Hi all,

I know there are a few IT people in this forum and thought I'll ask another question.

I currently working for a federal government agency as IT support in the city on a non ongoing contract,

I’ve only been in IT for since start of 2008 as Service desk then slowly worked towards field technician and then well my current position.

Service desk and field technician was my previous job in a private company before I landed this.

Done a few certs like XP, server 2003 done win 7 training yet to do exam.

I have a degree in Business but that’s about it nothing related to IT.

I want to study something along the lines of networking but don't know which tafe is recommended in WA. Maybe a graduate diploma in networking or certificate. normal stream of IT has too much programming which I hate may be essential in some cases but when you do networking its not

I find my job as a dead end job as I dabble in bits and pieces while it is a government job, I can’t really specialise in anything as our department is so big, it’s all in separate areas e.g., messaging, server, networking, etc and all in Canberra.

I want to be a server engineer but really only thing I do is rebuild users profile and check a few permission which is the extent of playing around with servers, or and adding printers to DHCP and assigning ip address. That about as exciting as it gets.

I suppose I need some advice from people that have been in the industry for lot longer. I recently did my review and boss says well, you can say you want to to IITL and etc, but you have to convince me so i can convince upper management. And Even then they will say they don’t have budget, so really it’s a waste of time but its formality’s. And IITL is boring sure you want to do it?.
I’m like hello nearly every employer asks for it in job ads.

Server Engineer is a pretty generic term.... which is not Networking.

If you are looking down the TAFE path, there are a couple of networking based Certs/Diplomas that cover off server admin and CCNA (training for CCNA, you still need to go sit the exam externally). I would recommend eCentral. I started @ Swan Tafe before heading down the Uni path - probly would go eCentral if I had to do it all again.

Uniwise, Murdoch offers a degree (Internetworking & Security) that covers CCNA, CCNP and PIX/ASA.

Pretty sure ECU offers a networking based course. They also seem to have a good forensics / security department.

Although postgrad studies is $$

Your boss's response is bang on the money. Any business will always want to know how any training is going to contribute to your productivity - some may even request you to sign a disclaimer reimbursing costs if you leave within X amount of time. Why should they be sending you to a $X,000 course only for you to jump ship to another employer.

I just feel my boss is negative, well jump ship no have no need,improve my skills and understanding and keep up with current trends yes ITLL is one of the many I guess besides certification.trust me the federal gov waste so much money, it could be better gained by giving us training.


your right server engineers is a very broad term so broad that the ones I user to work for in CSG did everything, networking, AD accounts setup, change controls, router configuration.

But thanks for the recommendation for E central i will check out there web site

If you want to pull of a good scam, go and get a CISCO cert and con your way into a comms company.

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[S]kid[S]

I don't think i'll be too convincing, you can tell if someone doesn't know that much like but always looking to improve and keep up with our ever changing trends

its like talking to a person that has never driver a wrx, you can tell they are just all talk

Or any major corporate with insourced IT/Comms team. Generally when you do this you get mixed around a bit, you won't just look after data links, switches, routers etc, but Call Manager, mobile contracts, all the nice helpdesk calls which come through

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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Should have bought an STI

If you want to specialise in server engineer or the such I personally wouldnt bother with the TAFE stuff. Get in on the ground floor with a major corporate CSC for example (I know many dont like CSC, but its easy once within to move forward to better positions).

Like you I have a business degree and no formal qualifications in IT, I did some of my Microsoft exams and then just applied for every server job from there. Didnt take long to get a low paying server engineer job with AlphaWest. After a few months the world was my oyster and quickly progressed with other companies to a senior engineer, technical lead and team lead.

Employers look more for experience than qualifications in my opinion, but when starting to tell you the truth its more personality and bullshit. You will have to start at the troubleshooting helpdesk server problems and a few years of that possibly before you can proceed into something specific.

By the sounds of it you have the basics there, I think its time to jump ship and just apply for server engineer jobs. Once the recruiters know you something will pop up sooner rather than later.

itil is overated, its either 'all in' or it will be a dismal failiure for the department, focus yourself onto niche skill like sharepoint, sap, call manager, vmware etc if you want to get a lookin compared to other candidates out there

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Long live the WRC

^ QFT - And dont be afraid of job descriptions. They are describing the "ideal" candidate, which very rarely ever exists. Enthusiasm, honestly and common-sense goes a long way.

All my IT jobs I have never fulfilled the entire job selection criteria at time of interview.

Im 4 weeks away from my Software Engineering Degree. Im looking for WA Based Software jobs like crazy.


0 to be had... ;|

I know theres a lot of support/networking ones however (last I checked). Just get your resume sorted nicely and spam apply for everything.