Career help/advice - Page 2

+1 on the RN thing, but respiratory therapist is also a good one, in terms of career security.

two other angles - foregn contract work for RNs can be very lucrative, and a lot of sales people in medical devices are RNs, and that can be pretty nice money

Not to be a dick, but that is going to be a problem no matter what you decide to do, especially if you are only doing it for the money, which is what it sounds like. I speak from experience. I wasted years making bad decisions and bouncing between degrees, not applying myself, hoping I'd find something I really loved that would pay me tons of money. I snapped out of it and got focused in 2006. I finished university with a classics degree, which on its own isn't worth a whole lot more than what you have. I was working the whole time, however.

IT certs can be huge bang for buck, especially if you have entry-level tech crap out of the way. I had your job when i was 18, but probably with more autonomy. I hated it. All the stupid little requests from people that didn't know paper had to be in the printer for their document to come out made me want to go in to the office shooting. It made me hate IT so much that I completely wrote-off any thought that i might have otherwise had about doing it as a career, even though I loved computers and had been using them since i was old enough to walk.

I bounced around for a while and one thing led to another and I am back in IT making a good salary and am two or three years from making what most would consider a big salary. You should know that once you get yourself beyond help desk and level 1 tech stuff, your job enjoyment generally increases substantially because you don't have to deal with morons all day. When I got promoted and no long had to deal with pain in the ass users all the time, it was a huge relief. Of course those stresses are replaced with other forms of stress, but the job becomes a lot more fulfilling and enjoyable on a day to day basis.

If i were you and thinking about my options within IT, I'd do a ccna and an entry-level microsoft cert like an MCP. I did my CCNA in 6 weeks (which most people would say is very fast) for a cost of a 500 hundred bucks (books, lab equipment, exam fees). Average pay for CCNAs is easily 40k+. You could knock-out the 3 MS exams for an MCP in 3 months. At that point, you could find a jr. systems admin job, stay in it for 18 months and then look for a real systems admin job. During those 18 months you would finish your MCSE and the upgraded Server 2008 cert (MCITP i think it's called). You'd have time to do an Exchange cert. as well, which is always valuable. If you played your cards right, when you went looking for that next job you could be in a position to look for 60-70k . Assuming you have the brains, if you are motivated and work hard, you can do higher level certs on the cisco track instead of the MS one and acquire qualifications that will easily get you over the 100k/yr mark. But, I know some pretty damned average people that are making 50-70k in IT as well.

The advantages of this over nursing:
-you don't have to wipe asses and clean up vomit (i'd really recommend looking in to what the job entails before setting your sights on it)
-don't have to be around sick people all day
-probably more predictable hours, unless you work in a NOC.
-you can do all this without taking on debt, and you can keep working in the meantime.

Disadvantages:
-you will never have the same job security nurses will have
-IT requires that you keep up to date (however I'd say that this is a requirement for professionals in any field, the key is to find a supportive employer)

In general, I think it takes a special sort of person to become a nurse. If you're no that type of person, you will hate it. Right now you're just looking at the green grass on the other side of the fence imo.

For reference, CCNPs can make 60-90k. CCIEs make over 100k. If you study really hard (like 40hrs/wk) you could probably finish it in 6-8 months (CCNP, not CCIE). Certs are worthless on their own, but you could do the low level certs quickly and start looking for jobs that will actually give you worthwhile experience to apply towards your career progression. When I am done my CCIE early next year, it will have cost me around 6k (about 2k on books, 1.5k on gear, 2k on exam fees, 500 plane ticket), assuming I pass the lab exam on the first attempt.

Any suggestions on where to start for someone who is generally computer literate but has no knowledge of programming/networking?

