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| Hello all,
I'm new to the certification business and I'm trying to figure out where I
might fit in the best. At 40 I qualify as a career changer, but I'm really
wanting to avoid wasting time working on certs. that I find out later on
that I'm not really interested in, or heaven forbid I can't grasp and pass.
I'll tell you guys a little about myself and maybe I can get some worthwhile
advice and not smart XXX replies.
I got into computers in 1989 while I was finding a way to manage my business
better. I bought a program to track pool table time as I was in the bar
business and was tired of losing revenue by my staff rounding down per
minute amounts that were due (admittedly I was guilty as well ...LOL.) Well
I bought the program and then went and bought a "power-house" 286 to run it
on. I had no idea where to start, but one of my staff and even customers (my
business was in a college town) helped me get started. After a while I grew
to know a decent bit about DOS as I had to do program maintenance in DOS for
the pool program each month and when there were problems with the program
and of course there were problems, I had to jump into DOS and figure it out.
I continued using computers in a bigger way as the years went by, Excel,
Word, Quickbooks, Corel Draw 4, Corel Draw 8, etc. I got pretty dang
proficient with Corel 8 and Photoshop. I laid out my own ads for advertising
and constantly got high compliments on the quality of my work in laying out
ads (usually from professional Graphic Artists.) I'm not sure I would enjoy
laying out ads all day long for other business people the same way I enjoyed
doing it for my own business.
I admit to being fascinated with a book I bought last week and have been
reading it every spare minute "MCSE2000 JumpStart - Computer and Network
Basics by SYBEX." I've had SOOOOO many questions answered that I had always
wondered about, but didn't know who to ask. The A+ Certification sounds cool
and I've been thinking I can get a job working on PC's and maybe work on
another exam at the same time. The CIW track has a certain appeal to me, as
I'm a pretty creative type, I sing, act, play guitar and I'm a card carrying
magician. I'm just not sure that the job opportunities are going to be there
if I get the CIW cert. and I'll point out I have had no programming
experience whatsoever. I would love to hear any helpful advice that anyone
might have or open a dialogue with anyone that might have questions to ask
that will help them get a better idea of how to help me.
I would like to get some suggestions on books, videos and CD Roms that I can
study with as well.
Thanks.
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