It is almost afternoon now and our friends had gone to do her research in the morning. We might go to Stone Heaven in the afternoon depending on the weather. Initially, we thought of going to a strawberry farm nearby but one of their friends changed their mind because they have something else to do. Well, what can we do when we are just followers? Another one and a half day we will be back to Basingstoke. We did not buy many things because there is nothing to buy actually; only some souvenirs like fridge magnets. However, I still need to buy some shortbread for my colleagues because I have not seen them for a week and they should all know that I am in Scotland.

Most people say that the first job will often determine your future career. Somehow, it is quite true but does not really apply to my situation. Things changed drastically over the years for me. My first job was working as a System Support Executive. That had continued for about four years in three different companies, managing and supporting different systems which were being sold by the companies. However, my fourth job was administering network. Even though the title was still System Support Executive, but the job responsibilities were System Administrator’s.

After which, I had decided to come to the UK to further my studies in Microsoft Certified System Engineer and Cisco Certified Network Association with the aim to improve my knowledge as well as hoping to get a job after my studies. I am now in my fifth job as a MIS technician but the job’s role is more of Database Administrator and System Support. My decision to study MCSE was to put the bits and pieces in place from what I had learnt from my fourth job while I believe CCNA will be a great help in my future career as I will still explore in IT.

I would like to consider myself as experience IT support but I was not strong in networking and I must admit that Cisco certification is useful and most of the companies are using Cisco equipment. The different between obtaining a degree and a certified certification such as Cisco is various. Studying degree nowadays is essential but employers feel that the scope of teaching is too wide while certification will impress the employers as a better skilled candidate in regards to the type of jobs that you are applying.

We are back to Aberdeen now. My blog real ranks has dropped to 5000s as expected. I hardly had the time to update my blog while I was away. Most of the time, we would reach our hotel or guest house in the middle of the night and we were all tired and exhausted. And the next day in the morning, we had to get up and continue our journey. We had been to John O’ Groats, Orkney, Loch Ness, Glasgow, Edinburgh Castle and some other place which I will definitely blog about it after I get back to Basingstoke. Right now, I am using my friend’s laptop, have to be fast and give it back to her. Oh, by the way, we took lots and lots of pictures and at the end of the day, our cameras were low on battery.