[orb451]

Hey Matt, I was in a similar situation about 9 years ago, tired of my job, not making a lot of $$$ and wanting to put my computer tinkering skills to professional use. Like others have said (and wisely) there are ups and downs to choosing this field as a possible career.

I've worked field service going to companies, and going to people's homes. I've done the desktop support thing, I've done server administration, network administration and so on. The best advice I can give you, 9 years in, is to diversify your skill set.

One thing you'll notice quickly about IT careers is that the skill set or litany of "stuff" they want you to know is usually quite long. Regardless of what position you're applying for. Please don't turn into one of those guys that thinks a cert from school x/y/z is the end of the road for education.

That was my mistake. I thought getting an MCSE was like the be all end all. It's not. It's not even remotely close. Learn UNIX. Not just "Linux". UNIX. Learn the design philosophy that makes it great for servers/networks. Sure, grab Ubuntu Linux or another easy to use distro but also grab FreeBSD. You'll learn more in a weekend of installing FreeBSD and trying to get it to talk to other machines on a network than you will spending years behind the wheel of Microsoft's stuff. The command line is your friend.

Don't get evangelical about your O/S or favorite gear. Learn that the right tool for the job can vary a LOT. FreeBSD is NOT the holy grail, nor is Linux, nor Windows, nor Mac OS, etc. They each bring something to the table. But getting them all to talk to one another is VERY much worth learning.

Another thing to be mindful of is general direction. What "general" direction do you want to go? Are you looking to be an IT Manager at some point, who has the IT grunts running around the office fixing stuff? Nothing wrong with that, just know that desktop support (phone or in person) might be your starting point. Are you trying to go into development? If so, what kind? That is, is it software dev? Is your stuff going to run on any platform or just a one or two?

To me the ultimate IT person knows a bit from multiple IT subfields. They should know a little bit of coding (or a lot depending on circumstances - C++, Perl, Java, HTML), They should know MS' stuff (XP Pro, Home, Win2K, Win98 and of course Vista, Win7, Server 2003, and newer versions). And they should know networking, TCP/IP, DNS, Routing. Lastly they should also know UNIX/Linux and how to use, install, configure and maintain them (all OS's for that matter).

I think a lot of IT schools will get you on the latest and greatest stuff. In case you don't know, most companies do NOT use the latest and greatest from ANY software/hardware vendor. They stick to what works. That may be NT 4.0 on the servers and NT or Win2K on the desktops. So don't get caught up in the stuff they teach you if it's all Win7/Vista/Server 2008... learn the older stuff too, it's VERY important. And yes, same applies in the UNIX/Linux world as well as far as versions go.

Best of luck and hope that helps a bit,

orb.............