Google IT Support Professional Certificate • Hacker News Board

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#51

Post by JoblessWonder » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:17 PM UTC

cube00 wrote: post #25

ams6110 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't really offshore swapping out a defective network cable or replacing a hard drive. I haven't looked at how they define an "IT Support Professional" but I'm assuming it's not just answering a phone and following a decision tree and saying "I'm very sorry to hear that you are still experiencing a problem" before each step. Anyone can do that with almost no training.

Of course you can, enterprises are already starting to push "bring your own device". Even if you don't do that, you can still move to the thin client model where hardware failure just means asking the office manager to swap your device with a new one from the cupboard.

BYOD leads to device management, which leads to IT job security.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#52

Post by skybrian » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:20 PM UTC

excalibur wrote: post #13

The arrogance here is appalling. "Here is a new cert that nobody in the industry is familiar with, but it will qualify you for an entry-level role pretty much anywhere, because we're Google and we said so."

Google hires a lot of techstop people and they're very good. It doesn't seem arrogant to think they know what this kind of job requires when it's based on actual experience.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#53

Post by datguacdoh » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:21 PM UTC

aestetix wrote: post #33

Given the current state of support Google itself offers, there is more than a bit of irony here.

Disclosure: I am one of the instructors for this course and went through Google's IT Residency Program.

It's unfortunate that the company's external support has such a bad reputation. But our internal support team is actually highly regarded and loved by employees. The training here is very much based on the training we provide to our internal hires.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#54

Post by gaius » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:22 PM UTC

meritt wrote: post #47

north_east_dev wrote: post #23

And in true Google style I expect them to slowly ignore it and then drop the program, leaving anyone who invested in it high and dry.

Unless they've figured out a way to attach a DRM policy to the knowledge you learn from taking a course, I don't think it's possible for them to leave anyone high and dry.

Some certs must be regularly renewed, e.g. ScrumMaster. If it’s de-supported then the certs evaporate.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#55

Post by JoblessWonder » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:23 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #45

wpdev_63 wrote: post #32

Ole udacity, the ITTech of 'learn on the web' sites. Money would be better spent on a respectable certification like MCSE.

Wow the MCSE and this certification could not be any less comparable.

Yeah... that is like saying "Money is better spent getting a college degree in CS!"

Sure, they both might be true but they aren't all attainable for everyone.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#56

Post by datguacdoh » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:24 PM UTC

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.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#57

Post by CodeSheikh » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:26 PM UTC

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.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#58

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:28 PM UTC

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.

[deleted]

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#59

Post by datguacdoh » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:28 PM UTC

xcryogenicx wrote: post #49

w8rbt wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IT is not CS. Not even similar.

AS in CS working in IT here, can confirm. My college classes were programming C++, physics, calculus, and hardware architectures. Barely anything to do with IT.

We actually expect our support team (at least portions of them) to build internal apps that automate workflows for ops work or for users. It's not always as complex as a full soft eng role, but some of our IT staff do move on to those positions internally based on the work they do in IT. I think it really depends on the company you do IT for, and what they expect for the role. At Google, our IT staff are full time engineers.

Disclosure: I worked on this program and went through Google's IT Residency Program.

Re: Google IT Support Professional Certificate

#60

Post by stctgion » Wed, Jan 17, 2018, 5:29 PM UTC

rb808 wrote: post #31

dexwiz wrote: post #9

IT Support will replace factories in Middle America. These are jobs that are 1)Trained quickly 2) Geographically distributed 3) Cheap. IT Support needs to be onsite for hardware, but any Software can be distributed in smaller cities or work from home. Maybe Google will have a real help line one day? It is also a great path into technology for those who did get CS degrees from a top school. Side note: In the video, al…

Especially as I think many dev jobs will disappear. More free, open source platforms that are powerful and free but just need some configuration, customization and support. Developing getting simpler to becoming just config anyway. We're already seeing this, you dont need to know anything about pointers any more, just hooking up libraries.

The languages move on but so do the expectations. Until we have star trek style computers there will always be more to it than just hooking up some libraries