Hi, to anyone who can help. I'm about to move to the Ft. Gordon, GA area in about a week with my husband. I plan on attending an online school (probably University of Phoenix Online), but I'm not exactly sure which IT career degree to go with. I was wondering if there were any military spouses out there with an IT degree/occupation who could give any advice about different salaries in this field, as far as which occupation involves which salary, which one is better, interesting, etc.. Also, I was looking at job opportunities to see how the need for people in this particular occupation was, and it looks very promising for the future. Does anyone know how the online program works for the computer courses, as far as how difficult and/or time consuming the classes are? The reason I'm asking isn't because I don't want to do the work, or put forth the effort, but I have a 2-yr. old little girl who constantly keeps me busy. I need to invest in a career that I'm going to enjoy, but also provides substantially for my family. Any advice or input would be helpful. Thanks.

I work in IT for the military-i do not have an undergraduate IT degree-i do have a masters in project management for IT systems but i have not used those skills. a degree in management of information systems or any degree that includes getting certificates like the CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, MCSE and RedHat certifications will stand you in good stead getting it jobs. I actually work for General Dynamics as a contractor doing work in battle simulations-the pay is reasonable-im not getting rich but added to my husbands military pay it does allow us to send a couple of kids to an expensive university. What i do is very portable for a military spouse-there are simulation centers at every major installation in the world-but also very specialized-i would for the general goal of getting employed in IT rather than for specific jobs that are with the military since there are often other requirements like past service or security clearances for those jobs.

This isn't firsthand knowledge - but my dad does programming, which he's done since well before I was born. In terms of salary, well I'll say (keeping in mind that he has been doing it a LONG time and that he has a Bachelor's Degree) that he makes 6 figures. My husband does networking (that's his MOS), and the research that we did beforehand as well as consulting with my dad shows that there's equally as much promise. I don't know about Programming but Networking can be a bit tedious according to DH. My dad's work has taken him all over the place, including Asia and pretty much all over the United States. They do contract work with both private and public sector, etc. So in terms of variety, just from hearing both of them talk about their work it would sound like programming would be more "interesting" - but my husband also doesn't have the time in that my dad does.

And granted, those are just two fields of many that you could look at ...