Skipping CompTIA?

Hello all, I am new here and have been lurking around and have a question for you nice people. First off, I am a Junior in high school and i plan to take Information Technology + MBA at my state university, and before I start college I want to try to get some certs. I've been looking around and it seems that the preferred route is to start with A+, and Net+ and then move on into higher Cisco/Microsoft certs once more experience is obtained. However, when it comes down to salary and value for certs, the CompTIA duo really never seems to do much. So my question is, is it okay to just skip these and start with something like the CCENT or possibly even the CCNA? or on the microsoft side MTA or even MCSA? Networking is obviously my area of interest.

When it comes to my experience, none really, I'm just your typical computer nerd. I've skimmed over A+ material and I think I know most of it, except the really specific stuff that will never be needed(max throughput on a USB 3.0..really?)...but when it comes to networking I just know the basics, couldn't subnet for the life of me. I've seen many people advise for novices like myself to take the Net+ before CCENT or MTA/MCSA etc to get a solid foundation..but if Net+ material is covered in CCENT, etc (plus more) what is the point? If experienced pros like yourselves could go back to when you started and were in my position, what would you do?

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NotHackingYou

I would do them in this order - A+, CCENT, CCNA, Security+

dave330i

I went CCENT, CCNA then Sec+. I wouldn't change it.

ajs1976

Let's do some Math. 1 1/2 years high school remaining + 4 years of undergrad + minimum 1 year grad school = 6 1/2 years. The certs have either continuing ed or expiration and I think they are all on a three year cycle.

My advice
- Look into the IT program and see which courses will help with cert prep and which cert prep will help with courses. Plan accordingly.
- Save the certs until your junior and senior year of undergrad
- Again, look into the school you are attending and see if you can knock out any lower level classes by taking classes at community college or through CLEP or DSST exams
- Make sure to get an internship while you are in school
- Just incase you missed it, make sure to get an internship while you are in school

OfWolfAndMan

Of course the salary is not great starting out, but being you want to get it knocked out now says a lot. My roommate actually got his A+ when he was 16.

As for the usefulness of CompTIA certs? If you ever plan to become involved with military contractor or military itself, you will probably need it for 8570 requirement purposes. If you plan on moving up the ladder elsewhere, you can start with A+, but realize after a certain point, these certs will become trivial once you pursue something higher, whether it be MCSA, CCNA, CEH, whatever. Use it as a foot in the door. It's not gonna be a cornerstone to make you moneybags, but it's a start. Heck, if you want to get even farther ahead of the game, start with the MCSA, CCNA, or even JNCIA. You can't just want it for the money though.

ProFamous

@ajs1976 You've got me down good. Yup, senior year of high school im doing full enrollment in community college and getting general ed out of the way. My college of choice University of Cincinnati is known for their internship program so I am good there as well. It just seems a waste of time at the moment to not be pursuing any certs, where in the future I imagine i will not be able to find the time as easily. So I think taking advice from everyone, I'll start with CCENT and see how it goes from there, in case anyone has any valid reason to take any CompTIAs first? Besides millitary...I am aware of this requirement but if I ever do decide to do any govt job, I would think the Net+/A+ would be a piece of cake after something like the CCNA, so I could just take that if needed. and @OfWolfAndMan nope I'm not doing it for the money (tho money is nice

) just looking for somewhere to start.

Vask3n

ajs1976 wrote: »

- Just incase you missed it, make sure to get an internship while you are in school

I would echo this advice 100%. I would recommend getting your foot in the door while you are still in school- not when you graduate or when you are close to graduating, but before that. It will help you build your experience while everyone else is only doing classes.

I don't think it's an age game but I did a similar route like you- I did CompTIA back when I was in high school, A+ at 15 then Security+ at 16, but this was back when both were lifelong certs.

I then took and failed CCNA twice in my senior year of high school, then didn't take any cert exams until my junior year of college (~3-4 years later) where I got CCENT, then the rest after college.

Just keep hacking away but don't forget to enjoy your high school and college years.

JockVSJock

I would skip CompTIA, they were too expensive, they expire now and there is very little demand for these certs.

JoJoCal19

dave330i wrote: »

I went CCENT, CCNA then Sec+. I wouldn't change it.

