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Education Qualifications for a Network Admin?
Volkov137 asks: "As I ponder where to go after high school for a future job in Network Administration, I have a couple of choices. Either go to a University and get a 4-year bachelors degree in Computer Networking and Administration, or go to a 2-year trade school that will be much more focused on what I need to know. Is the University really worth paying for, and will it mean anything more in today's IT world? Also, how important are certifications (Network+, Cisco, Linux+, etc) when entering this job market?"
I understand that Univ education is expensive but it is worth it. Studying in a univ broadens your outlook in a big way. You can handle competition better because you are amongst intelligent people and you do a lot of networking not to forget the hot chics!! :) A univ is a better developing ground for your overall personality.
I have a better idea.
Jump right in somewhere that is willing to hire you. Work hard, establish a good chunk of resume material from that company and then move onward if necessary after a couple years. Nothing beats real world experience and I've found that people who learned what they know through their own passion and desire (and real world implementation) tend to be far more enthusiastic and adaptable and quick to learn new concepts and skills and frameworks than people who just sat in a chair at a university or trade school for a handful of years, learning soon to be outdated material from professors or instructors who rarely implement their own knowledge in a real environment.
Not to mention, things in the real work environment are rarely anything like what you've learned in school and you'll have to be broken of your old habits.
Also, don't forget that the older you get, the harder it is to go to school.
"My girlfriend's got sodium laureth sulfate hair."
For a network admin, technical school is the way to go. Why bother learning lots of theory, higher math, abstract concepts and higher level thinking skills that you will never need? A four year degree from a reputable institution is usually challenging, takes four years, and you don't get the practical skills that employers look for from a network administrator. If that's your aspiration, a technical school is far superior.
I'm currently in a 4-year program at UIUC. For 95% of the things a network admin needs to do, a two year trade school is sufficient. But you learn a lot of useful skills, and learn how things work on a lower level, in a university. For example, in the networking lab class we write our own TCP/IP stack from scratch, so we really understand how things work better. Or in our OS design class we write a software RAID 0+1 driver module for linux. A university degree also makes it a lot easier to get your first job in today's competitive job market.
It depends what you want to do . . ,then the trade school may be far more benifical.
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If your more intrested in the Theory and constructing networks, then the university would be more you thing
However if your more intrested in running systems and their upkeep and maintenance
As for Certs , unfortunatly they have become a nesecity in our day and age
A little bit of paper saying your qualified to do A:B:C:D etc are what many employers look at when selecting candidates to interview , but choose carefully. Some really are total fluff whilst others will give you a really solid grounding in a system.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Unless you plan on administering really large networks, you really don't need school to wire an RJ-45 jack or configure a router. These are things, if you have a technical mind, that you can learn fairly easily from a book.
On the other hand, large networks are where the real fun is. I'd say which schooling to get depends on your long-term goals. There is a lot of theory involved in network design (including a lot of math). A technical program will skip over most of this, which you will regret if you want to do the really important stuff. If you're just looking for a 9-5 and actual implementation, or just smaller networks, you'll probably find the technical program more to your liking.
Be relentless!
Open the classified's section of your local paper and look for a decent job. Notice how many, many jobs require a B.A./B.S. That is the reality. You can't really plan on securing one job and keeping it forever. You also can't really guarantee (in most cases) that you will always be doing the type of work you planned. You need to be flexible.
The content - the specific details - that you learn in school may or may not be applicable in 5-10 years. However, your ability to retrain yourself and gain new skills will always apply when you are motivated. Make sure you education is flexible enough to serve you long-term.
The University will waste your time and money with classes that have no bearing on your job. The University usually focuses on theory and generalizations of concepts with some specifics. Universities are more interested in creating a well rounded educated employee. But, employers don't care if you took Western Civ. They want to know if you can fix their network. Having said that, you do need to understand network theory. Learning how to run a MS based network is different from actually knowing how networks in general operate. This is knowledge that you can pick up through books.
If you KNOW that network admin is what you want, then got to the trade school. They will teach you alot of information that will be very useful in the job market and a lot of their classes will be hands on with networks. If you aren't positive, the course is only two years. When you get out you can try another major. In the mean time you have a degree of some type. This will at least help you get some money rolling in while you decide what you want to do. Never underestimate the need to pay your car note, rent, electric bill and cable.
Going the experience route won't get you anywhere. Very few people are willing to hire someone with no prior experience in networking. Even if a company does hire you, they aren't going to teach you diddly squat. They will expect you to learn on your own, which is great if you can pick it up quickly. If you have problems understanding some concepts they won't be nurturing. They will just fire you.
Anything else is more time, money and expense to go through that ultimately won't make you more employable than the guy with the high school diploma who can back up his story convincingly in the interview. I met many college-educated network admin wannabes that failed to get the job because I showed up with a high school diploma and can run circles around the competition in my sleep.
