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Anyone have any suggestions of how a beginning student can start to gain some experience. I am taking courses at the local tech school and am going for my mcp, ccna, net + certs. I am in my first semester and don’t have the time for a full blown internship but would like to spend a few hours a week doing something to help me gain real world experience. I am focusing on networking either hardware instals or admin.

3 Spice ups
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I would contact some local non-profit groups and volunteer some of your time to help them out and gain experience. It wouldn’t be paid, but since you are donating your time you have more control over the hours and the experience will be valuable in the long run.

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Gotta second the volunteer for non-profits vote. I’ve been suggesting that for years. You can get some great experience there and unlike a lot of other unpaid or low paying positions it will look great on your resume for forever. Plus you often get to do a lot of things that a regular business would not let you do simply because of the nature of the business.

Look for private schools, churches, local charities, foundations, etc.

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Check out my " Do IT " article series that talks about getting your foot in the door of IT.

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Additionally, get some serious equipment and do work at home. Do crazy things at home that most other people don’t get to do even at the office. This shows dedication which is important as well as cradle to grave experience with technologies which is often lacking in corporate-trained folks.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look into some non profits in the coming weeks.

Scott I plan on getting a new laptop in Oct/Nov and setting up a small lan w my desktop. I was also talking with my wife about adding some old cheap pcs to make a bigger lan just to play around with. I got 5 rooms in the house figure I could get some old pcs from goodwill or a thrift/pawn store and hook a pc in each room and just try stuff. Also once I get a new laptop would I be able to run my desktop as a server for added experience and if so are there any free server software that would be worthwhile to play around w on my future lan?

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Btw Scott I read some of your article and the information is very helpful. I think you should try and get it published so people in my situation will have access to the valuable info in your articles. Very informative thanks.

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Scott Alan Miller wrote:

Additionally, get some serious equipment and do work at home. Do crazy things at home that most other people don’t get to do even at the office.

I went that route, and had a lot of fun doing it :slight_smile:

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@ghmcmur - Thanks. Also, it looks like you are in North Carolina? If so, contact Craig M. and the SpiceCorps NC group and see if you can get involved there. Spending time with other IT Pros is a great way to differentiate yours and to improve your skills by seeing real world problems and solutions in action.

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Thanks Scott how do I get in touch Craig M and Spics Corps. I am actually in SC About 30 mins outside Charlotte.

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http://community.spiceworks.com/profile/show/Craig%20M

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I’ve found non profits need all the help they can get. ARC, Salvation Army, United Way, your local church, mosque, or such, they all have computers and networks, and money is sometimes tight for them and they’re usually happy to get all the help they can get. it also looks real good on resumes, and these folks given great recommendations

Also, let friends know (who knows, you might at least get dinner out of it). Interested in making a dollar or two, there’s always craigslist. Toss a leader out, and see what happens.