Originally Posted by
Popabear
I think you might be approaching tech jobs from the wrong perspective. A degree is the most important in this industry at the beginning of your career. After a few years on the job the focus transfers to experience. You can make well into the 6 figures w/o a college degree in IT, but you need to know some things.
1. Jobs that anybody can do, don't pay well. This includes any type of hardware repair, helpdesk, and most windows work
2. Any Microsoft oriented job (Win sysadmin, Exchange admin, etc..) has more people to do them than open positions, this drives the salary down
3. Specialty roles pay the most, but you need to live in a city that supports them
4. You can do okay as a unix system admin, but you need more than desktop experience. No job interview will ask you about your graphical desktop.
5. If you like programming, you can do okay, but interviewers will be interested in "how you solve problems" with your code rather than you know the syntax (There will be a few of these questions at the begining). You also need to be prepared to be the first one cut during tough times.
6. If straight up operations is more your thing, Networking, Storage, and Database Admins all pay pretty well and aren't that hard to pick up the skills for.
7. Certifications only matter for jobs paying under $70k. Experience trumps everything, even a degree the higher you get. (Until you get into upper management and they need to start writing Bio's on you to sell you to investors)