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My brother in law was hired at a defense contracting firm right out of college making $80k/yr. They even paid for his security clearance. Seems to me that is the area to get into.
Yes, definiltely try to get a job with the government. At one point my husband was talking with the NSA, but he didn't want to live and work in Washington, DC at the time. Tha's an agency that as far as I know has never had layoffs.
Yes, definiltely try to get a job with the government. At one point my husband was talking with the NSA, but he didn't want to live and work in Washington, DC at the time. Tha's an agency that as far as I know has never had layoffs.
It's sad, but I sort of agree that the government is the way to go. All of the jobs I've seen on local and federal government sites pay very well (even ones that only require HS diplomas). In fact, when I first started at my private sector job, I was offered a government job that paid $4k more a year. It was only then that my company started to take me serious and offered me more to stay with them.
I just read an article not too long ago about the commercial plane that crashed in Buffalo, NY last year. The article highlighted that the 24 year old co-pilot who died in the crash was making $16,000/yr and had to live with her parents in Seattle.
Plus you need stellar vision, and I'm near-sighted.
Yep, I know. I was being sarcastic. Pay is horrible and there is no job security. 15-20 years ago the low pay was offset by the hiring at the major level after spending 3-4 years making crap wages but now that the subcontractors do over half the flying (in Delta's case they do 75% of their domestic flying) there is no money in it. I made a really bad career choice.
Yes, definiltely try to get a job with the government. At one point my husband was talking with the NSA, but he didn't want to live and work in Washington, DC at the time. Tha's an agency that as far as I know has never had layoffs.
He actually lives in FL with a Pretty low COL. Pretty much has it made. Lucky b-tard!
A few months after graduating he was making more in overtime alone a week than I was making a month.
Yep, I know. I was being sarcastic. Pay is horrible and there is no job security. 15-20 years ago the low pay was offset by the hiring at the major level after spending 3-4 years making crap wages but now that the subcontractors do over half the flying (in Delta's case they do 75% of their domestic flying) there is no money in it. I made a really bad career choice.
Well you can't control the changes in the industry. A poor career choice, IMO, would be to not pursue a specialized field. You might say a garbage man, for instance, has made a poor career choice, unless they absolutely love their job. I would never say that an airline pilot, or any person with this type of knowledge and responsibility, made a poor career choice.
I'm hoping that I'm dead wrong, but it seems like in the name of greed and profit, companies want to pay people as little as they can so as to afford bigger yachts, more frequent vacations to luxurious resorts, etc. So, if one year they make a 10% profit, and they set the goal for the next year to be 15% profit and, all things being equal to the year before, they don't make the additional profit, they cut the workforce or put a freeze on pay increases, claiming that they had LOSSES.
I'm all for capitalism, but if greed is not put into check, most of us will be out of jobs. It seems more frequent these days that companies will work as few people as they can to the bone so as to increase the bottom line.
There are some jobs that will never be outsourced, specifically jobs in the government or as a gov't contractor. Additionally, some companies have leadership development programs that you can get into where they will not outsource your job as you are in both a leadership and tech role. Both of these opportunities pay well and there is room to grow, further develop your skills, etc.
Do NOT get into a situation where you become a systems admin or help desk. There are so many different levels of IT you can pursue, don't limit yourself to the lowest branch. A+ certifications are very outdated now unless you want to become one of the above. If you really want to pursue certifications, focus on Cisco certs.
It is well worth it... if you are doing it because you truly do enjoy doing it. As someone already indicated - if its just money you're after... you're not going to be as good compared to those that simply love to do it. Lots to learn, lots of challenges.
Although I'm not sure A+/MCSE etc is the right path for programming. It won't hurt as I'm dumbfounded sometimes on how network/system stupid some programmers (and system architects) are. They're the ones developing the applications... but they can't seem to understand how to connect a computer to the network?? But those certs are definitely not something a programmer would start with.
Gov. contracting is a great way to start actually. Its stable, and typically the larger contractors have more opportunities (Northrup, Lockheed, Booz etc). You get to hop around on different contracts. The only drawback is that its not always the best paying and can get slow depending on the contracts. I personally think private contracting is the most fun/challenging. But its also very demanding and less stable.
Just my .02. And Information Security is definitely still the hot area.. and its broad so you can be a programmer, sys admin, dba, proj. mgr etc.. all have a place in that field. The other is storage... but that's fairly narrow of a market.
It is well worth it... if you are doing it because you truly do enjoy doing it. As someone already indicated - if its just money you're after... you're not going to be as good compared to those that simply love to do it. Lots to learn, lots of challenges.
Although I'm not sure A+/MCSE etc is the right path for programming. It won't hurt as I'm dumbfounded sometimes on how network/system stupid some programmers (and system architects) are. They're the ones developing the applications... but they can't seem to understand how to connect a computer to the network?? But those certs are definitely not something a programmer would start with.
Gov. contracting is a great way to start actually. Its stable, and typically the larger contractors have more opportunities (Northrup, Lockheed, Booz etc). You get to hop around on different contracts. The only drawback is that its not always the best paying and can get slow depending on the contracts. I personally think private contracting is the most fun/challenging. But its also very demanding and less stable.
Just my .02. And Information Security is definitely still the hot area.. and its broad so you can be a programmer, sys admin, dba, proj. mgr etc.. all have a place in that field. The other is storage... but that's fairly narrow of a market.
Thanks for this information. I'm leaning towards a DBA career path. I'm not sure if Microsoft or Oracle (or both) is the way to go though. Any suggestions, since you seem to know IT?
I've been working help desk since graduating almost 2 years ago. Not many oppurtunities are popping up with the economy. =/
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