Certifications Goals for 2015

zxbane

Sitting for the PMP exam Mid May 2015

Madmd5

Linux+ (both exams within the next month or so ideally)

CCENT (by the end of summer)

CCNA (by the end of year)

Deathmage

CCENT (Mid May)

CCNA (Mid July)

Storage + (September)

MCSA Pursuit (October) onward into 2016...

rudegeek

70-411 (End of June) - retake

GCWN- (Mid-July)

OSCP (Mid-August)

VCP (Mid-September)

70-412 (December) -MCSA

CISSP (End of 2015)

Lofty Goals. Yes! Attainable Yes!!!. Currently dedicating 30 hrs + for OSCP. Is that pace sustainable thru the end of the year, maybe! It's a lot easier to study security than it is Microsoft, that's for sure.

Thus, why 2015 = Relationship-Free Year.....

Wish everybody luck!

Deathmage

Doyen wrote: »

Looking back at my goals for 2014, I feel as if I have been slacking for this year. Through a life style change of dedicated studying, I was able earn 6 certifications that year. CCNA: Routing and Switch was my 3^rd attempt and it took 2 attempts to pass VMware VCP5-DCV. I also had the rare luxury of being single, no kids, full time college, and part time at my retail job. I was able to get a career in IT on October of that year with only CCNA: Security and Linux+ left on my list. However, with learning my job position taking most of my free time, I barely was able to squeeze my CCNA: Security goal until the second week of December of 2014. I unfortunately failed to start studying for Linux+ that year.

I was able to take advantages of opportunities that my college provided with certifications. Besides having the testing center at the university, the cost for the certification vouchers was only $15 for the first attempt and only $20 for the second attempt. So my expense for certification vouchers in 2014 was only $390 since I had to pay out of pocket for my 3^rd attempt at CCNA: Routing & Switching ($295). Since I became a graduate in January of this year, I earned 5 certification vouchers with the graduate cost of $20 for the first attempt and $40 for a second attempt. Two of them I am planning to use for CASP and CEHv8. The other 3 I can use for either retakes or other certifications.

I have not studied for certifications this year and have not visited the forum as often as I used to due to work. I intend to change that since I feel I can hold myself accountable for my goals and be motivated with the accomplishments of others with the TechExams forums. I still have the same advantages of being single and not having any kids, but I found that it seems harder for me to find study time while I have a career in the IT field… and I don’t know why. So my signature has my goals for 2015, but I am being realistic and breaking down my certification goals to exams in hope of ultimately earning that certification.

My CASP voucher only covers the first version of the exam that is going to retire on June 30, 2015 which is why I am working on that certification first. I read that the Linux+’s LX0-101 and LX0-102 are being retired on August 30, 2015. It states on CompTIA’s website that the older exams cannot be carried over to the newer LX0-103 and LX0-104 so I will have to make the choice of whether to study for the 101/102 or 103/104. I tend to go for older exams since there is more material for it, yet I will study the newer version if I feel that I won’t make the cutoff time for the older exam’s retire date.

I have intentions for applying to WGU’s MSISA program, but I wanted to get the CASP out of the way first and possibly Linux+ before their current exam expires. Still, I don’t know how my certification goals will be affected while attending WGU. I also plan to take advantage of my ISSA chapter’s CISSP review class that they are offering. Though I don’t have the experience to gain a CISSP certification, I tossed it on my goals to at least pass the examination and hope the opportunity to build experience will follow.

My apologies for the long post, but I think I needed to express it mainly to myself and hold myself accountable to my goals for this year. I feel that I have to keep learning to be as smart as I should be. I am not studying for the certification, but using it as a reward in order to self-justify the culmination of what I learned on a topic through dedicated studying. Otherwise, if feel that the IT certification is showing that you knew what you needed to know at the time you took that exam…

Keep at it brother! - I'm struggling to stay on task myself with my CCNA study with my workload at work. I had plans to take the exam next Thursday but moved it to the three week in May cause the past two weeks I've been doing a wireless survey/deployment and it took me away from my studies. But now I'm back on-track...

upbeatdreamer

For 2015:
1) CEH
2) CISM

For 2016:
1) CISSP

jleydon82

Being in IT for awhile I was getting angry at myself not having up-to-date certs so started turning things around a bit in 2013 with a decent push to get certs often. Although I got a new job last year which is a lot of amazing work (with no time to study at work) - I kept trying to push myself to get some quality certs. For 2014 I ended up with 70-325 (Administering Office 365 for SMB), 70-409 (Server Virtualization with Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center), 70-410 (Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012). Then I took a few cheap/free certs earlier in the year including VMware VCA (Cloud and Datacenter) which were pretty easy and two Amazon AWS certs.

This year my plan which is going well so far is:
January - March: Had a baby, no study time because no sleep
April - VMware VCP550 (Passed this week)
June - Microsoft 70-411 (Administering)
September - Microsoft 70-412 (Advanced) - This will be MCSA
November - EMC Storage or Linux related depending on current projects

Params7

Passed that CCNA. Ordered the CCNP Route 300-101 Route book. Really want to wrap up the complete CCNP cert by the end of the year.

Also moved back to U.S. (CNJ area) from India. Looking to find any gig related to networking. Feel free to PM me if you know any roles available.

Doyen

Deathmage wrote: »

Keep at it brother! - I'm struggling to stay on task myself with my CCNA study with my workload at work. I had plans to take the exam next Thursday but moved it to the three week in May cause the past two weeks I've been doing a wireless survey/deployment and it took me away from my studies. But now I'm back on-track...

