MCSA and CCNA certification + 3months exp - is it enough to get a foot in the door?

Forums › Jobs › MCSA and CCNA certification + 3months exp - is it enough to get a foot in the door?

Rugby9028

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#195116 6-Apr-2016 18:48

Hello

I have always had a huge passion for IT and do a lot of self learning while working a job in a different field. Towards the end of last year I managed to get an interim role as a system engineer. The aim was to train me to become a system engineer and get a MCSE certification.

The company took on some new projects which required senior System engineers. Because I was still in training to become a System engineer, they have decided not to extend my contract after 3 months. They said the decision was not performance based and that I was very competent in my role. I do understand the position that company was in and I am truly grateful that they have given me this opportunity and experience.

While I was there I worked on System Migration, setup, configuration, maintenance and management of servers and set up physical and virtual servers. I have also gained a MCSA and CCNA certification and I am working towards getting MCSE.

I have experience working with multiple operating system:
Microsoft 2008, 2012 Hyper-V,
Linux disturbution - Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE
FreeBSD

Now I am facing a challenge. I have applied to many jobs for the past 2months (system admin/ entry engineer roles). Most jobs are advertised through recruitment agencies and all have said that I do not have enough experience for them to put my CV forward to the company.

I am unable to study for 3 year degree due to financial responsibilities, but I am currently working on the Linux certification.

I would like to know if there are any opportunities available? what I should do next? Should I start contacting IT companies? Or look for work experience? I would like to get the MCSE certification but will need certain amounts of hours working on commercial servers.

I will consider moving out of Auckland if I have to.

I sincerely apologise for this long post but I will appreciate any advice you can provide

Rugby9028

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1527720 7-Apr-2016 15:22

Should help desk roles be considered aswell? Thanks

Dynamic

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#1527729 7-Apr-2016 15:33

What would you like to be doing in 5 years time?

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wasabi2k

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#1527736 7-Apr-2016 15:38

You have a good base to work from - CCNA and MCSA suggests a reasonably broad skillset for a beginner.

The experience thing is a horrible catch 22 that most people starting out face. I would strongly suggest you just keep at it, apply for anything remotely like what you are looking for. Be prepared to be turned down, a lot. Just be persistent.

Reach out to the people you did training through, friends, anyone you know to see if they have any potential leads for you. Someone might take a punt. You could go and ask your SMB IT companies if they have anything going for a junior.

Be prepared to start out doing desktop support. I started unloading boxes and plugging in PCs 13 years ago.

Auckland and Wellington are probably your largest job markets, but also have the most competition. If you are open to moving just apply for stuff all over and see how you go.

Best of luck.

Rugby9028

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1529510 10-Apr-2016 15:36

Dynamic:

What would you like to be doing in 5 years time?

Hi, thank you for your reply.

In 5 years time I would like to be a system engineer. I would like to take on more responsibilities such as project management, mentor and guidance for other junior SE etc.

Rugby9028

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1529515 10-Apr-2016 15:38

wasabi2k:

You have a good base to work from - CCNA and MCSA suggests a reasonably broad skillset for a beginner.

The experience thing is a horrible catch 22 that most people starting out face. I would strongly suggest you just keep at it, apply for anything remotely like what you are looking for. Be prepared to be turned down, a lot. Just be persistent.

Reach out to the people you did training through, friends, anyone you know to see if they have any potential leads for you. Someone might take a punt. You could go and ask your SMB IT companies if they have anything going for a junior.

Be prepared to start out doing desktop support. I started unloading boxes and plugging in PCs 13 years ago.

Auckland and Wellington are probably your largest job markets, but also have the most competition. If you are open to moving just apply for stuff all over and see how you go.

Best of luck.

Hello, thank you for your response.

It seems like experience is my biggest obstacle. Many recruiters will not consider me because of it so I think I am going to start looking for work experience aswell. Although I was told that getting work experience can be just as hard as landing a job!

networkn

Networkn
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#1529523 10-Apr-2016 15:55

Rugby9028:

wasabi2k:

You have a good base to work from - CCNA and MCSA suggests a reasonably broad skillset for a beginner.

The experience thing is a horrible catch 22 that most people starting out face. I would strongly suggest you just keep at it, apply for anything remotely like what you are looking for. Be prepared to be turned down, a lot. Just be persistent.

Reach out to the people you did training through, friends, anyone you know to see if they have any potential leads for you. Someone might take a punt. You could go and ask your SMB IT companies if they have anything going for a junior.

Be prepared to start out doing desktop support. I started unloading boxes and plugging in PCs 13 years ago.

Auckland and Wellington are probably your largest job markets, but also have the most competition. If you are open to moving just apply for stuff all over and see how you go.

Best of luck.

Hello, thank you for your response.

It seems like experience is my biggest obstacle. Many recruiters will not consider me because of it so I think I am going to start looking for work experience aswell. Although I was told that getting work experience can be just as hard as landing a job!

As someone who has been in IT 20+ years and hired people for most of that time, the big obstacle in hiring people for work experience, is how much time you end up spending, getting them to understand the way 'you' work, and how you want 'them' to work alongside that.

To make someone truly useful, they need to know the customer and environment and quite frankly that's hard to get done in less than 3 months.

We hired an intern a few years back and it was one of the best things I've ever done, was really amazing, however, it worked because he did stuff for us that wasn't customer interacting. He re-designed our website, wrote scripts we didn't have time to write, made software wrappers around stuff we used.

I think both parties got a lot of of it, and it was pretty low risk because we basically just covered his travelling costs.

It's a chicken and egg thing, as you have already discovered, with experience.

If you want to be attractive to IT companies, then my advice is pick a few things, like Backup, and learn as much as you can about the top 3-4 bits of software in the market. How to backup, restore, disaster recovery. Same with Antivirus/Anti Malware.

Ultimately however, it depends on where you intend to land. No point in any of those topics if you want to write software.

yinian

34 posts

Geek

#1554463 17-May-2016 22:38

sounds like a solid starting point to me. good luck.

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xpd

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#1554561 18-May-2016 08:46

Try to get into a helpdesk role for now, although some may view you as too qualified with those certs...... its how most of us started out. I started off on the iHUG helpdesk and went from there, picking up my certs as I went along.

My last three jobs I've been in, were advertised directly from the employer, no agencies involved - every time I used an agency to apply for a role, I got stuffed around and given BS reasons for not getting into the positions etc. (Some of the agents were great to deal with and not their fault the employer hadn't given all the right info but a lot were crap)

Reach out to companies you'd like to work for, accept anything IT related they can offer, then at least you've got a foot in the door. I mail bombed multiple companies (at least 70) years ago when looking for work, only got two responses to go in and see them, but it was better than getting no responses at all.

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