New Career

[d3xt0r]

On a more serious note to my last post, i think i need to decide what my career path is going to be. I've Been thinking about it the last week or so and decided that i want to have a go at telecomunications.

Can anyone recommend any free courses or the best place to learn the basics online? I'd rather learn the very basics online before attending any courses.

Cheers
d3xt0r

[Welsh Pete]

Define telecommunications? Do you want to have a crack a telecom engineering or something grander?

If telecoms then I have a bunch of stuff to send you...ebooks and so on, plus advice

[TwoPlAnKs]

I might not fit into your life and you might not have the existing grades for it, but the "new" university near me does a good course on telecomms. You get a degree and you get the first level of cisco certs out of it, and during your summers off you could contact companies to try to get some experience, or even do a sandwich year (they usually pay about £16k here, prob a little bit but not much less in the North) then you'll be pretty well set to enter the job market.

It's not by a long way the most efficient method to get the qualifications, you could do it a lot more cheaply and quickly, but it only takes 3 years in England and you'll be surprised how much you can earn working part time around uni. And since there are more students than ever before, it is an important thing to have when entering the job market. Totally forgotten after 2 years of experience, but it's good to have to get started.

Do remember that there is a reason why telecomms are better paid and in more demand than desktop or server support jobs. There is some more abstract stuff to learn, and the nature of the job can lead to you needing to travel to places and work out of hours.

[d3xt0r]

Telecom Engineering is what i was thinking with grander things in a few years time maybe.

Any help and advice is much appreciated. At the moment im unemployed so hopefully can get some sort of course free/funded.

Cheers
d3xt0r

[neo2810]

Hey Dex... I work for BT in a Network design and consulting capacity. I'd be happy to have a chat to you about different options/paths you could take to get into the business and once you're in.

We could leave the camera's at home and make it a chat over a beer if you like...

[Copex]

Telecom Engineering is what i was thinking with grander things in a few years time maybe.

Any help and advice is much appreciated. At the moment im unemployed so hopefully can get some sort of course free/funded.

Cheers
d3xt0r

Voice Communications is moving quickly towards VOIP so if you want to be more than a cable monkey you would not go wrong with a TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) CTP (Convergence Certification Programs) or any good IP networking course - (TIA & CTP along with CCNA are industry standard) would be a door opener when contacting employers. cat5/6 of fiber certification may also help.

Most training is Manufacturer training and in house in the traddional Voice Communication (PBX/PABX ) .

i am also currently unemployed and have 15 years working with phone systems, i'm having no look in finding work.

so good look with your search, i have been unable to find any free training, so if you come across any let me know :-) ive been through the local job center, who sen t me to the local collage who will put me though short term training, English & maths e.c.t or some basic skills forklift ect.

[tronads]

Good luck in whatever you choose to do....but one word of advice.....speaking from experience....
Dont get professionaly qualified and set your heart on working for one particular company (for me it was BT), only for them to not be recruiting at the time....so figure taking a "temporary" civil service job until they do recruit.....and now 19 years later.....well i guess the rest is obvious...

[tom999]

As Copex says, I'm not sure what your definition of 'telecommunications' is, but these days it is all moving to IP (BT 21CN, Cisco, Microsoft, Unified Communications etc), so if it were me I'd look more in that direction...

happy to share more if your interested

[MajorFU]

i went with a comapny called commsupport for my CCNA training, the dude there is offering a cut price online webinar course, which imo is all u need

the course i attended went well beyond CCNA and prepared me for CCNP which I am starting soon, with the online webinars all u need is a few hours in the evening, a headset and cisco packet tracer for the lab sims on ur pc

My advice would be to read a ccna study guide before u do the course and use the course to compound pre-learnt data.

The winning formula for me was : read book, do course, then hit exam simulators / brain dumps for a week then do the exam

Having statred CCNP's BCMSN its seems easier than CCNA because i already understand the principles and the actual material is more fucused on switching than CCNA which is a bit of everything switching/routing/security/tcp-ip/layer 2 and 3 basics like ARP/frame relay/OSI Reference model...god its alot to know lol

[d3xt0r]

Hey Dex... I work for BT in a Network design and consulting capacity. I'd be happy to have a chat to you about different options/paths you could take to get into the business and once you're in.

