Need some advice

many110

I have over ten years of experience building/repairing custom PC's and networks. I have been doing this on the side and I have come to the point where I have decided to make this my main career. So I began to get some certs. to back up my experience/knowledge. I currently have my CompTIA A+ and NETWORK+. My question is where do I go next? lol Although I have had some knocks at my door, I have not been offered any good jobs as of yet. My question is, witch cert. should I acquire next? My choices are either stick with CompTIA and go for Security+ or move in a new direction and go for CCNA? Now I realize that these two certs lead you in different paths, but witch one of these two would help open more doors for me? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

nelson8403

Maybe look into each path and find what path interests you more, you don't want to get a cert or job just because it's a "good job" you want to do something you are interested in and you won't burn out after 5 months because you can't get yourself into it.

There are a lot of different ways you can take your career: sysadmin (windows or linux), security (policy, operations), networking, data center, virtualization (sometimes under sysadmin), programmer, helpdesk support etc.. this is just the surface of jobs. Don't get into it for the money, get into it because you enjoy doing it, if you enjoy building/repairing PCs look at a helpdesk position and move up once you're more comfortable. Without network experience, security experience or system administrator experience most of your jobs will be entry level either way.

techfiend

I'd say CCNA would open more doors like noc technician. Security field seems very difficult to get into without IT experience.