How is everyone doing ?

[=(V)=Kevster]

Contemplating doing a degree in I.T. or Business Management. Not really sure which way to go. I have always liked computers and been a good self thought trouble shooter. But im thinking maybe a Manager would be better and I could just delegate work to everyone and not get my hands dirty fixing stuff. What are your thoughts and why?

I would go with IT Silver. If you know what you're doing in IT, you'll always have a job. There's never going to be a shortage of computers, network routers, switches and a whole shit load of other network devices that at some time, will need to be configured, replaced or re-configured.

[=(V)=BloodyRabbit]

IT is going to be less person oriented and more technical skills and what you know. It will be constantly changing over the months and years. It will require good logical thinking and diagnostics and constant continuing skills through hands on experience or certifications. This is really a position for someone who loves setting up, diagnosing, and fixing things. IT is an all encompassing term and can mean a lot of things to different people. There's programming, networking, telephony, fixing computers, and etc etc.

Management Sean hit on pretty well. This will be more of a human to human skill and people managment and getting people to work and follow company procedures . It can be just as difficult as a job as IT but for different reasons. While you can go to school for managment depending on what you want to manage, you may not need schooling but rather just to get your foot in the door at a comapny and work your way up. You could even do this in IT if you wanted. It's a very subjective thing.

Sit down and really ask yourself. Do you want to he around and talking to people and have interactions? Or do you want to be mostly alone?

I got into IT via certifications. It took a while. I started a business and it didnt work out. I got my CDL sfter and worked my way up to Dispatch and would be manager but I refuse the COVID shot. Now I'm looking to transition into Data Analyst after recently completing my certification for such.

The road you take will very likely not be an easy answer and straight forward. But you will make your way, adjust, learn, and prosper, no matter what, if that's what you truly desire.

Best of luck and please let us know if you need more assistance

[=(V)=~Sean~]

^ "Now I'm looking to transition into Data Analyst after recently completing my certification for such. "

You are West Coast, and I am East, so I wouldn't be competition for you. I would love to hear more about being a Data Analyst : The required certifications, etc.

[=(V)=BloodyRabbit]

^ "Now I'm looking to transition into Data Analyst after recently completing my certification for such. "

You are West Coast, and I am East, so I wouldn't be competition for you. I would love to hear more about being a Data Analyst : The required certifications, etc.

Competition or not I like to see people succeed and do well.

I'm midwest (st louis MO)

But as a data analyst you crunch lots and lots of numbers in spread sheets, databases like SQL, and programming language like R. The data you crunch can be anything. But the data represents real world observations that you can aggregate into answers to questions to make business decisions.

For example. A movie theater wants to try and find out how to get more patrons to their business. They offer a survey to everyone who comes in that asks lots of questions.. like what movie did you come to see? What time did you come? How was the staff? And several additional questions that you rate 1-10 stars.

After a couple months you may have several thousand responses.

As a data analyst it will be your job to look for trends in that data. The theater may hire you/your company and ask you to determine why people come and how to get more? You then process their survey data in graphs and charts and notice that everyone who comes rates the customer service very high as well as the food options. In that analysis theres a very strong correlation and trend to repeat customers and word of mouth to driving business. As an analyst I would capture, show my work, and describe my conclusion and maybe offer they get more food options and more friendly staff to really drive additional growth in their movie theater. Which they would like because that would drive more profits.


The certifications I got were 7 in total. They were all part of Google's Data Analyst Certification on Coursera. It took me about 2 months to complete working about 10-20hrs/week there abouts. Not very difficult for me but I like numbers and have lots of hands-on with everything they talked about as I've taken several college courses in the past. ... I've done programming. I've done excel. I've done power points. I've used Word. I've used SQL. A lot of that was tied to my degree in Computer Networking and my certs or studies in A+, network+, Toshiba telephony certs, MCSA, Linux+, and the CCNA. (Thanks for allowing me to brag)

[=(V)=SILVER_FOX]

Contemplating doing a degree in I.T. or Business Management. Not really sure which way to go. I have always liked computers and been a good self thought trouble shooter. But im thinking maybe a Manager would be better and I could just delegate work to everyone and not get my hands dirty fixing stuff. What are your thoughts and why?

