»

[Neil]

Another point - as a potential employer I would question why a candidate with no previous network engineering experience and who has shown no interest in that kind of role before has suddenly attained a Cisco qualification.

[Sam L4]

Chris, i don't know how much you earn but you could look into getting an ILA grant. Something i have learnt about quite recently. If you earn less than 18k a year you can qualify for 200 pounds towards a course (as long as it is in the list of compatible courses). If you earn over 18k a year i still think you can qualify for a 100 pounds grant towards the course.

Again, this is something i have just learnt about recently. I urge people to check it out if you are unfamiliar, free money. I plan on sitting a protools course soon.

ILA Scotland £200 offer

[Stripey]

mcse is a joke and a waste of time, nobody takes it seriously unless you want to work for a shitty smalltime company. Cisco certs are better but if you are a www developer like neil says, it's kinda irrelevant. Wouldn't your employer be happier to send you on courses more related to webdev stuff?
If you actually want to get a certification which will make your cv shine and score you some highpaying contracts Sun is really the way to go Sun Microsystems Training Course Catalog

[Stripey]

oh yeah don't forget oracle, im sure the place you're at wouldn't be able to say no to sending you on some sql courses.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Neil

What I think you'd be best doing is deciding where you want to see your career going in IT and then tooling up on the specific skills you'll need to get here. For example, if you want to become a more senior web developer then you might want to go on some courses to become an expert in some specific technologies - Microsoft C# for example. That's a hot one. Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is another one as well.

That's basically the point I'm at. Starting to think about where the next stage of my career is going to be really. Do I move further into web development or move back towards the systems engineer stuff I was doing previously, or stick with the education technology specialist work I'm doing at the moment.

The point about suddenly switching to a network engineer is a good one, I just mentioned Cisco because I'd seen it on a load of job adverts. My main thoughts were of the MCSE variety, although I considered Oracle as well as I've done a lot of work with it and my PL/SQL skills aren't bad.

We'll see what happens. I'm away on holiday for two weeks, hopefully I'll get a better idea where I stand at my current work once I'm back. That'll help shape my thoughts on the subject.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Stripey

mcse is a joke and a waste of time, nobody takes it seriously unless you want to work for a shitty smalltime company.

I don't know if I'd go that far, I've seen plenty of adverts for very big IT companies in the last few weeks that specified an MCSE as a requirement.

[The Kernel Loaf]

Originally Posted by Chris

One of those, yes.

Here's hoping you aren't responsible for the pointless abomination that is Moodle.

[Lester Burnham]

Originally Posted by Chris

I don't know if I'd go that far, I've seen plenty of adverts for very big IT companies in the last few weeks that specified an MCSE as a requirement.

I'm surprised by that. I only switched jobs a couple of months ago and without a MCSE I got offered all three jobs I applied for. The market is pretty hot just now though. I found I managed to make financial demands that I didn't really think I'd get away with... but have. Obviously what you do differs greatly from what I'm doing (especially just now) but I don't think it would affect your future career options that much. I'm only really looking into doing it for the "nice" factor and keeping some things fresh in my head as I want to go back in the direction of working in infrastructure again (eventually).

[emergency72]

I've lost money every time I've jumped job, to the extent that people I helped get jobs now earn over 10k more than me.... IT is fucking shit...

[Cloud]

Originally Posted by The Kernel Loaf

Here's hoping you aren't responsible for the pointless abomination that is Moodle.

My uni just recently changed from perfectly functional, quite likable WebCT to the horrific Moodle. It's absolutely useless, even in the context of a tiny uni with about 900 HE students. I dread to think how it works in a much bigger educational setting :\