Re: [Nolug] weekend computer job?

mah@everybody.org (Mark A. Hershberger) writes:

> Retrolin@aol.com writes:
>
>> is there a such thing as a computer job available for those of us
>> without A+ certification. how about on weekends only? Am I looking
>> for something that doesn't exist?
>
> I have 0 certifications so such a thing is possible. (I do have a
> B.S. in CS from UNO.)

I have 0 certifications as well and a BA in journalism. You can look
at my resume on scottharney.com to see what is possible. That said,
it's not necessarily the easiest path and certs have grown in
importance since I started out. They do count, especially for
contract work.

I can also say that I never much considered certs when hiring
employees in the past. The certs I would have considered for my
particular job locations would have been Solaris OS admin
certification and CCNP or better Cisco certification but I never had
any applicants with those certs. But certs without real world
experience would be meaningless to me. Real world experience did
include non-professional work because that's how I learned! Maybe
you'll get lucky and find an interviewer like me (or the first guy who
hired me ;) )

The question is, what do you want to do? An A+ means you can go work
in a shop and fix hardware. There aren't really a lot of small
computer shops anymore and lots of people can do hardware. What are you
going to do to separate yourself from the pack?

If you want a weekend computer job, start talking to friends and
family who know your skills and go out and fix PCs for small
businesses. I used to do work for tiny businesses like auto mechanic
shops and individual accountants. These are people who need the help
but have little resources. You'll learn a lot and you'll have people
who can serve as references when you start looking for a more permanent
gig.

In the meantime, you need to start figuring out what you want to do.
"computer job" is way too generic. If you want a "computer job" you're
going to end up doing tech support for Windows. If that's your goal
then great. If not, you need to do some fine-tuning on your goals.
And once you know what you really want to do, appropriate
certifications will become clear and you should pursue them.

-- 
Scott Harney<scotth@scottharney.com>
"...and one script to rule them all."
gpg key fingerprint=7125 0BD3 8EC4 08D7 321D CEE9 F024 7DA6 0BC7 94E5
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