| Topic Name: |
Industry Information |
| Message Name: |
Next step career advice |
| Date Posted: |
01/30/2008 |
| Message: |
Hello, I am approaching my 5 year anniversary in IT and am looking to make a career change, so I am looking for a little advice. I currently work as a MIS/Network Support Specialist for a company in Southern California supporting about 80-100 users, working under my boss who is the Network Admin. I have a Bachelors degree with a minor in IT and another Associates degree in IT from a tech school. I just received my CCNP (which I have little hands on experience with) and have had my MCSE (which I do) for awhile. I also have a few other COMP TIA certs.
Ultimately, I want to be a network consultant and find clients on my own, but for now I would like to get a job working for another company who does this in order to learn the ropes and get some experience on more technology before I go off of my own. I was thinking my strategy would be to send out my resume to local network integration firms\consulting firms and see if anyone is interested. I am thinking that this would be the closest fit to what I want to ultimately do when I go off on my own and that this would give me the proper experience on how the whole consulting business is run. I would prefer this instead of going to a recruiter who would likely try to put me at one company for a set period. I am sick of working a set schedule every work day at the same desk and would like to work more dynamic hours and be able to experience different types of technology at different customer locations, where my productivity is based on how effectively I can do the job instead of the hours on the clock.
So I guess my questions would be:
1. Does this seem like a reasonable way to start my job search? Are there any other resources I should think of using?
2. Would working for one of these firms likely satisfy the factors I am looking for?
3. I was thinking of asking for about $55K a year (I currently make about $38K a year). Does this sound about right or to high or low?
4. Are there any other suggestions you can give about breaking into IT consulting or more general advice?
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