

We've had programmers/network techs with degrees from traditional schools & tech schools as well as certificate holders and to be honest the piece of paper rarely says anything useful about the character of the employee.

I'm the only one here who has worked both sides of our IT department and I adapt to changes much better than the others in my department. Their degrees & certificates don't give them any advantage over me and I've turned down offers from other companies so it's not like I'm stuck here.

If you really want some useful advice here is what I have to add:

Follow your passion not the promise of a paycheck. Don't study networking because you think it will make you more employable, do it only if you have an innate desire to work in that environment. I've seen too many IT people without the passion burn-out and become useless. If you can't tap into the matrix then you shouldn't be trying to manipulate it. I used to find enjoyment in learning networking and hardware just as much as getting into the software up to my elbows but those days are long gone. I'll never build another PC or maintain another network but I still have many lines of code to write and a road map to complete.

In the end if you're true to yourself then you'll be the kind of employee any IT department would be happy to hire.

[Gary_UK 17]

I wanted to offer my input on this thread too.

I came to the US back in Oct of 2009 and was issued a green card March 2010. The area I live in is still hit very hard due to the economic downturn but was hell bent on getting any kind of job to a) get me out of the house to keep my sanity and b) become a productive member of the family to take some pressure off my new wife.

I have worked in IT for 20 years dating back to the old days of mainframe computers, moved into desktop support and data comms so have a wide range of experience to offer. But have always been a little light in current certifications.. i had expired CCNA and MCSE from years ago but never bothered to renew them....

As soon as that green card dropped through the door I signed up for a number of agencies and was lucky to get some part time IT work but nothing worth of note. BUT it did give me some valuable experience on the whole social networking aspect of the way the US does things. One of my contracts involved migrating hardware during the BOA / Meryl Lynch take over. but nothing beyond day contracts.

After that things went pretty quiet so spent a few months going for anything and everything including retail sales. (something i have never done before in my life) i landed a sales job part time for a local pc company (I took advantage of my english accent to attract people) and became full time very quickly afterward.8 weeks later i was promoted o sales manager. While earning i kept an eye open for something closer to my true skill set.

Back in june 2011 i landed a network engineer / analyst role for a sizable credit union. workload is high but my day to day involves, server maintenance, network, voip support, desktop, wan & lag config & maintenance and a ton of others. I love it and look forward to going to work every day.

I guess what i am saying is, don't put blinkers on, keep trying and don't give up. jobs for people are out there you just need to sell yourself, and highlight your positives to the best of your ability.

hard work does pay off. )

Edited December 12, 2011 by Gary_UK

[tamara143 1]

Hi,

I came to the US in December 2006 with a degree of Computer Science and 16 yrs. of IT experience. It took 5 years before I got an IT job. I know that the competition was so tough as there are so many IT graduates here too. I had to work with menial jobs, e.g. Macy's sales associate, legal asst., among others. Later on, by God's grace, I got a job in an anti-virus software company. I think the only way for you to stay competitive with others is to upgrade your IT knowledge by furthering your studies (enroll in a Masters program) or gain certifications or have your own business. Anyway, I have joined a new loading business in the Philippines (and in other countries) that can be your part-time job for the moment, if you are interested, please pm. me!

Thanks,

tamara

Edited December 12, 2011 by tamara143