I still have a ton of stuff I need to get sorted out before I can go get a work-outside-the-house job, which is frustrating because a friend of mine works for a company who was hiring someone for a position I’d be really well suited to. Another friend in Canada has been trying to get me to work for an IT security company he’s a partner in for the better part of a decade now.
A part of me’s still convinced that our company is the path forward – in a shady job market the most secure job is one you create for yourself, and that’s where I see our long term plans pointing. Our company’s growing steadily, and I certainly don’t resent the hours I’m putting in any more.
Either way, whether I go work in the IT field for someone else while our company grows or whether I continue to pour my soul into it and branch out, certification would go a long way. I’ve been managing UNIX-like operating systems for in excess of half my lifetime – almost a decade and a half to be precise. I have a pretty decent background in security (though it could be better, if I’d apply myself to any one thing) and I’m a competent hacker when it comes to programming, though I’m by no means a developer (again, could be better if I could apply myself to any one language for a length of time).
But to all but the most enlightened employer, all of this means nothing – most of them look purely at certification and my resume would probably not knock most folks’ socks off. Thankfully our company gets precious little clients who actually ask what our qualifications are, most of them are usually pleasantly surprised when the proverbial hits the fan to know that I do know my stuff… but any who were to ask beforehand would again, be less than impressed.
I’ve been looking at this Western Governors University, which is one of the first schools offering online degrees that are actually worth more than the fancy paper they’re printed on. Their online IT degree… Well, I was particularly looking at the security program, which incorporates Cisco’s CCNA and the CCNA-Security certification, as well as A+ and Security+ – which, while I’ve never been terribly keen on them as a measure of someone’s worth, would substantially pad my resume.
The course has a Microsoft component too – I’m not entirely sure how much of it is Microsoft-centric, but I’m pretty confident I could get the hang of that rather quickly. According to Wikipedia, WGU is a “competency-based” education, so you’re free to take the exams whenever you think you’re ready, so chances are I could speed through a few sections of the courseware. About 10 years ago I was reasonably confident I could pass the MCSE exams, I just couldn’t afford them. I’ve poured over the CCNA/CCNP courseware periodically for the last ten years too.
It’s ridiculously cheap though – at the time of writing it looks like a hair under three grand for a semester’s tuition, and because it’s not one of those goofy online “colleges” there’s federal financial aid available (though again, I have no idea whether I’d qualify).
Does anyone who happens to be reading this have any familiarity with how quickly someone like myself could pass such a course? WGU charges tuition based on semesters, so obviously the faster I complete everything the better off I’ll be. Most of my familiarity is with the FreeBSD operating system, so I’m not kidding myself that I’ll have quite a bit to learn.
It’d be awesome to have some pieces of paper to prove what I know. 
