Certs vs degrees - What's best? What do you have?

[Manwithn0n0men]

TL;DR You don't need a full portfolio of projects, you just need specific things that you've accomplished either at work or on your own. You need to be ready to tell the story of how you did it, and what you learned from the experience. Projects are the language of IT--state the problem, solve the problem, implement the solution--and make it easier to communicate to others what you've done.

This was super good advice

 

[sadrabbit]

It boils down to experiences and stories.

On your resume, you list periods of employment. Under each job, you list what you did, and big projects you worked on. So it might look something like this:



When you go for an interview, they're going to look at this and say, Ok, Sadrabbit has 3 years' experience in IT. Now I want to know what he can do. So you're going to get questions about your experience:

"Describe the work you did on tech support. What were your responsibilities? Did you manage yourself? What initiatives did you start to make things more efficient? How did you handle difficult users?"​

And you're going to get questions about specific projects:

"Tell me about this ticketing system you worked on. Whose idea was it? Were you the only developer? What technologies did it use? Describe the biggest challenge you faced on this project, and how you overcame it." (Be prepared to answer that question for every line of past experience on your resume.)​

​

So your internship is fine, as long as you can describe specific things that you did. It's not enough to say, "I did an internship for computer stuff with Company X". Have a list of problems you solved and projects they put you on. Tell the story of your internship, like "I came in and the help desk was a mess, but we got things cleaned up by the time I left". Think through the business challenges your company was facing, how those challenges affected your work, and how things ultimately worked out.

(And if things started bad and stayed bad when you left, don't complain, and don't throw people under the bus. Just take a resigned tone and show how you tried. "We tried to clean up the help desk ticketing system, but the boss said we didn't have budget for the new software, so I tidied up the code and saved it in the repository. Hopefully they have the budget next year, and it's ready to go!")

I would still recommend having at least 1 passion project you did on your own time that you can talk about. Whatever really interests you in IT, the kind of thing that you'll skip video games and parties to work on out of sheer curiosity. (And if you aren't so interested in coding or creating that you occasionally do it in your free time... then maybe take a serious consideration about whether you want to do it as a career.)

TL;DR You don't need a full portfolio of projects, you just need specific things that you've accomplished either at work or on your own. You need to be ready to tell the story of how you did it, and what you learned from the experience. Projects are the language of IT--state the problem, solve the problem, implement the solution--and make it easier to communicate to others what you've done.

Thank you for this! It's very helpful. I'll go more into detail regarding the projects that I've worked on, seeing as I think I held back a little bit in regards to that. It also really helps to think about what type of questions they might ask regarding stuff that I've worked on.

Also when it comes to passion projects, I do have stuff I'll work on that I'll skip parties and video games for, it's just that I wouldn't classify them as my "one big project". I love working on small ideas that might take a few weeks or a month, but when it comes to something big and interesting, I just haven't been able to come up with anything yet. I still like making a few things and jumping between different types of projects in my spare time though, but I doubt that they're anything that's worth putting on a cv.

 

[Harvey Danger]

Also when it comes to passion projects, I do have stuff I'll work on that I'll skip parties and video games for, it's just that I wouldn't classify them as my "one big project". I love working on small ideas that might take a few weeks or a month, but when it comes to something big and interesting, I just haven't been able to come up with anything yet. I still like making a few things and jumping between different types of projects in my spare time though, but I doubt that they're anything that's worth putting on a cv.

That's fine, it doesn't have to be big; it just has to be something you've finished or worked on to the point where you applied the solution. Just like the things at work you would talk about, it provides another project to discuss, another story to tell. And it tells your interviewer that you are capable of getting things done without needing heavy management.

Depending on what style you're going for on your resume, you might list things differently. If your main experience is school and an internship, I would suggest listing them as their own "employment category" at the bottom, something like this:

Personal Projects And Development

• Made a fan website for DBZ
• Coded a timer app to help with workouts
• Re-implemented a financial calculator into Java that can be embedded anywhere

(On a resume with lots of relevant work experience, this can look like padding. 5 years into your career, you may want to drop this section. But it's fine doing this for your first 1-2 jobs out. Most universities have an adviser or job placement office that can help you with your resume, visit them and ask how to make this section look good.)

If you have a public URL you can include it, same for code in Github. If you made an app it's cool to be able to show it on your phone. Odds are they won't want to check it out themselves, but offering it shows you really have done the work, and you have the confidence to make it public.

But even if everything you did is just small bits of code internal to a system that they'll never see, the main thing is being able to talk about why you were interested in the thing, or what problem you were trying to solve, and then how you solved it.

 

[Kheapathic]

I have a BS and Certs to my name; and I can't really say one made me more impressive than another, because like others have said, experience trumps both. Since the IT field really isn't regulated with state licenses like other jobs; the different certs are the best way to show you're trained. You're not gonna become something like a Database Administrator with a cert but no experience; no one in their right mind is gonna let someone with zero experience fuck around like that. So you should always be willing to learn and take on new tasks, because in my personal experience, there is a lot of knowledge out there, but people keep it locked up because "Don't worry about that, I'll take care of it later." Later meaning you're at lunch, and no, they won't show you now that they're done. So when something goes wrong, and that one guy who knows something is on vacation; everyone's plans become shot to shit as people with no experience try to fumble their way through it, because homeboy doesn't rate a laptop+vpn and has his phone turned off. That being said, another reason to learn shit is to make yourself irreplaceable, because there's a lot of cut-throats out there who will throw the bus on you, hoard tech/tools, and get into dick measuring contests over trivial shit at times. Yes, I can chalk this up to I worked at bad places, with bad people, and even there were times I done fucked up; but be aware IT has the same problems as other jobs have.

Edit: All that being said; if you have a BS and a couple years of experience under your belt (even better with more specialized skills/certs) you can teach at the collegiate level. Whether it's an Introduction to Computers, Windows OS, Office, or an A/Net/Sec+ training, or even higher level stuff. Lower level colleges don't always require a degree, but will require many more years of experience in that case. And you don't have to be a full-time teacher either; you can teach maybe a class or two a week while you do your regular job, if the school's schedule allows for it.