Career Path

navy · May 13, 2012, 9:33pm

First I like to say hi to all the people in this community. The reason I am here is because I am lost and looking for advice on my career path.

Here is a short history. I worked in the IT industry for about 10 yrs, sys admin, QA, and developer. During 911 I lost my job. Since then I have been working as a prof. interpreter. Now I am trying to get back into IT. Because I have been away so long now my exp. is also a bit rusty, but still a strong foundation. However, hiring companies want fresh exp.

My questions. How can I get back to IT? What is the best and quick path? Should I get a Unix/Linux certification?

Advices, suggestions or anything is good. I am listening.

jim_mcnamara · May 13, 2012, 9:42pm

If you did primary development on an app, find out who owns it now, talk with them.
Or find out which customers still have it as a legacy app. Check them out as well.

A huge amount changed between then and now. And most of it is network-related, critical to business infrastructure. So, learn it. Get Cisco certification (or whatever you worked with before) Don't go out and try to get Linux cert if you never worked on it before.

The combination of older experience and certification with what you had previous experience (modern version) with will be sufficient to get an entry-level position.

navy · May 14, 2012, 8:30pm

I did solaris sys admin before. And I have always been a fan of Linux. I am thinking of getting books and study at home on my own and go take the cert tests. Going to school cost too much. Getting books and study on my own I can save alot of money. Is this a good idea or should I go to school?

jim_mcnamara · May 14, 2012, 8:50pm

The jobs are not always the issue. The problem is getting past HR idiots who insert themselves in the resume review path. They look for reasons to exclude people. This is why I suggested looking for some sort of leverage.

Concrete example: SCT in Columbia SC produced a schizophrenic product called banner that was a utility CIS and a college student mgt app. They sold most of it off. If you had worked supporting that product (even 10 years ago) or coding or whatever there are still some places that would want to interview you.

Discrete skill sets with legacy apps can be a real plus. There are places that are "stuck" with legacy OSes like Solaris 8 or db's like Oracle 9. Exploit those.

Certs convince HR idiots to look at you, so if you are determined to do that, get going.
And yes the testing costs $$.

navy · May 19, 2012, 4:03pm

jim mcnamara:

The jobs are not always the issue. The problem is getting past HR idiots who insert themselves in the resume review path. They look for reasons to exclude people. This is why I suggested looking for some sort of leverage.

Concrete example: SCT in Columbia SC produced a schizophrenic product called banner that was a utility CIS and a college student mgt app. They sold most of it off. If you had worked supporting that product (even 10 years ago) or coding or whatever there are still some places that would want to interview you.

Discrete skill sets with legacy apps can be a real plus. There are places that are "stuck" with legacy OSes like Solaris 8 or db's like Oracle 9. Exploit those.

Certs convince HR idiots to look at you, so if you are determined to do that, get going.
And yes the testing costs $$.

Jim, thanks for the response. I think I am going to get books and study on my own and go take the cert tests. Once I get the certs, I can apply for entry positions to get my foot in the door and build myself up this way.