I would go with IT Silver. If you know what you're doing in IT, you'll always have a job. There's never going to be a shortage of computers, network routers, switches and a whole shit load of other network devices that at some time, will need to be configured, replaced or re-configured.

Thanks Kev :)

[=(V)=SILVER_FOX]

IT is going to be less person oriented and more technical skills and what you know. It will be constantly changing over the months and years. It will require good logical thinking and diagnostics and constant continuing skills through hands on experience or certifications. This is really a position for someone who loves setting up, diagnosing, and fixing things. IT is an all encompassing term and can mean a lot of things to different people. There's programming, networking, telephony, fixing computers, and etc etc.

Management Sean hit on pretty well. This will be more of a human to human skill and people managment and getting people to work and follow company procedures . It can be just as difficult as a job as IT but for different reasons. While you can go to school for managment depending on what you want to manage, you may not need schooling but rather just to get your foot in the door at a comapny and work your way up. You could even do this in IT if you wanted. It's a very subjective thing.

Sit down and really ask yourself. Do you want to he around and talking to people and have interactions? Or do you want to be mostly alone?

I got into IT via certifications. It took a while. I started a business and it didnt work out. I got my CDL sfter and worked my way up to Dispatch and would be manager but I refuse the COVID shot. Now I'm looking to transition into Data Analyst after recently completing my certification for such.

The road you take will very likely not be an easy answer and straight forward. But you will make your way, adjust, learn, and prosper, no matter what, if that's what you truly desire.

Best of luck and please let us know if you need more assistance

Wow! Great response. Thanks BloodyRabbit! This gives me a lot more insight into the details of each choice. Exactly the kind of information i'm looking for. Its easy to say "do this or do that" but when you get insight from persons who are doing it or have experience it makes it a lot easier to make an informed decision.

[=(V)=SILVER_FOX]

Im still welcoming responses and further info for insight. So dont be shy everyone. For the IT persons in here I know there are many different fields in IT but i'm curious to know what field you would recommend and why?

[=(V)=BloodyRabbit]

Im still welcoming responses and further info for insight. So dont be shy everyone. For the IT persons in here I know there are many different fields in IT but i'm curious to know what field you would recommend and why?

Help us help you. Describe your interest around IT, computer devices, how you use them, and what you imagine doing. What about IT in general makes you think that's an option for you? Same for managment.

Describe your personality. Do you like talking to others? Are you good at getting people to accomplish a task? Are you very logical and analytical? Do you enjoying talking and listening to others? Do you enjoy trying to solve people problems or broken problems? Etc etc

[=(V)=SILVER_FOX]

Im still welcoming responses and further info for insight. So dont be shy everyone. For the IT persons in here I know there are many different fields in IT but i'm curious to know what field you would recommend and why?

Help us help you. Describe your interest around IT, computer devices, how you use them, and what you imagine doing. What about IT in general makes you think that's an option for you? Same for managment.

Describe your personality. Do you like talking to others? Are you good at getting people to accomplish a task? Are you very logical and analytical? Do you enjoying talking and listening to others? Do you enjoy trying to solve people problems or broken problems? Etc etc

Well fk me! I took the time to answer all those questions in detail and then hit submit and the fking page tell me to sign in!! *DEDS*

[=(V)=~Sean~]

This is a good turn out for descriptions of what we are all in to.

Managing people can be difficult at times, as there are many factors to consider :

We are not robots and little Johnny's dentist appointment has to happen as he has enormous mouth pain from this orthodontist incorrectly fitting these braces and now this new dentist has to fix someone else's mistake, and the wife can't take work off because she just took our grandmother to ....

See where I'm going with this ?

Thank you all for the Q & A. Glad to see we are active with this and all of our brains are working well !

