Getting on in IT

chrismeister · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Karma :

Hi, i started a job a month or two ago with a large company who sell products online and am working in the IT department with one other administrator.

I have alot of spare time when there are no real pressing issues with the network and want to use it to learn things that i can use if i decide to move to a higher paid job in the future, (pretty limited here, contractors do the harder bits).so was just wondering if anyone had any advice on what would be good to learn and how and also how i can put it into practice.

Obviously i learn alot solving problems but theyre not too regular.

SQL and java seem intersting also anything network based?

Thanks Chris.

FreshAL · Sir Crashalot Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Karma :

What qualifications do you have at the moment?

Presume you're quite young, what do you want to do in the future? Programming, Systems Admin, software design...?

Wise1 · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Aug 2008 Karma :

Why dont you look here:

https://www.ciwcertified.com/certifications/program.asp

I am doing the Master Web site Deisgner course. Want to get out of law! Yeah I know wierd.

The CIW is not a very recognised qualification and builds on the IT skills you already have.

For me I build websites in my spare time and sell them on the net, usually making from £100 - £2k per site depending on what I put in.

Its a great course, you can study in your own pace and sit the exams in a Pearson Vue centre (where you do the bike theory test) when your ready.
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Luke_Retrofly · Silly Lesbian Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Karma :

Bash script is cool to learn and relates to a lot of computing/programming aspects, you can teach the basics to yourself and its quite fun, I made a stupid script that calculated various prices of cheese, no reason was just fun.

chrismeister · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Karma :

@ FreshAl i did a BTEC natioonal in IT and got 3 distinctions, and good GCSES, however relevant they are.

Im not really sure where i want to end up but something along the lines of programming/ development would interest me.

Wisenerl, do you make them to order? or do you just design a site that anyone can modify? somethign like that would be really good to spend time i just waste at work making some money.

that site looks pretty good.

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

chrismeister · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Karma :

i picked up the programming at college pretty well, we were using delphi and ive looked at sql, they seem to click. but i want to like have a go at a few things and see what i find suits me best.

its just hard to find out how to learn the fundamentals, as in where to start and how to test it to see if i am good at any of them.

Wise1 · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Aug 2008 Karma :

nasty · Traffic Copper Joined: 14 Aug 2008 Karma :

Depends what you really want to do? There are so many different directions you can go in within a number of disciplines within IT.
Do you want o earn big money at some point?
Do you just want to do something you enjoy?
Do you want to get into something that won't fizzle out?

There are loads of questions that need to be asked but only you can answer them.

Tip: If you're interested in networks, routers/switches etc then look at some of the design and security aspects of that
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UrbanRacer · World Chat Champion Joined: 26 Jul 2005 Karma :

learn .NET and SQL

fortknoq · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 31 May 2008 Karma :

If you go down the programming/development/SQL development route, I recommend also taking an interest in banking also. Good money for developers in banks. Actually good money for most professions in banks. And developers with banking knowledge are always sought after Thumbs Up

chrismeister · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Karma :

yeah i did notice that there is alot of money to be made in developing things of that nature.

I started looking at SQL and the basic commands etc but its a bit confusing to set up and get running?

Ive started looking at java too but the compiler is quite annoying to configure.

chrismeister · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Karma :

just made my first java applet lol

Bofh5 · World Chat Champion Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Karma :

Make sure you read all the BOFH stories https://bofh.ntk.net/ you'd be suprised how you can apply them in the real world of I.T

You can easily give yourself time for learning once all the users realise you have the power to get them fired if they ask you the same question more than 5 times. This is especially true when your eating lunch and some muppet wanders up and starts asking questions about the cheap laptop they bought from fleabay which doesn't work blah blah.

Oops apologies for the rant there, been in this business for too long Smile

Oh and always keep them off balance by giving them an odd look once in a while like you know what they've been up to Twisted Evil

All the best in your new career
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chrismeister · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Karma :

hahaah ill bare that in mind.

Ive been mucking about with java and wrote the typical Hello World program, then wrote an applet and the HTML to display it in internet explorer and just written it in a program window now.

So do i start adding buttons and functions etc?

any guidance would be great Smile

thanks for all your advice by the way.