I've been doing a lot of these threads in the last couple days... Here we go again. :P First of all, programming and networking or systems administration are very different jobs. My experience is that most networking/sysadmin guys dislike programming. I think it's because they prefer to be in a job that lets them get up and move around instead of staring at code windows for the same piece of software for several years straight. The work is more varied imo. That said, if you work for a company that does really cool shit, programming can be really fun. However, those companies are few and far between. Most coding that gets done today is very mundane. I've done a fair amount of programming, and while I don't hate it, I don't love it and am focused on something else. I think that for a lot of people, IT will be a better career than programming because if you put the work in you can hit clearly defined objectives (based on obtaining certifications) and you can plan your career quite easily. It's less nebulous than a career in programming imo. It's easier to make upwards moves in IT as well. Anyway, if you want to do interesting programming, you need to do a CS degree, preferably at a decent school so that you can get access to jobs at good companies. If you're interested in IT, see this thread: http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=130158 Get something like the CCENT (first part of the CCNA, which is now a certification of its own) and the A+ exam. Look for an entry-level help desk job and tough it out for 18 months. Let your system admin know you're working on your certifications and keep him up to date on your progress. He'll probably let you handle more and more on your own as you progress. If he thinks you're smart he might mentor you. Your goal is to finish your MCSE and CCNA within 18 months (very doable if you're studious) because help desk pay sucks and it's shitty work. At the end of 18 months, you make a decision whether to stay or leave. If you're imminently going to move up you might stay, but otherwise you take your experience and leave for a job where you can build your new skills at a higher level. You don't want to stagnate in a dead-end position. I also think that small companies are a better place to start. Assuming you're smart and gain the trust of your systems admin, you will be less confined to working in a specific area, so you will get a wider range of experience on a lot of different technologies. This is important for 2 reasons. 1) it helps you identify what you enjoy most 2) it's better for your development. Quick anecdote: I hired a network guy from a large consulting firm to help out for a day. They billed him at 150/hr. He was useless for anything outside of his narrow area of expertise (which he was merely OK at), so a lot of the time he was just standing around and doing nothing. You don't want to be that guy. I think it's important to become a good generalist before you become an awesome specialist (which is where the money is).

double post

Far from a CPA. I can chime in here as I worked regional accounting (payables) for a huge construction management company last summer (while I was there, my office landed a billion in construction projects). Everyone else at least had a bachelors from a shitty state school (not comm college) and salaries were around $48-55K if you just had a few years experience, and really didn't get much better. I was making what would be equivalent to $36g's and this is because I had a very strong connection with someone in B.D. No one I knew there, even the more senior project accountants had a CPA-- hence why they were willing to work for $70-80 g's a year after being there for ever. Honestly, most probably didn't give two shits about accounting because no one seemed to know GAAP or have any concept of fundamentals. They'd have no chance on CPA exam. I don't think accounting is a great field to be in if you don't plan on getting a CPA IMO, with two year degree. I think you should be happy with a job making $40,000 g's a year in accounting with a 2 year-- most likely a very boring job akin to data entry with no interaction with any people. I can sell pez dispensers on eBay for that much money..

Yea trying to find a job these days sucks

If you are unsure about nursing, try calling up a few places to see if you can do some observation time.

Spend a day in an ER. See if the work is something you could imagine doing every day.

physical therapy assistant...should be able to get this done quickly and make good money anywhere...i agree with all of the people talking about getting certifications...if i could go back, i would do this..and still might.

Not a helpful response here but I have trouble reconciling "single dad" and "will travel". We (this one's for you randall) find it hard to make business travel work with kids so I cannot imagine how that woud work for a single parent. Care to share?

Quick question: What's the typical career/exit path of an RN?

BTW, R where are you located at and how familiar are you with semiconductors chips terminologies?

That's not really true. Cisco certs are valid for 3 years, after which you have to recertify. The logic is that because Cisco purges old tech from the exam and replaces it with new stuff every ~3 years, you should re-certify. This is done to maintain the value of the certifications for those that hold them and to keep them technologically relevant. On top of that, you don't have to repeat the same exam to re-certify unless you let your cert expire. If you have a ccna, the following options are open for recertification if you pursue them BEFORE your cert expires: * Pass the current certification exam * Pass a current Specialist exam (excluding Sales Specialist exams) * Pass any Professional level exam bearing a 642 prefix (Any CCNP,CCVP,CCSP,CCIP,CCDP exam) * Advancing to the next level or recertifying at the Professional level automatically renews * all related Associate level certifications * Pass a current CCIE written exam So the only case in which you have to restudy the same material is if you aren't working to further your career in the first place. The MS certs don't expire.They are good as long as the product is still supported by MS, and they are easily upgradeable. For example, the MCSE is 7 exams, but to get the MCITP enterprise admin cert, you only have to take an extra 3 exams to upgrade. When you factor in the lag for corporate adoption, you only have to do additional MS certs every 6 years. That's really not a big deal imo.