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I've heard so much about how educated DC is and there's a lot of job offers in the computer field and office jobs in general. I only have an Associate Degree and some certificates. I have always lived in NC, we don't offer as many jobs, and we have a lot of good schools and our towns are small so there's a lot of competition here in regards of office jobs. The only job I could find in the computer field is Technical Support Helpdesk. Many companies claim there's advancements but all of these are either tier 2 or 3 in that same field. I don't want this to be my career path. I was hoping for system administration or analyst.
I make decent money right now and have enough saved up, but I can't see this as my career. I thought it would be cool to live in DC for 2 or 3 years both for the living experience there since I've never lived outside of NC and for job opportunities. I understand there's a lot of people with degrees and competition in DC, but NC isn't offering much. I am wondering if there are people who moved there to build their resume? What other states that are good for that? I've read that NY and NJ are also good for offering jobs to gain experience.
I saw a fed who had a DeVry degree before they became a university, and he was a director. I think anything is possible, if you stop worrying about it and just go for it.
Degrees and experience only gets you to the front door sometimes. Sometimes, your personal drive, and who you are as a person means a lot more than what degree you have.
DC is a great place to build your resume. Do a great work, and get a recommendation from a high up fed, and that adds significantly to your resume.
I am going to be flat out.
An associates degree will not get you far in this town, and you will soon find that out rather quickly.
People move here to build their resumes, when they have a bachelors degree or better yet, a graduate degree (masters, professional, or Ph.D.).
I will be very direct with you for analyst positions, you need a bachelors, and most people I know who are analysts in IT field have a graduate degree. A bachelors is a bare minimum though.
An associates is good enough for call center work, and infrastructure work, but not for the positions you are talking about. I will be honest, most IT shops basically block people who don't have a bachelors from certain positions as a bachelors is a listed requirement.
You will hit a glass ceiling here very quickly. The area is very expensive and you will be competing against people who are better educated.
You may have a shot at IT infrastructure work though since that usually only requires an associates.
Also a big exception to this is if you are an extremely talented hacker and can code extremely well. There are always jobs for those people.
I am going to be flat out.
An associates degree will not get you far in this town, and you will soon find that out rather quickly.
People move here to build their resumes, when they have a bachelors degree or better yet, a graduate degree (masters, professional, or Ph.D.).
I will be very direct with you for analyst positions, you need a bachelors, and most people I know who are analysts in IT field have a graduate degree. A bachelors is a bare minimum though.
An associates is good enough for call center work, and infrastructure work, but not for the positions you are talking about. I will be honest, most IT shops basically block people who don't have a bachelors from certain positions as a bachelors is a listed requirement.
You will hit a glass ceiling here very quickly. The area is very expensive and you will be competing against people who are better educated.
You may have a shot at IT infrastructure work though since that usually only requires an associates.
Also a big exception to this is if you are an extremely talented hacker and can code extremely well. There are always jobs for those people.
But if you're "extremely talented hacker" you would have the white hat certified.
To answer the first question regarding decent money I make close to 38k a year which is ok in NC since it's not as expensive. As for technical support, most of the people I work with don't have any college degrees at all or any certificates. You don't really need a degree to be a technical support in most cases. I am not looking to make 60k from the start and be an administrator right away. But I do want to start on that path and become a junior administrator at least or even a technician.
To answer the first question regarding decent money I make close to 38k a year which is ok in NC since it's not as expensive. As for technical support, most of the people I work with don't have any college degrees at all or any certificates. You don't really need a degree to be a technical support in most cases. I am not looking to make 60k from the start and be an administrator right away. But I do want to start on that path and become a junior administrator at least or even a technician.
Like I said, with the certificates and the associates, you will likely end up as a technician doing infrastructure. But having the certificates does help. $60k+ is something that may very well happen out here. You will likely be living and working out in Northern Virginia because that is where the server farms and many of the jobs in the field are.
Again admin work is less likely unless you are very familiar with Linux or Unix systems. Even then the best way to get that experience is often through infrastructure jobs setting up these servers.
Call center work is kind of dead end, infrastructure work is not especially if you have the right certs.
I've heard so much about how educated DC is and there's a lot of job offers in the computer field and office jobs in general. I only have an Associate Degree and some certificates. I have always lived in NC, we don't offer as many jobs, and we have a lot of good schools and our towns are small so there's a lot of competition here in regards of office jobs. The only job I could find in the computer field is Technical Support Helpdesk. Many companies claim there's advancements but all of these are either tier 2 or 3 in that same field. I don't want this to be my career path. I was hoping for system administration or analyst.
I make decent money right now and have enough saved up, but I can't see this as my career. I thought it would be cool to live in DC for 2 or 3 years both for the living experience there since I've never lived outside of NC and for job opportunities. I understand there's a lot of people with degrees and competition in DC, but NC isn't offering much. I am wondering if there are people who moved there to build their resume? What other states that are good for that? I've read that NY and NJ are also good for offering jobs to gain experience.
Be careful about "temporarily" moving to the DC area to build your resume. Many of us did, and now we're trapped here by the golden handcuffs. I moved to the area right after college (Aug 2006) with the intent to build up my resume a bit and move on. Here I am, almost a decade later, living in an extremely overpriced condo and getting paid enough money for potential employers in other areas to laugh at me when I mention salary requirements.
But if you're "extremely talented hacker" you would have the white hat certified.
DS clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. I've worked with people getting paid well over 100K that didn't even have an associates in the cleared IT world. The only time education will begin to play a significant factor is if you're moving into some sort of management role.
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