Certifications and IT jobs/Salaries - what is an adequate "home lab" and where can I go for experience?

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what is an adequate "home lab" and where can I go for experience?

valdo200081

2003-05-15, 4:06 pm

Hey guys, I have a couple questions, I am currently working on A+ and Network+ and am feeling more and more confortable towards taking the tests, but I want to make sure I am so enough that I'll pass it the first time,(short on $$) anyways, my questions are: Since I am hungry for experience, mostly for the network+ portion, What would you advice me to have as an adequate "home lab" to practice on hands on and learn/master all this stuff? Also,What places can I locally look for when trying to find a place to volunteer or something to get more experience?? I've read some threads and many talk negatively about the IT field now, it is down now,but I can't let all my hard work go down the drain! I believe it's like anything else, there are good times and bad times for everything. I believe all the ones that are to be successful are the ones who always work hard, think positively about any situation and finds bad ones as eye openers. Whatever happens,Do not loose your persistence after all that hard work! It's the only thing that'll get you somewhere! IT should come to our favor though, hopefully soon. Just try to be positive all!!

ccieToBe

2003-05-15, 7:01 pm

Whatever you can get your hands on. Unless you're planning on running a resource hog, like NetWare 5.x, 6.0 or Windows 2000 Server a few old Pentiums should work out well. If you want to run one of those then just build around their requirements. 3 systems seems to be the magical number where you can test out a lot of situations.

wolf2x

2003-05-16, 1:57 pm

To get some "experience", see if you can do some work for local churches or for local schools....for free.

Also, you might check out some small businesses in your area and basically tell them that you are wanting experience and see if they would be willing to hire you at minimum wage....working a few hours a day. We did this for a couple of high school students last year. They did mostly "grunt" work but they received great references (because they earned them).

This way, you would be able to at least get your foot in the door.

newdanny90

2003-05-17, 8:33 pm

valdo200081 I got the same problem as u do. I passed A+ in 1999, took training for both A+ and network+ but didn't learn much from that bcz the place where I took the classes focused much more on theory than Lab. Now recently I passed Network+ and looking forward to have some exp. under my belt but not quite sure where to start from. What do u guys mean by "volunteering for a chruch"? how can u earn exp. from that, as some1 else adviced me the same. I dont have a job right now so thinking about breaking into IT, should I start by volunteering at some small Computer stores? can I write that as an exp. on my resume and for how long should I volunteer? I know job condition is not too good now a days, but I believe nothing is impossible. I will keep trying to get my foot on the door. Any advice will be welcomed. Thanx

Danny

Bravesfan

2003-05-24, 6:59 pm

quote:
Originally posted by newdanny90
What do u guys mean by "volunteering for a chruch"? how can u earn exp. from that, as some1 else adviced me the same. I dont have a job right now so thinking about breaking into IT, should I start by volunteering at some small Computer stores? can I write that as an exp. on my resume and for how long should I volunteer? I know job condition is not too good now a days, but I believe nothing is impossible. I will keep trying to get my foot on the door. Any advice will be welcomed. Thanx

Danny

They are talking about fixing pc's at a church or any other non profit org. which may be 'kind' enough to let someone work on their computers. ANY experience you get will be good - people here need to remember that for the most part none of us bring in revenue to a company. We are overhead, plain and simple. Sure you can argue stuff about server availability and blah blah blah... but the bottom line is that we don't directly contribute to a companies bottom line. That's why so many techies have been cut loose. Keep telling yourself that you've got to do something to separate yourself from the other million people looking to break into the industry. If you're persistant and have a little luck it'll pay off.

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