Help me decide
 

I'm currently on an IT apprenticeship for 5 months, I get 7 certifications 4 of those being vendor qualifications. These would include the; MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional), MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator), CompTIA A+ & N+, plus three employability certifications.

The place where I'm attending the course tends to get people into call centres as first line support, but that doesn't appeal to me in any way, shape or form. So I was thinking, should I go to uni after or maybe take a gap year and try and get some part time work in a small business' tech department?
I cant really decide myself since both options are a bit vague. The main problem is that I don't really want to work myself to death, I know my way around a computer like the layout of my house, since I like doing all the diagnostics and shiz and then whipping it open. I'm just not sure the course I'm on will want to give that in the end so that's why I'm questioning the path I want to take when I finish.
Haha, it might seem like a waste of good qualifications if I don't at least try and use them but that doesn't really matter to me, I'd rather work and be happy with what I'm doing than be depressed and rich.

Opinions anyone?

RE: Help me decide
 

Let me run this by my roomate he is in classes for similiar things and see what he has to say :)

RE: Help me decide
 

Okays, I can hand on for another 4 and a half months xD

RE: Help me decide
 

You should also ask OD about these things.

I think he knows about stuff like this.

RE: Help me decide
 

I will try posting, hope this works with this fail of an internet connection.....but I believe you should follow the path of what you would like to do. The apprenticeship is a nice thing to have under the belt, and with it, it would look good on any job application or even college/university transcript. Depending on the school, with the apprenticeship may even waive some of the classes/credits needed to be earned towards the IT degree of choice.

But if you want my opinion, go down the path you think you be happiest down. My cousin did this kind of stuff, and well lets just say he hates it now, he took the apprenticeship, then went to school for it, only for a couple years, then quit all because he started to hate it. So see if you can get your foot in the door at some local tech. department, might i recommend BestBuy or local PC repair shops?

RE: Help me decide
 

I was thinking a local PC shop, well as local as I can get that is. The eventually leading on to starting my own business when I've earned enough cash. I've never been that bothered about having money as long as I'm happy.
I'll start of by looking for shops to work in then, we don't have best buy or anything like that here and the big PC chains are desk based and use remote PC, which I despise. So I should be able to root around and try to find a small workshop or at least advertise my services in the local papers and mention my qualifications.

Cheers for the input everyone, I'll find my way with it eventually, I'm lucky like that. =)
and thanks OD its always good hearing it from someone who has seen something like this before.

RE: Help me decide
 

sounds good either way, choose what your heart tels you too.

RE: Help me decide
 

I'm currently on the last few weeks of the apprenticeship so I've not got much option but to finish now, I may go into retail since I don;t wanna be answering phones all day but I suppose it could be worth while if I can bag a place at some PC shop and work my way up to tech department.