Maximum PC

It's time for a change in my career.
After over a decade of struggling in the office administrative field I have finally decide to possibly start a career in the IT field.

My fascination with computers started back in '86 or '85 when my mom purchased my 1st PC.
The Commodore64. When I got that thing to log onto the BBS back then I was estatic to say the least, but my mom didn't feel that way after the phone bill.
Anyway since then I've always been into building computers as a hobby just to play pc games.
Optimize the OS, OC whatever I could, etc learn from this forum and from others.

Now after 2yrs of unemployment and doing temp work, I'd like to pursue a career in the field of IT.
As for which specific direction... desktop support, networking... I have no idea which way to go.
Thus my coming to you guys for a helping point in the right direction.

I've searched through the forum, read some threads about certs, knowledge and experience; and am still unsure as to where to begin.
I have no college degree, not even an AA, no certs and experience... just the desire to start a new career.

Suggestions, advice, criticism is absolutely welcomed and appreciated.

To get a foothold in IT start with the A+, then the Network+. You have to pass 2 test for the A+ and 1 test for the Network+. These 2 certifications will give you a foundation. If it were me, after taking A+ and Network+. i would then go ahead and take the Security+ test. Then move on to more specific certifications like the Microsoft MCITP or Cisco CCNA.

EDIT: Changed the wording to be less confusing.

I'm currently in school for computer systems administration and the college requires me to take certs as part of some of my courses. They even pay for most of them. Just keep that in mind before you go out doing that stuff on your own.

Get an entry level job in software QA (or intern if you can). It's the easiest way to learn a) your company's product life cycle b) your company's product or IT infrastructure c) expose you to how IT in general works. Since you've been tinkering with hardware anyway, you will have a leg up on just pure software testers. This will also allow you to move into different roles: programmer, system administrator, business analyst, etc. depending on your interests. In my experience, I've seen more QA engineers move up the ladder faster than desktop or network engineers. The trick is to always *genuinely* try to learn new things in your QA role and not settle for what the rest of the testers are doing ie: software test automation can lead to programming, building test servers and making them work can lead into system analysis, eventually becoming a test lead can get you a management role in the future.

My advice from the other side of the fence is when you get done with the schooling and start doing IT stuff somewhere, do your job right!

I'm a diesel mechanic in a shop where we have several laptops for various diagnostic work on the ever increasingly difficult to deal with engines and truck systems. I'm not an IT guy. But after the guy the company has "taking care of things" goes through the shop, I have to go through and make the computers actually work again. Drives everyone nuts when they grab a computer and it won't connect to a truck. Then I or a couple other guys that know what to do has to stop what they're working on and get that computer to communicate with the truck again.

Anyway, good luck!

Anyone have any suggestions on where to being learning Linux with an end goal of being a Linux Network Admin?

I am not overly familiar with with Linux, so take what i say with a grain of salt. I know how to install it, both on a real or virtual PC, but I just have not played with it much. I think the best place to start is to install it. If you have an old P4 sitting around or install it on VMWare or Virtualbox. Once you install it, play around with it a bit, this get a book or CBT on using it. I do know that a good Linux/Unix admin can make very good money.

Pretty much this. Find a book that covers the distro you're starting out with (Ubuntu, OpenSuse and Fedora are good choices to start with) and just start doing stuff.

And remember, man pages are your friend. And use apropos when you don't know which man page to look at.

My personal advise is, and don't take this the wrong way, but this late in the game unless you are between 19 and 30 IT is not the best way to go. I say this not because you can't do it, but because getting to the level you want to make any decent money is going to be tough. Basically having never had a position in IT before you are not going to get something in Networking even if you are rock solid in Server, Cisco, Firewalls, etc.. because without any background on the resume you will never get it past HR.

Deskside Support is a possibility but you're still going to need something on your resume to support background in IT work. More than likely you are looking at starting in Phone Support which frankly sucks donkey B*lls.

If you truly want to enter the IT field I would get a position at your local momma and papa shop doing bench work and stay there for at least a year. Personally you would be better off at a small to medium size company because going forward whatever place you are going to be going to will want to see a corporate background of at least 100-300 people. They will want you to have experiance in Outlook or Lotus Notes, MS Office, Malware Removal, System Errors, some sever experiance but that is more of account creations and group share access which a monkey can do. Customer service at some places plays a larger role than the technical abliity itself. I've been in IT now for rougly 15-years and work for an international company as an systems analyst with approx 75,000 employees globally. Again I don't want to say you can't do this I just want you to know it is not as easy as simply applying and HR is going to be begging you to start. The market sucks and it is very competive. I'm lucky I am working now it is so bad.

In terms of certs, yes you should get at least your A+ and Network+ but having even 100 certs won't get your foot in the door unless you have actual work experience. The once exception is if you are right out of school or you get lucky.

Good luck!

Get a degree.

Hey!!we are on same boat,unemployed almost two years,but paying all bills by im activities and admin support. My advise is get a job that might suitable your skill,not interest,take online graduate or manual learning if that you might really looking for.

I have worked in IT for nearly 17 years. It's difficult to walk through the front door. The technique I used was through a backdoor--get an office job, complete all of your work then volunteer to help the people in IT. Find out what they need help in the most, learn how to do that task, then volunteer to do it. You'll get on the job experience that you can add to your resume. I did this initially to work my way up from a secretary to a writer/editor. And then from a nursing assistant (with a background in writing) to a Technical Writer. I also have a blog you can check out for more details http://pvlangford.blogspot.com/.