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Google IT Support Professional Certificate

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Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#151

Post by Consultant32452 »

gregcoombe wrote: post #95
dx034 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then you have a Google degree and not one certified by the government. Google is reputable now but I wouldn't be so sure if the Google degree is worth much in 20 years.

This is a certificate, not a degree, which is a fairly important distinction. The goal is to teach a set of technical skills that allow you to get a specific job. In 20 years, your experience will count much more than either a degree or certificate.

Your experience will count much more than a degree or certificate in far fewer than 20 years. It's probably more in the 2-5 year range, depending on your degree and experience.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#152

Post by lsc »

iamdave wrote: post #132
ClassyJacket wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Australia, most people just think "literally anything to do with computers = IT". So when I talked to course counselors they said if I wanted to be a programmer, I had to do an IT degree. Not even close. Software engineering, or maybe CS, is what I wanted. I hadn't even heard the phrase "computer science" when I started university. The total incompetence of the course counselors at the core function of their…

Here in Australia, most people just think "literally anything to do with computers = IT". Stateside too. I used to get asked to fix printers by friends and associates and in general get treated like a help desk by people all the time because all they know is "Dave works with computers" even when I started working directly with managing software development teams later in my career. Heck, about 16 years ago when I was…

I always really enjoyed the "fix random broken mechanical thing" part of the "IT guy" job.

"Hi, I'm Luke, and I fix things."

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#153

Post by lsc »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #124
kbwt wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be a common confusion in the EU. A lot of people refer to CS as IT where I live.

Here in Australia, most people just think "literally anything to do with computers = IT". So when I talked to course counselors they said if I wanted to be a programmer, I had to do an IT degree. Not even close. Software engineering, or maybe CS, is what I wanted. I hadn't even heard the phrase "computer science" when I started university. The total incompetence of the course counselors at the core function of their…

>Don't trust course counselors - or other people in general.

I... think it's not so much a matter of 'trust' as you have to understand what people understand. My understanding is that their job is to help you navigate academia, and I'm sure they are competent at that. I can't imagine how they could be good at figuring out what you want to do. That's hard enough to do yourself.

The other thing about higher education is that it's usually not meant as vocational. Now, I'm in IT too, and for that matter, I didn't go to college, so maybe I don't know anything, but my impression is that a good school is about giving you a common intellectual and cultural background, not about actually teaching you how to do your job.

This is to say, after your undergrad, you should be prepared to learn how to do a job that requires a degree, and how to communicate with others who have gone through the same training.

(Personally, I am a little confused as to just what you learn in an "IT" degree; as far as I can tell, they don't give you much math, and on a personal level, the only people I've worked with who had 'IT' type degrees were management.)

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#154

Post by lsc »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #124
kbwt wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be a common confusion in the EU. A lot of people refer to CS as IT where I live.

Here in Australia, most people just think "literally anything to do with computers = IT". So when I talked to course counselors they said if I wanted to be a programmer, I had to do an IT degree. Not even close. Software engineering, or maybe CS, is what I wanted. I hadn't even heard the phrase "computer science" when I started university. The total incompetence of the course counselors at the core function of their…

Also, the borders between the higher levels of IT, what we call Systems Administration, and programming are somewhat porous. I've worked as a programmer before, and I've never worked anywhere (as a sysadmin) where they would hire a SysAdmin who didn't have basic programming skills.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#156

Post by sjellis »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #70
debt wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree completely. IT is going the opposite way, much of the maintenance is becoming commodified so the more complex tasks almost always involved writing actual code. It's become more of a SWE org everywhere. It's funny because SWE peeps get really defensive about IT vs SWE roles; like they don't want to be associated with IT for some ego-related reason.

I vehemently disagree. The whole SWE/DevOps trend isn't super popular once you leave Silicon Valley. At the end of the day, most businesses still use Windows, and most IT staff are telling people how to print correctly and resetting the passwords people forgot for the umteenth time this week . This isn't going to change in the near future, and I assume Google's IT Support certificate is either teaching the skills nec…

"I vehemently disagree. The whole SWE/DevOps trend isn't super popular once you leave Silicon Valley. At the end of the day, most businesses still use Windows, and most IT staff are telling people how to print correctly and resetting the passwords people forgot for the umteenth time this week. "

Both are true: even ten years ago, there was a noticeable split between helpdesk and maintenance skills, and things that we might now call "DevOps". If you have hundreds or thousands of computers, you can end up with people who specialize in stuff like building packages and disk images for deployments, writing scripts for user account management, and other automation, and don't fix printers so much any more, even if they don't have a separate job title.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#157

Post by freehunter »

emmelaich wrote: post #135
freehunter wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MCSE certs prepare you for a vastly different job than IT Support. Think CompTIA A+. IT Support and systems administration are different jobs and different certifications help out in different ways. When I got my CompTIA Security+ in college, I got asked by interviewers why I got that and not the CISSP. The answer is, while the CISSP is a far more respected certification, the requirements and entry price are also far…

I hope the MCSE has improved, because about 10% of the MCSEs I've met know next to nothing.

I mentioned the CISSP which has a similar problem... the requirements are X number of years in the security industry but 90% of the people I know with a CISSP are project managers.

The problem is boot camps. When you can pay $5k and have the answers drilled into your head for a week, of course anyone can pass.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#158

Post by arca_vorago »

datguacdoh wrote: post #56
kevin2r wrote: post #2

How this certification program compares to CompTIA A+ ?

We based this on our internal training for our IT hires based on the gaps we found when we onboarded people over the last 7 years. We invested a lot in making the material practical and lab driven vs just rote memorization. Disclosure: I worked on this program.

I just wanted to say thank you, as a senior sysadmin this looks like a really good course to uptrain t1/2's with, and it does seem to be more concise and relevant than other similar courses.

I rip on google a lot, but I can appreciate good work when I see it.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#159

Post by arca_vorago »

CodeSheikh wrote: post #57

It would be nice if Google can have a real customer support of its own first where you can reach a human at the end. I have been trying to get help on Google Voice issues that I have been having for months now, and the only help I have available is community driven "Google Support" forums.

If you have a business account with them you get a rep that you can actually speak to, just fyi, google has been improving business support vastly over the last few years. Everyone else though is relegated to those ms-support-esque forums.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#160

Post by dentemple »

datguacdoh wrote: post #62
dentemple wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder, does Google also run IT grads through an algorithms interview?

For our IT Residency Program, we don't require it, but if you have a CS background, you might get asked about it. Maybe automate a simple task and maybe some discussion on optimization. The interviews tend to be customized to the candidate's background. We hire a decent number of people from non traditional degrees into our IT program, so we care more about you being teachable, knowing at least one technology well an…

Thank you for the reply!
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