If you make it out of high school and forgot to prepare yourself for an IT career beforehand, go to business school instead, it's too late for you. You should have been thinking about this when you were 16.
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You get great life experiences at college. You have bragging rights that you are a college graduate. College graduates make more money than non-college graduates. You get the proper instruction that you need from very smart professors. You have a whole network of faculty and student members who you can bring your questions to. You can work part time or volunteer and gain work experience AND a college degree. Go get your 4 year degree, it will pay for itself hundreds of times over in the long run.
The only problem is that CCs vary a lot in what they offer, and you might have to look pretty far afield to find one with that suits your needs. I took some IT courses once at College of Marin in Novato (very well taught, but too Microsoft-centric) and discovered that some of my classmates were coming from as far away as San Leandro. A serious commute!
However, be wary of "engineering technology" type degrees. Typically, you'll be wasting your time and money. If you're going to go to college, go for the gold and get a real degree: math, physics, computer science, engineering, etc. These are a lot more impressive than a trade school diploma with B.S. on it. That said, work while in school. Nothing is more worthless than a degree without work experience. There is a delicate balance to strike. Getting a trade school type degree is a quick and easy way to start out but might hamper your future advancement as upper level jobs are almost certain to require a four year degree.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
If you just want to be a network admin, there's really little need for any X-year degree, although if you take it seriously, it can help you develop critical writing, reading and analytical skills nessecary to be successful in the business world. For configuring routers and plugging cables together, a 4 year Bachelor's degree would quite simply be overkill. And you might even find out you'd rather be doing something else instead of Network Administration.
The benefits of the degree here is mostly a worst case scenario. Imagine if Dell, Intel and Cisco got their shit together and realized they could offer their business clients a shitload of value by making a secure and quickly configurable networking system, complete with wireless and other staff reducing technologies. All they'd need is one guy on staff to handle the purchasing and manage the hiring of a few local punks from the local high school to run a few wires to access points over the summer. Now the company wins, the manager might lose a bit of self-importance as his staff and budget is being cut, but the two year degree guy is SOL. I suppose he can go back for another two year degree, although its usually far harder to go back the second time, either because of family or a fodness for material goods and car repairs.
Right now, you're the local high school punk. If you find and study for one or two certs, you should be able to pick up some work. I've seen ads for A+ people in the classifieds, and you can use that income to pick up something serious. As much as I dislike vendor certifications, it is my understanding that Cisco is really respected within IT departments (compared to say, microsoft certs). Long term outlook isn't much better than a two year degree, espcially something like ITT or DeVry. Remember that these places have shareholders; giving accurate but negative advice on the future outlook would hurt enrollment and share price, subsequently. If you're lucky, you make your way to department manager. Otherwise, I hear nursing's always in demand.
The four year degree offers flexibility. Sure, they'll throw a lot of crap at you, and so much of it that very little actually applies to any particular of today's jobs, but you'll also be prepared for far more than just network administration. Furthermore, you're also that much more prepared and likely to be accepted into an MBA program, which often becomes a prerequisite for promotion in the kinds of large networking environments that would need someone with a degree full time.
In summary, a four year degree lends you flexibility, and the two year degree locks you into a career path you may not be happy with five years from now. It's a tragic fact of life that the most important career choices are made now, when you're least informed and capable of making them. As Paul Graham said, stick with the choices that expand future choices, rather than limit them.
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Open Source Sysadmin
I'm 35 years old and have been working with computers for over 23 of those years. I made the choice to not get a degree in Computer Science. Even though I've had a good career as a Sys Admin and independant consultant, I think my decision to not get a 4 year degree was one of the worst I've made.
I got a 2 year diploma as an electronics technician, which at the time was a good paying job. Tell me, how many jobs are out there for board-level electronics repair today? Network administration will go the same way. Oh sure there'll be some jobs out there, but not necessarily 10 years from now.
Get your degree. It's a small amount of time, and even if you decide to not stick with computers, having that degree opens the doors to everything else.
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You need to learn more about what network admin is really like (i.e., not reading trade mags or listening to stupid recruiting speeches) before saying such things like "where to go after high school for a future job in Network Administration". When I graduated high school, I was incredibly gung-ho about Aerospace Engineering, but, in college, the differential equations, the fact I was more of a "book learning geek" than a real hands-on engineer, and the fact that I'd have to always move to where the jobs are really started to wear me down. I burned out of engineering and switched majors (my grades went up and I was a lot happier).
The reality is you won't know whether network admin is right for you until you try it for real. This means an internship or co-op early on in college (the earlier the better). It might mean working for your university's IT department or at a business in the same town as your school.
You simply have to get the hands-on experience with the hardware, and, most importantly, get a taste of the politics of IT. Most magazines and even teachers/parents just gloss over the politics and make positive remarks on just about anything. You will quickly find that only you can figure this out for yourself, because the adults in your life simply cannot provide good advice for a technical career (unless specifically qualified).
