Cert advise

Hi there folks, been lurking on the forums reading all I can but I was looking for extra advise. First off I'm new to IT as a career but not IT in general. I've always worked with computers/networks/etc since I was 10 (27 now) but never got into it professionally. I'm currently an IT Support Specialist (I guess Desktop Support more specifically) for a call center. Between the 3 buildings we occupy I would say I'm responsible for 300+ machines/users. Now I was lucky to get this position as I made a good impression with my boss as I have no certifications or college education to back up my abilities. He is encouraging me to get the following certs to better myself and help open more doors for me later on.

A+
Network+
Security+

Was just wondering what others you could offer up as a recommendation to help me later on. Now unfortunately I don't know what career path to go down yet as I've only been at this for 2 months now, so I'm mainly looking for general certs that might apply to multiple career paths. Thanks in advance folks.

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Comments

E Double U

Welcome!

Those CompTIA certs are perfect general certs to get when you don't know what career path you want to take. Then after that I hope that you get exposed to the wonderful worlds of Cisco, ISC2, and SANS.

kohr-ah

Good for you for getting foot in the door!

You can knock those 3 out very quickly. About a month a piece easily. Then from there they should give you a taste of if you want to dive into a specific field more and then I'd start on those certs. (MS, Cisco, etc)

goobacks

Sorry for the late response, been swamped at work (java issues and driving between our locations). Thanks for the advice, I'm glad it matches up with my managers advice. I'm currently studying for A+, seems easy enough except for certain terms I've never bothered with haha. He is more into Security than anything else and he says that's a good path to take, but I'm not sure about that for me. I personally love hardware and am dabbling in networking at home and whenever I'm allowed to here at work. Just wondering what path you folks are on and if it feels rewarding. This was a big jump for me coming from retail and I'm still kinda nervous about it all haha.