Going into Networking as a career.

[Dtbest69]

Hey, I'm going to be going into networking as a career, when I get into college. Currently a Junior in high school. I am 15, and very curious about the area. I am not SUPER computer literate, but I know enough. Is this a good field? What can I do to get a head start on it?


Thanks.

[yourmysin]

Learn the basics hehe. Check out the CompTIA Network+ certification exam objectives to get a feel for a decent learning structure. After you have the feel for it check out the CCNA exam.

So many resources and simulators out now it is easy enough to learn.

[hooraybeer]

Definetly get on your way to becoming CompTIA N+ certified. Your high school may have a N+ class, or you could sign up for an independent study. The internet of course has a lot of resources.

If you are N+ certified, you don't even need a college degree to start doing some freelance work for setting up company networks. It's definetly a good starting point if you want to be a proffesional network technician.

[noOneSpecial]

I've done N+ and I'm not working as a technician due to my university and other job (not related with computers at all) that actually allows me to pay for my house, my bills and uni fees. Im gonna do CCNA this summer and hopefully CCNP next summer Anyway - networking as a career sounds very demanding - but you have to try something.

[ph4nt0m]

Like everyone else said, go for a network+ certification. A certification alone doesn't mean much to a company as much as experience though. I'm junior in high school also, so I'm dual enrolling in a community college to get my certs. That way I'll have at least a year of experience. After that I'd say go for the Cisco certifications, they are great to have. Hope you stick with it man, a knowledge of networking is valuable.