[=(V)=RocketJedi]

Im still welcoming responses and further info for insight. So dont be shy everyone. For the IT persons in here I know there are many different fields in IT but i'm curious to know what field you would recommend and why?

Help us help you. Describe your interest around IT, computer devices, how you use them, and what you imagine doing. What about IT in general makes you think that's an option for you? Same for managment.

Describe your personality. Do you like talking to others? Are you good at getting people to accomplish a task? Are you very logical and analytical? Do you enjoying talking and listening to others? Do you enjoy trying to solve people problems or broken problems? Etc etc

Well fk me! I took the time to answer all those questions in detail and then hit submit and the fking page tell me to sign in!! *DEDS*

sometimes hitting the back button preserves your typed text.

[=(V)=SILVER_FOX]

Im still welcoming responses and further info for insight. So dont be shy everyone. For the IT persons in here I know there are many different fields in IT but i'm curious to know what field you would recommend and why?

Help us help you. Describe your interest around IT, computer devices, how you use them, and what you imagine doing. What about IT in general makes you think that's an option for you? Same for managment.

Describe your personality. Do you like talking to others? Are you good at getting people to accomplish a task? Are you very logical and analytical? Do you enjoying talking and listening to others? Do you enjoy trying to solve people problems or broken problems? Etc etc

Well fk me! I took the time to answer all those questions in detail and then hit submit and the fking page tell me to sign in!! *DEDS*

sometimes hitting the back button preserves your typed text.

Yeah that was the first thing I did.. didn't help.
Will just have to do it over and copy everything before I submit.. You live, you learn..

[=(V)=SILVER_FOX]

Im still welcoming responses and further info for insight. So dont be shy everyone. For the IT persons in here I know there are many different fields in IT but i'm curious to know what field you would recommend and why?

Help us help you. Describe your interest around IT, computer devices, how you use them, and what you imagine doing. What about IT in general makes you think that's an option for you? Same for managment.

Describe your personality. Do you like talking to others? Are you good at getting people to accomplish a task? Are you very logical and analytical? Do you enjoying talking and listening to others? Do you enjoy trying to solve people problems or broken problems? Etc etc

Describe your interest around IT? - I like fixing computers, I have been doing it about 20 years now. Whether its hardware or software I like the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment after. Also it seems that fixing and troubleshooting computers comes naturally. Its kind of like a natural habitat for me lol.

Computer devices? - I will dig into anything with a Windows OS, I have dug into one or two apple pc's but im better at Windows so I stick to that whether desktop or laptop. I have trouble shooted a lot of cheap home printers in the past and one or two all in one business printers. I like the challenge and find it more interesting than sitting behind a desk all day doing paper work lol. I also setup basic home routers and networks at the home user level. I have done IT support at my work place previously for about 2 years or more setting up a basic wired/ wireless networks and maintaining the computers whether it be hardware, software or troubleshooting.

How you use them? - Basic use. Entertainment, research, for parts and troubleshooting.

What you imagine doing? - Well thats the issue. I can easily see myself doing repairs with hardwre and software because that's what I have been doing for a long time now as a sideline job. I can even see myself doing networking with some schooling. But I dont want to limit myself just because thats what I have been doing. I would also prefer to get into an area thats pays well at this point because it's no sense leaving one good job for another of the same pay rate or less. So this is where im hoping you all will know what areas of IT pays the best? At this point im looking for a better salary and backup options incase I ever need another job.

What about IT in general makes you think that's an option for you?- I have been doing it at the basic level for 20 years now as a sideline and it comes natural to me to troubleshoot and fix stuff. I have figured out 95% of issues with troubleshooting and online research. I have my loyal customers who call for support and service. So If I decided to pursue a career in IT and actually learn all the text book stuff I think I would do pretty well.