We could leave the camera's at home and make it a chat over a beer if you like...

Sounds like a plan, now just to clarify, which one were you on our day out lol. The one with the s.a accent

d3xt0r

[neo2810]

Sounds like a plan, now just to clarify, which one were you on our day out lol. The one with the s.a accent

d3xt0r

You got it...

[d3xt0r]

You got it...

Ah forgot that i added you on facebook, just found you. can make it anytime after next week matey.

d3xt0r

[neo2810]

Cool, we'll have to arrange the week after then...

[Welsh Pete]

I generally got a bit lucky with Telecoms. I used to work in a call centre doing 3rd level tech support and wanted a change as they outsourced. I randomly applied to a telecoms company in Bridgend and to my suprise, passed the interview and got the job. I had no experience or quals in Telecoms but he wanted to vocationally train me.

I did download a whole bunch of telecom info eg, cabling, colour coding, voltages, basic testing and fault finding etc etc...all this is online, and I have a few ebooks if you want too.

My boss (was only 3 people employed) took me out with him for the next 2 months to jobs and I watched a learnt. This coupled with loads of pretty scary prac in the office helped. I recall being so scared that I wouldnt be able to learn it all, but it did sink in and here I am today programming pretty hefty PBX`s and what not.

I have since changed companies but I found it so easy to stroll into a telecoms based job, after having the experience initially.

My job entails:
Site visits to fault find
Site visits to reprogram
Site visits to install data/telecom cabling and PBX`s
Site visits to survey work
Site visits for user training
and a bit of workbench time to learn more.

Its quite a diverse job too. I mean Monday I was configuring SIP trunks on our office PBX. Tuesday I was upgrading IP phones to the latest Siemens software level. Wednesday I was in Stonehouse recovering £10k of equipment. Thursday I was in Newport on a doorphone fault (some fucker unpatched it). Today I am doing remote changes for a customer from the office. I am also in Scotland in March for a large system install and some cable jointing. Not much though. I`ll be flying there.

All in all I enjoy the job. I get freedom to work at my own pace which is great.

edit: also was sent on some dealer training courses. These are useful in seeking alternative employment. So far have covered NEC, Panasonic and Siemens. All courses cover pretty indepth PBX config and also installation.

Hope the above helps.

[d3xt0r]

I generally got a bit lucky with Telecoms. I used to work in a call centre doing 3rd level tech support and wanted a change as they outsourced. I randomly applied to a telecoms company in Bridgend and to my suprise, passed the interview and got the job. I had no experience or quals in Telecoms but he wanted to vocationally train me.

I did download a whole bunch of telecom info eg, cabling, colour coding, voltages, basic testing and fault finding etc etc...all this is online, and I have a few ebooks if you want too.

My boss (was only 3 people employed) took me out with him for the next 2 months to jobs and I watched a learnt. This coupled with loads of pretty scary prac in the office helped. I recall being so scared that I wouldnt be able to learn it all, but it did sink in and here I am today programming pretty hefty PBX`s and what not.

I have since changed companies but I found it so easy to stroll into a telecoms based job, after having the experience initially.

My job entails:
Site visits to fault find
Site visits to reprogram
Site visits to install data/telecom cabling and PBX`s
Site visits to survey work
Site visits for user training
and a bit of workbench time to learn more.

Its quite a diverse job too. I mean Monday I was configuring SIP trunks on our office PBX. Tuesday I was upgrading IP phones to the latest Siemens software level. Wednesday I was in Stonehouse recovering £10k of equipment. Thursday I was in Newport on a doorphone fault (some fucker unpatched it). Today I am doing remote changes for a customer from the office. I am also in Scotland in March for a large system install and some cable jointing. Not much though. I`ll be flying there.

All in all I enjoy the job. I get freedom to work at my own pace which is great.

edit: also was sent on some dealer training courses. These are useful in seeking alternative employment. So far have covered NEC, Panasonic and Siemens. All courses cover pretty indepth PBX config and also installation.

Hope the above helps.

Wouldnt mind any ebooks people have, would be much appreciated. I've just downloaded a complete guide to passing the CCNA course, PDF is 1007 pages long

d3xt0r

[Welsh Pete]

Do we still have blaggards ftp? Or do you have an email addy?