Certificate or degree?

After crashing and burning in the car sales field I decided to go back to school. And get a degree in IT. Specifically Network Administration. The only thing I have trouble deciding is if I should do the quick and dirty certificate. Or the expensive, long-route of a degree. The local colleges only offer Associates at this time.

Anybody have suggestions from experience?

David:

If you don't have network administration work experience, I advise you to get your AA. Probe for the placement competence and track record of each program you consider. After you get your AA, you should be able to go to night school to get your bachelors degree.

Competent people with at least the AA and 3 to 5 years IT experience are very much in demand. Most people have to change firms to get the pay percentage increase at that time that their background commands. After that 3 to 5 year compensation jump further increases are less dramatic and correlate more with one's increasing managment responsibilities.

At least that's our experience in Southern California with hiring I.T. people.

Well, I'm a network administrator, and have been doing it for nearly 10 years..

I'm not sure what kind of IT related degrees are available in the US now, but I'm not aware of anything which is very relevant to network admin work, most are comp. science degrees I thought, which isn't really that useful if your aim is network administration. But any IT related qualification will be a plus. Ultimately hands-on experience is what will make the difference.

Which reminds me - when you say network admin, do you mean 'network' administration or system (server) administration. Some places consider them the same thing, but they can be very different. A true network admin is able to setup and manage large LAN and WAN environments, and generally doesn't bother with actual server management. A system admin is the reverse. Although, in smaller organisations you can be both (like me..)

So that will decide to some extent what you should study - network infrastructure like routers, switches, structured cabling etc, monitoring systems etc or admin/management of Unix or Windows servers.

Certificates are nice, but these are usually pretty easy to obtain "on the job" if your day to day work is relevant to the certificate.

Since it sounds like you are going into this fairly cold, some sort of college course is probably best. Personally, when I've interviewed people I've cared less about the fancy name of their qualification, and more about the content of what they've studied/experienced. But that's just me. Your mileage may vary, as always..

Graham

If you're the kind of guy that can walk in troubleshoot better than most anyone, then this field may be for you. Get a cert, then let your skills do the talking. Either way you go, you're gonna have to find an entry level position. If you're good, you'll move up fast. If not, you'll need that degree...

I've been in IT for 20+ years and driving networks for the last 8. So, I'm speaking from a good bit of observation.