What about Management in general makes you think that's an option for you? - I have been working with blind persons (supervisors) at my current job (Carpentry) for over 20 years. I run a workshop on my own and sometimes have an assistant. I had to help Management make informed decisions because they obviously can't see (blind individual) and depend on sighted staff for information, description, options, procurement and opinions. That means I have pretty much been doing their jobs for them over the years and i'm more qualified than threy are on paper and otherwise but they get preference because of in house company politics and kiss ass friendships lol. I have 3 diploma certificates for management, Supervisory management, Quality control management, Industrial and Labor Laws and I also have a certificate for computer literacy. So having a few certificates and having done management's job for them I think I will also do well in management if I pursue further educaton in that area. I also I have managed my own sideline IT business from home over the years by providing IT support to my loyal customers via phone or in person. This also includes filing records and invoices for a quick history look up on what was done for a customer so I could have a better idea of what was done in the past and how to move forward.


Describe your personality? - I'm open minded, logical and I analyse things and situations to see the different out comes. I can change my persona to suit a situation or an invironment if necessary. I'm also outgoing and caring even when its not my business.

Do you like talking to others? - Yes I do. I have always been more on the extroverted side so I dont have a problem there unless people want to bore me to death with non constructive jibberish for unecessary periods of time lol.

Are you good at getting people to accomplish a task? - Yes. Im good with words and body language when dealing with people. I have been in situations where there were tasks to be accomplished by a group of workers and had to take control without coming across as bossy lol. And as I said I have had assistants over the years to teach, instruct and supervise and never had a problem.

Are you very logical and analytical? - Yes, I am. That's one of the reasons i'm posting here, so I can analyse imformation from you all :P

Do you enjoying talking and listening to others? - Yes, I welcome conversation, information, the insight and the point of view of others, you can always learn something new. Life would be boring without good conversation.

Do you enjoy trying to solve people problems or broken problems? -Yes, even as a teen I would listen to anyone who had a problem and try to help them whether its by advice, something I can do or just being a good listener. Working with blind (workers at my company who are not my supervisors) persons you have to be an individual who is willing to listen and help others because they tend to rely on the sighted for help with everything.

[=(V)=BloodyRabbit]

My thought would be to get into managment. - You will be the bad guy in that position so you must be able to accept that. Because some people refuse to see things any other way than their own and will make it very challenging for you.

But with your history, IT wouldn't be a bad path to follow either. I think you win out either way. I recommend getting several certifications in your field of choice if you want to go that route.

The best piece of advice I can give is, ask yourself who are you really close friends with? And benhonest to yourself. What individuals will help you land a job in their company? If you know more IT people in the field you'd like - go that route. If you know more people in managment of a certain field you like. Go that route. It will make a huge difference landing a job. Almost every job you'll ever get is from who you know. If you need to make more connections with people and see what that yields then come back to your decision. Or just make more connections with people toward your career goals as they will help you.

I hope that made sense. Typing from phone.


Edit:
Oh, and one other good piece of advice. You can get into IT with certifications and no Formal schooling(save time and money).
Then with management you dont need schooling either but you may need it to get your foot in the door somewhere depending on field.

[=(V)=SILVER_FOX]

My thought would be to get into managment. - You will be the bad guy in that position so you must be able to accept that. Because some people refuse to see things any other way than their own and will make it very challenging for you.

But with your history, IT wouldn't be a bad path to follow either. I think you win out either way. I recommend getting several certifications in your field of choice if you want to go that route.

The best piece of advice I can give is, ask yourself who are you really close friends with? And benhonest to yourself. What individuals will help you land a job in their company? If you know more IT people in the field you'd like - go that route. If you know more people in managment of a certain field you like. Go that route. It will make a huge difference landing a job. Almost every job you'll ever get is from who you know. If you need to make more connections with people and see what that yields then come back to your decision. Or just make more connections with people toward your career goals as they will help you.

I hope that made sense. Typing from phone.


Edit:
Oh, and one other good piece of advice. You can get into IT with certifications and no Formal schooling(save time and money).
Then with management you dont need schooling either but you may need it to get your foot in the door somewhere depending on field.

Thanks BloodyRabbit.. Your advice is greatly appreciated :)