I have loved this forum from the minute I discovered it, and learn something new every time I come here. To give a brief background, I was a Navy electronics technician for 6 years where I worked on weapons and targeting systems among other equipment. My "main job" was to troubleshoot, maintain, and repair a Unisys 2200-type mainframe system with a Solaris emulated peripheral suite, and a Red Hat based training simulator which was all connected through a fiber LAN and Cisco routing/switching equipment. On the side, I taught myself a good understanding of the current IT market - mostly on the Windows Server/Hyper-V end with a little time with pfSense and FreeNAS and ESXI.
After leaving the Navy (with no college education so far), I wandered into the field of RF Engineering and Broadcast Engineering as a field engineer for my organization. I now deal with a LOT more electrical engineering work than before, mostly working with TV, FM, and amateur radio transmitters. With it, we own a 29-site microwave network which gives me some exposure to our "TowerNet" which is a DS3 circuit being ran through Marconi ATM switches to Cisco IP routing/switching for everything from IP services at each site to our main TV and FM feeds being multiplexed on the circuit. I deal with Linux, Windows, and networking in general.
As I am itching to use my GI Bill, I am now conflicted at to where I want to go in terms of studies. I have always been an "electrical engineer" and had my hands in software - with a good understanding of networking, OSes, and some server implementations which keeps me valuable here. However, I don't know if I should steer myself towards an Information Technology degree, Electrical Engineering degree, Computer Science degree, or Computer Engineering degree (which is my first pick). The biggest thing is I want to eventually move my career over towards IT and Systems Administration rather than be a programmer or DB admin, and don't want to stay as a "electrical field engineer" forever just since it seems to be a dying breed, especially in the RF field.
I would love to know how everyone got started and where they are now, and what you think is the most relevant education for this industry in its current form.
After leaving the Navy (with no college education so far), I wandered into the field of RF Engineering and Broadcast Engineering as a field engineer for my organization. I now deal with a LOT more electrical engineering work than before, mostly working with TV, FM, and amateur radio transmitters. With it, we own a 29-site microwave network which gives me some exposure to our "TowerNet" which is a DS3 circuit being ran through Marconi ATM switches to Cisco IP routing/switching for everything from IP services at each site to our main TV and FM feeds being multiplexed on the circuit. I deal with Linux, Windows, and networking in general.
As I am itching to use my GI Bill, I am now conflicted at to where I want to go in terms of studies. I have always been an "electrical engineer" and had my hands in software - with a good understanding of networking, OSes, and some server implementations which keeps me valuable here. However, I don't know if I should steer myself towards an Information Technology degree, Electrical Engineering degree, Computer Science degree, or Computer Engineering degree (which is my first pick). The biggest thing is I want to eventually move my career over towards IT and Systems Administration rather than be a programmer or DB admin, and don't want to stay as a "electrical field engineer" forever just since it seems to be a dying breed, especially in the RF field.
I would love to know how everyone got started and where they are now, and what you think is the most relevant education for this industry in its current form.