Associates in Computer ... something?

[theonlyski]

He said he wants to do pretty much everything with computers for a career. Hardware. Programming. IT also.
He has some IT experience already.

This may come off as negative, but I do not mean it to be in any way negative.

Very VERY rarely does a person become a master at their craft doing 'pretty much everything with computers'. I have been in the technology world for about 15 years (and was a hobbyist before then).

In that time I've done:
Very light electrical engineering
Dial up tech support (yes, really)
PC Repair, PC building
Data center wiring
Satellite communications (military and as a government contractor)
Active directory administration
Sharepoint administration
LIGHT programming (I am lazy so my tool of choice is usually AutoIT, but I am able to work my way through BASH, PHP, JavaScript, HTML or C++ if the need arises)
Network (wired and wireless) administration, engineering and architecture
Network security
Some server virtualization

While I could get most jobs done, I am not the go to guy (at work) for anything but networking and network security. There is just way too much stuff to keep up with to stay current on everything. Time after time we see organizations which have one or a few "Jack of all trades, master of none" type people running the IT and it's kind of difficult to see how sub-optimal everything is running and how stressed out the IT staff are trying to do a million things.

I feel it is far better to work on something specific that he's most passionate about, but keep playing with other things that interest him. If he's not sure, there's no harm in playing the field, but it's pretty hard to set your focus on something that's so wide and expect to have much job satisfaction in the long term. I've worked in several things to see what I liked and didn't like and have progressed and specialized in things that I like more and more. Even now, I have a pretty good industry certification but when I meet with other people who have more than I do, I am humbled by how little I know about some things.

TL;DR Focus on a more narrow subject matter that most interests him, if it turns out he doesn't like it, then focus on something else. It doesn't hurt to play with different aspects but trying to do everything all the time is painful in the end.