so....turns out i'm partially an idiot, i started going to college for a 2 year computer information diploma program which was like 70% programming and 30% building circuit boards, both of which i hated. So i dropped that and finished the year try'n to catch up on a business admin course.

Then i moved to Edmonton...got part of a cisco certification which i shoulda kept going for (idiot) but i didn't and went to school and got my A+ certification as well as a 1 year PC Support Specialist Diploma.

All in all thats not really enough to get me any kinda crazy hot job. To be anywhere near competitive i'd probably have to spend another $10,000 and get my MCSE which....as fun as it sounds....really might just get you a ****ty job in the PC world.

So...thats kinda out the window, i dunno what i wanna do now, i enjoy computers, but jobs seem nearly tough to come by...so i'm lookin into other ideas, i'm not sure what, stuff like umm drafting could be alright, but i'm a horrible drawer, which could prove to be a problem.

I'm starting to think maybe i should take a trade. I'm not the smartest mechanically....but i dunno where are all the jobs lately?

whats hot?

what'd you guys do?

 

Industrial Instrumentation. Get in at Nait or Sait and you can guarantee yourself a nice, good paying job after you are done. Only 32 people graduate every year and in Alberta there could probably be room for 100+ jobs. I got in (it is getting harder.....selection processes etc) and I start in the fall officially. The only problem is that you would have to wait like a year and a bit to get in. My Dad works for an oil company and I already have a job lined up LOL. The demand is so high and the program is so good that I ditched a degree in commerce half way through to do it.

How many programs make you take calculus, industrial chemistry, process controls AND "off-highway driving"? SWEET!!!

 

btw.....some guy overheard me talking at my work (at a lumberyard) about Instrumentation and basically offered me a job on the spot thinking that I was almost done. He called it the 150,000 dollar club... [img]graemlins/dunno.gif[/img]

 

not a huge fan of chemistry...but....anywho...what exactly would you be doing?

 

I became an installer [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

 

I took law and security admin..I abolutely hated it, but I am interested in Investigations so I am taking a year long program at Durham College to become a private I. The money in that field is pretty well and it involved alot of interesting work.

Look into it if you like that sort of stuff.

 

I second the electrician vote. (the no heavy lifting I don't agree with, try lifting a 2000' roll of 3/0 onto reel stands and see what heavy lifting is) but it's good work, good pay, and you have to think on your feet.

oh, and you GET PAID to learn (it's called an apprenticeship)

 

MCSE is not $10000 to get. There are like 6 exams at $125 US each. Nowhere near 10 grand. A+ cert is just for people who want to fix computers like to Futureshop/Best Buy. The Cisco cert would do you good if you were a Network Admin. I mean I haven't heard of a job where people just configure routers. A Network Admin would configure the router for the network.

Try to find something you like and go all the way with it. I mean it's a waste of time and money to take something and then not finish it. If you didn't like programming/circiut board stuff why did you take the course?

Just find something you like and do it. Doesn't matter if the job pays well or not unless your only in it for the money

 

i know an mcse itself isn't $10,000 but i don't think i have the knowledge to go out and just do the 6 tests and pass them. Thus i'd probably end up taking a course/program of some sort to get that, and i understand it may not = to exactly $10,000 but not cheap by any means.

I know i shoulda kept on with the cisco certification cause it was nicely priced for me being th age group i was in. But before i was gonna start the second term i found a school course that i was happy with - only after finishing it i found it to not be worth what i had paid. At least i had gotten an A+ and a diploma which says i'm not a complete idiot when it comes to pc's as i have no other proof of that. I probably should have started with something that would give me the knowledge to take the MCSE exams. But turns out i like to do things in the wrong order and i dunno if thats where i wanna go, as even the people that do have those are in teh same spot as me, which makes me not so enthusiastic about it heh.

And the first course i took, it was the first year the school had done it, and was a lot different from what was previously explained, so a lotta people ended up dropping it as it's not what any of us wanted. I realize i could go on to become a system administrator or a network administrator and those type of things but having experienced what i have for where i am in the computer industry, i dunno thats what i want anymore (doh).

So yeah, now i'm re-evaluating things and try'n to see what else is out there what other options i have...hense this post.