Of course, I'm still working toward going back to school for CS. There are a lot of interesting things to do in IT, but IMHO none as interesting as computer science.
Call me a troll if you need but....
after many years of working with people who have not gone to college and those who have, a software engineer or a system administrator that goes to college always has the advantage.
From the 80's of blowing away today's equivilent of heald graduates, to the boom and outsourcing of today where there is no way in Hell India can create 200,000 skilled computer people all from colleges that are as good as ours overnight.
I've been though it all. I've been kicking ass for 23 years. I'm still learning. I'm still reinventing myself. People still feel I have more than enough to contribute.
People who truly go to a 4 year school and learn logic, mathmatics, the algorithms, concepts of multiple computer languages, how to build a compiler, how to create a database. The difference between database and data base, so their, errr... there. This is important. You will use it all, if you are lucky.
A 2 year school teaches just how and what. A college teaches you all 5, what, when where, why and how. When you know why, you can keep learning. If you only know what, your always behind waiting for the next guy to tell you! In this market, you have to reinvent yourself every 3-4 years.
So if a 2 year school gets you working sooner, then go for it. Then do not be disappointed when some "college puke" takes your next job from you.
Now if you want to take the 8 years to earn a degree part time, more power to you. I had to finish school part time. It is truly hard.
Take a path of "general education" in school.
Your advice, while common, isn't really feasible in today's schools. It is no longer possible to get a truly useful, truly "general" education without spending eight years in undergrad. Unless you're independently wealthy, or completely aimless, you wouldn't want to do that.
Even then, you'd need to have a total fuckoff as an advisor. The University's goal is to crank out as many future contributors as possible. They don't want to let people hang around taking up slots for incoming students, even though your money is as green as theirs.
Especially in the hard sciences, any halfway decent program will expect you to eat, sleep, and breathe whatever it is they're teaching. By the time you're a Junior, you'll be practically living in your major's department. High schools are even becoming more specialized.
The entire system is geared towards giving you a very specialized education that will be useful for about ten years. After that, you'll have to come back for more. Can you see how this would be advantageous to a University?
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Leaving high school, I was certain I wanted to do something with computers... but who knew what? I went to a largish university with a good undergraduste CS program. It was only during the course of those four years that I realized that systems administration and network engineering were what I really wanted to do. Meanwhile, many of my peers had changed major once or several times. My point is that it's unlikely that what you want now is what you'll want later. Keep your options open.
In the other direction, I can point to quite a few sysadmins and network engineers with degrees in engineering, chemistry, physics, medieval literature or technical writing. The world changes fast enough that learning how to think systematically, solve new problems and recognize old problems in new guises is more important than the domain of technical knowledge you eventually build.
Reading a question like this really makes me happy to live in Denmark(small European country). We have free education, except for the books, and we even get paid about 700 US$ a month by the state for studying...
That degree is pretty much crap. They are going to teach you about computers, networks, administration, etc. without any Computer Science or Engineering, or anything on the business side either (good to know what your boss or boss's boss is talking about). Get a degree that actually teaches you about the hardware and/or software.
I have never met anyone who went to university and regretted it later. I have met quite a few people who did not go to university and do regret that.
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
Sounds crazy, but there are a number of ways to get that experience. Before you make up your mind, visit the websites of the companies you are interested in working for, and see what types of internship programs they offer. By going to College(4 year) you can apply for internships specifically reserved for college students. Another method of getting experience, is to get certifcation(A+, and so on), and use those certs to get a job at a temp agency that specializes in network jobs. You may even manage to land a temp-to-hire position this way, but will be building up your resume' at the same time.
Yes, real work experience (and good references, and good social networking) are what finally land you the job that you want.
Unfortunately, lack of a degree is what gets your resume pitched without having been looked at. (and I say that from experience, in having to sort through stacks of resumes).
Resumes are more than just a piece of paper to say that you know something (which you probably don't, give today's educational systems) -- it's a piece of paper that says that you stuck with something for 4 years that was hard work, and mind numbingly boring at times. (or 7 years, in my brother's case).
If your mind isn't in the right frame of mind for school yet, then take a year off -- but don't put it off too long, or you'll never go back, 'till it's too late, and your mind isn't as receptive to new knowledge (or able to deal with the long hours). Some employers will fund your education -- although, this might not be the best time to go into the military. [well, you can play the odds on what the situation will be in 4 years]
If you're going to work during college, try to find the jobs where they need warm bodies, like computer operator (you sit and babysit the machines overnight, incase something goes wrong). You can get some homework done, while getting paid to be there all night. And on those nights that you don't have homework, you play video games. The pay's not great, but when you can fit in 30hrs at $7/hr, because you're getting your homework done, it's better than 20hrs at $12/hr, and not getting your work done.
University jobs are also good, because they're convenient. (every hour not spent in transit is an hour you could be doing homework, getting paid, or sleeping).
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.