Network And Computer Systems Administrator

I am proposing to write about becoming a network and computer systems administrator, one of the reasons I chose this field to do my final project on is I am already in this field of work and feel that I have a fairly good background and plenty of information to share with others. I started in the Information Technology field in 2000 as a System Support Specialist for a fairly good sized Insurance Company. I have always like computer and figuring out what makes them work so when I had the chance to apply for a job in this field I jumped at it. The internet plays a large part of every company’s day-to-day business. I performed research in the form of a survey on how individuals chose their career choice and their field of study.

In my survey I found that 75% of the individuals that participated completed at least four years of college either at a Junior College then transferring to a Four Year College or at a Technical School. The purpose of my survey was to see how many individuals used their education for their actual career choice or if they even had furthered their education after graduating from high school. All of the individuals answered my question of being employed with full time jobs. One of the questions that I asked is if 10 years ago this was the job they thought they would be in and 90% of them stated that this was not the job they thought they would have. However I did find that almost half of the individuals that participated in my survey have switched careers since their first career choice at least once or more than once. They have either gone back to school to earn a degree for a new career choice or had enough education background to make the switch and find a new job. The interesting thing that I found in my survey is the younger participants stated that it has taken them longer to find a job in the career field of their choice most of them stated it has take 6 months or longer than it did for the participants that graduated 10 years ago or longer. I think this is because of the ratio of graduates to job availability. There are younger people going to college today than there was ten or twenty years ago. More of the female participants stated that since going to college and having a career they have made the choice to stay at home and start their families. This helps to make the graduate to job availability ratio a little better. People also have to work longer in this day and age before they can retire. The day that some of the older participants could retire was at age 65 where as the younger participants have to work till the age of 70 or so. It was very interesting to study the results that I received back from my survey, I was very happy to have all the individuals participate so that I could receive a vast array of answers to my questions. I was surprised that more of the males that participated in my survey had more of the manual labor jobs where as the females had more of the office type positions or where stay-at-home moms. Which, we all know that stay-at-home moms still have a full time job and it is not an easy one.

IT Certifications are growing at a fast pace, but not all certifications are equal. Some certifications are more difficult to earn which are also in high demand. When choosing a certification one needs to match the certification with their career choice. Employers on the other hand need to fully understand what the different certifications truly proves about the individual and how it will affect their ability to perform the job they are hired for. Individuals will find that not having a certification in this day and age will knock them out of the running going against someone who does hold a certification. The benefits of certifications can be looked at from the perspective of the job seeker and from the employer looking to better the skill of themselves or for their staff. There is however the conflict of employers and employees over whether or not the company should pay for the certification. Some employers feel that paying for the certification will give the employee more ammunition to negotiate raises and promotions with little benefit to the company. The employee and the employer need to find the right fit for individuals wishing to obtain an IT Certification that will benefit both of them justly. Keston, Geoff (2007). IT Certification Options, Faulkner Information Services. The pay scale that you can expect to receive will depend on the degree that you obtain but can range anywhere from about $45,000. To about $80,000 per year.

You are at a point in your life where you begin to think about a career choice, what College you want to attend and what you are going to need to achieve before you can start applying for jobs in your chosen career filed. So now you have chosen a career choice of Information Technology but you have several choices to make within this field.

When you decide that you want a job in the field of Information Technology you first need to figure out what side of the field you want to be on there is the Network side and then there is the Computer Hardware side. These are two totally different fields. The Network side deals primarily with Server and the Network Topology whereas the Computer Hardware side deals with desktop computers, printers and such. I am going to lean more to the Network side of things and explain to you first of all what a Network Administrator does in their job functions.

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