Imagine someone near and dear to you, such as a significant other, best friend, or child, is looking for some career advice. Lets call this person John. John is looking for a good field to start a career. John heard that computers are the future and there is a shortage of people in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). John is thinking of going to college to get a degree in Network administration because it sounded interesting.

John doesn’t know if this is a good decision or not. This is because he also read articles that says there are too many STEM graduates for the available jobs. John also read that companies have outsourced a lot of IT jobs overseas or have used something called an H-1B Visas to hire foreigners that work for next to nothing.

John watched a video on youtube called Did you know? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrJjfDUzD7M that says today’s learners will have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38. Having so many different jobs over a life time sounds intimidating to John. John wonders if it is better to learn theory or practical skills to prepare himself for the job market.

John is also confused about what he has to get hired. There are many places that offer education, training, and/or certification. He doesn’t know the difference between all the options but he understands that some routes are out of his price range. He is worried that his first job might not pay enough to cover the education/training/certification process. John is also confused about transferability of college credit.

I want you to conduct some research that can answer John’s concerns. You should submit a paper 3 to 5 pages in length that covers the following at a minimum:

• What are the job outlook for network administrators at the local, state, and national level?
• Are there any IT related fields that have better job outlooks?
• How much money can a network administrator hope to make starting out? What about mid-career and late career?
• Is this a job that is vulnerable to outsourcing?
• Explain what H-1B visas are and how they impact IT jobs.
• What certifications are there for network administration?
• Who offers these certifications and what’s different about them (i.e. vendor specific vs vendor neutral)?
• What combination of college degree/certificate, work experience, or industry certificate are needed to get an entry level job in network administration?
• What should John do to be competitive in the age we live in? Should he focus on job training, theory, or a combination? Will he need to continue his education once he gets his first job?
• Explain the differences between for profit colleges and non-profit colleges. Also explain the differences between regionally and nationally accredited colleges and how it affects transferability of college credit.
• Be sure to properly cite sources using MLA, APA, or Chicago style formatting.