That's good to hear my friend. Are you still on track for May? I think I'll go for my CASP on Tuesday 5/26/15.

ispep13

CEH and CASP. Failed CEH the first time. I have a CASP boot camp in late June.

alias454

I have been thinking about this lately and have decided it will be good to write it down somewhere. This seems like as good a place as any. It may be fairly aggressive to try and jam my list into this year but I am going to give it my best shot.

Goals for this year 2015
CCNA - by end of June
VCP-DCV - by end of August
Security+ - by End of September
CEH - by end of 2015

I decided I am going to do the single test route for the CCNA so I need to buckle down and get through the Chris Bryant videos and finish reading my books then go through all the labs I have. I am about half way through studying for the CCNA. The VCP should be straight forward since I work with it everyday and was the architect of the solution at work. Sec+ and CEH fall right in-line with what my BS concentration was so by the end of this year, I should be able to relax a little.

To help put the pressure on myself, I am scheduling the CCNA and the VCP this weekend and will see how it goes in a month or three. This forum is a source of inspiration and a place where I am able to waste time, which is bad. I will need to be very focused for the rest of the year to hit my marks so wish me luck.

antc

Hopefully this post will act as a reminder for me at the end of the year to look back on and also motivation for getting some exams done.

Aims for 2015 are fairly simple and straight forward for me -

1. ITIL 2011 Foundation
2. Considering Prince 2 Foundation (need to read more about this)
3. MS Windows Server Essentials 98-365 (Depending on if I stay in the tech side or not)

But hopefully I can bust those all out before Christmas 2015, thats my goal anyway. I need to get back into certification and training and I really enjoy it once I get started.

kukku

had CISM exam today..wanted to take ISSAP or ISSMP next..All the other plans will be based on CISM result..

E Double U

Passed CISSP in March. Completed SANS SEC504 training last month so I plan to take GCIH by September. If I can't get into another SANS training this year then I will consider CISA.

Goteki54

Just passed Network+ and going for Server+ by September

soccarplayer29

I like seeing all these goals and progress!

My only certification goal for 2015 was CISSP and I luckily knocked that our in march prior to the exam update/scoring analysis which I think we've all noticed was a little sloppy to say the least.

I think my next certifications (possibly late 2015 or 2016 depending on company budget) will be ITIL foundations and CEH (I've heard the and am aware of the opinions on this cert) for the business IT operations and tour of the tools as I am an IT auditor currently and want some insight into those things.

Congrats to everyone planning to increase their knowledge, credentials, value to companies, etc!

Jasiono

CCNA and CCNA Security
I think Project+ as well. Not sure if WGU requires it but all I have left this year for WGU is ICND1 and 2 and CCNA Security

markulous

My goal is to have my MCSA 2012 by the end of the year. With that and a CCNA + some decent experience working on servers/firewalls/rouiters, I should be primed to get a nice bump in pay next year.

gorebrush

gorebrush wrote: »

2015: CCIE DC prep - that's it for this year.

I've changed this MANY times. I have various streams I want to pursue.

CCIE: Security really is what makes sense given where I am in my company.
CCIE: SP - makes no sense for the country I live in - I don't even think there are many SP positions in Wales
CCIE: DC - getting on the equipment makes it tricky, and well, it's not the be all and end all.

VMWare VCP-NV/VCIX-NV - got these bubbling in the background. Bit disappointed when I learned that the VCP-NV isn't enough to get you through the course requirement for other VCP tracks, so might have to do VCIX straight up... but we'll see.

I need to do another IE: Written next year anyway so figure I might as well learn something else and do Security.

MrAgent

Ive changed a couple of times as well.
Though I did finish my masters degree and the OSCP.
I am working on CISSP and may end up taking a slight detour and getting CASP before that.

N2IT

@Agent just curious why you would go for the CASP over the CISSP?

Indeed you get over 12,000 hits nationally off of the CISSP, you get barely 600 nationally off of the CASP.

JoJoCal19

Agree with N2IT, I'd skip the CASP as the ROI just isn't there and if you can get the CISSP, why bother?

flyerxl

New job, as a sys admin! So my goals are changing a bit to app specific certifications. Still plugging away on the mcsa server 2012 though

Mooseboost

My goal for 2-15 is to have the ROUTE and SWITCH passed before the end of the year ~ With any luck I may have the TSHOOT knocked out too. No rush though and I know 6 months is a short time frame for moving from CCNA to CCNP.

jcp1856

goals you say? Ok my very ambitious goals are MCSA Server 2012, CCA-V, and ITIL Foundations.

BK Mathivanan

Goals for 2015? CISSP and CRISC. Working on CISSP now.

BK Mathivanan

MrAgent wrote: »

Ive changed a couple of times as well.
Though I did finish my masters degree and the OSCP.
I am working on CISSP and may end up taking a slight detour and getting CASP before that.

Work on CISSP. Worth for your hard work!!!

thomas_

VCP-DCV, Linux+, and maybe an AWS cert or two.

Kinet1c

Kinet1c wrote: »

Didn't really get through what I wanted to in 2014 (now will I) so I'm going to say either VCP-DCV[5,6] or LPIC-2/RHCSA. Will hopefully get through the first year of Bsc with no hiccups too.

BSc part of it done. Started in to RHCSA7 too

nster

For the second half of 2015, I'm aiming for CCNA and an MCSA (70-410, 70-411, 70-642).

VCP5.5-DCV for Q1 2016 would be ideal as well