JockVSJock wrote: »

I would skip CompTIA, they were too expensive, they expire now and there is very little demand for these certs.

Agree with these. I just let my Network+ and Security+ expire a week ago. They did absolutely nothing for me and didn't help in getting any jobs. As a matter of fact they were completely overlooked when I applied for and interviewed for jobs.

As you know most all of the important A+ material, I would pick up the Network+ book and study it and do the practice exams. If you feel you know the material, move on to the CCENT and actually do the CCENT certification. Then you can move on to the CCNA. As for security, I would recommend picking up the Security+ book and studying it, again skipping the certification. Then I would do the CCNA Security.

MeanDrunkR2D2

As others have stated, wait until you are closer to graduation to take those certs and there is nothing wrong with skipping the A+. I do have mine (the old forever version) and it does check a box for HR types who don't know what the certifications mean when they are looking for candidates. Will not having the A+ hurt you? Probably not. It's still not bad to get an entry level job without it. But it can give you a heads up on others who don't have it and it's one of the pieces that they are looking for.

Definitely get into an internship program while you are in college as that will help you out immensely and be far more valuable than the Comptia certs.

Now as far as the MS or Cisco certs. I would definitely wait until you are in your Sr. year of your undergrad to get those. Many will expire and the last thing you want is to have your CCNA expire before you even hit the job market after graduation. As far as the MS certs go, you can do those any time and of course upgrade to the newer versions as they roll out. I probably wouldn't waste my time with the MTA, but instead focus on the MCSA for windows 7 for now and maybe look at the MCSA for windows 10 when that comes out in the future as well as the MCSA 2012 on the server side. By the time you are out of college, 2008 will be getting very close to EOL and I would suspect that many companies will have transitioned to 2012 and newer.

Mitechniq

I myself regret taking any CompTIA certs and should have started straight with CCENT, luckily CCNA SEC has been added to the DOD 8570 IAT Level II so there is no longer any need to do Security +....

If you take your CCENT Sophomore, CCNA Junior and CCNA SEC Senior that will avoid any of them from expiring.... and it doesn't feel like such an extra burden on top of school.
.

bobloblaw

If I had to pay out of pocket, I wouldn't get any CompTIA certs.

(edit: *maybe* the CASP to satisfy 8570 IAT 3)

Nersesian

ProFamous wrote: »

However, when it comes down to salary and value for certs, the CompTIA duo really never seems to do much.

Yeah...that's going to depend on how you leverage your qualifications during an interview. Otherwise, I would have no reason to have these large bags of cash just sitting around.

My advice if you're interested in networking? Sit for the Net+, and if you pass it, move on to the CCENT. (Its easy right?...you should be out in under an hour) Find out if you actually like enterprise level networking before you decide if you want to learn how to subnet in your head. Why? Because the CCENT has a wider scope and is focused on Cisco centric technology where as the Net+ is vendor neutral and allows you to wrap your dome around concepts outside of Cisco.

Vask3n

Nersesian wrote: »

A word of advice - you might want to pass an exam before you feel entitled enough to pass judgement.

Unfortunately, the mindset of the new generation of cert-takers and millenials in IT is that everyone has everything figured out and just looks for the easiest/fastest way to reach the end goal without the experience or journey involved.

Not only that, but everyone needs to have this information spoon-fed to them even though these answers have been given a million times over.

Nersesian

Vask3n wrote: »

Unfortunately, the mindset of the new generation of cert-takers and millenials in IT is that everyone has everything figured out and just looks for the easiest/fastest way to reach the end goal without the experience or journey involved.

Not only that, but everyone needs to have this information spoon-fed to them even though these answers have been given a million times over.

I edited my response as it may have come off a bit prickly which wasn't my intent. I actually just got out of another CompTIA exam (Cloud+) in order to gain a greater level of understanding on our virtual environment. Was it easy? No, but I may be a bit more simple in the head compared to the rest of you high speed folks.

I'm not really sure what the stated goal here was.

OP wants a gig in networking.
OP knows certs and a degree will get him there.
OP doesn't want to sit for an "easy" exam.

Its your money OP. Spend it how you want to.