[AusNOG] Work experience in networking/telecoms/DCs? Getting my foot in the door?

[Chris Gibbs]

+1 Completely agree. It is so easy to fall into the pattern where to expect
to find a decent job at the completion of an IT degree.

Unfortunately that isn't how it works in the real world. I know when I did
Computer Science all those years ago, I also ran my own business doing SMB
networks that gave me a leg up after I finished the degree. That leg up was
level 1 helpdesk and from there I worked my way up.

There are always opportunities to find work or gain experience. For example:
1. Internships. UNSW used to invite(?) global IT companies in that would
sprunk (for lack of a better phrase) their companies. Often they would be
on the hunt for up-and-coming people who are still studying. These seminars
used to be conducted after lectures and were usually accompanied with pizza
and a good chance to chat. I'd highly recommend trying to attend them.
2. Join an open-source project, open a git-hub account or similar and try
to solve a problem that is relevant to where you want to be.
3. Additional to Uni, grab a subscription to CBT Nuggets and/or Safari
online books. Try to learn something outside of the 'fixed' learning
environment.
4. Build a home lab.
5. If you're in a capital city, join a user group.
6. start a blog. write about your learning, study or various problems you
ran into.
7. study and grab an industry exam, ie CCNA

In saying all that, Comp Science gave me a great platform for coding in the
'new' devops world. I think that formal education has it's place and for me
was invaluable resource that contributed to where I am today.





Regards,

 Chris Gibbs Network Engineer (Team Lead)[image: Facebook]
<https://www.facebook.com/ServersAustralia>[image: @serversau on Twitter]
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On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 2:22 PM, Julian De Marchi <julian at jdcomputers.com.au
> wrote:
>
> On 12/22/14 13:19, Cameron Worts wrote:
>
>> What’s the point of going out and getting an expensive degree when most
>> employers want employees with these requirements?
>>
>
> This. The same problem occurred to me while I was studying. The only
> solution was to start at the very bottom and work my way up. Which IMHO was
> a very good approach in the end.
>
> I worked my way up from Level 1 support to where I am now, systems/network
> monkey.
>
> --julian
>
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> AusNOG mailing list
> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
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>
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