Which certification should I go for first?

PhilF

Hi
I have been in the same application support role for 5 years and am now looking for a new opportunity. I have never earned a certification, but would like to get one. If this was just for me, then I would study but not other paying out for an exam, but of course I want something that would look good on the CV to improve career prospects. Many interviewers ask about networks, so I would like to get something that that shows that even though I don't have the experience in a work environment, I am aware of concepts etc, but at the same time I do feel that I should be going forward in the field I have been working in.

Obvious options for me would be:

CompTIA Network+. Something that would show I know basic Network concepts, and not as hard as...
CISCO CCNA Routing and Switching - good to get but difficult, especially for someone who has no hands on experience (apparently). I don't fancy my chances with this one.
MCSA - Windows Server - the one that I feel would be more useful in my current path, though I am worried that I am ignoring holes in my knowledge (ie., networks).

Advice please, bearing in mind that I am being a bit mercenary, and am certainly concerned with CV building. Any recruiters/managers out there? Which of the above would you like to see on a resumé?

Thanks in advance
Phil

beads

@Phil; Well, you've nicely stated your looking for a new opportunity... doing what, exactly? No one certification is going to cover both networking and administration but you seem to be leaning more to administration. Cool, right? As an administrator you spend less time configuring routers and such but you can easily pickup relatable networking skills in administration as well. First you'll need to decide which fork in the road do you travel: Networking or Administration? Let us know and we can really begin the conversation. - b/eads

PhilF

Hi beads - thanks for the reply. I have been working in support for a major document management solution, so I would like to stay in that area: support/admin of ECM, big enterprise servers, business software etc. I say administration because one of the jobs I am interviewing for right now is for a customer of the company I have been working for - so administration on the same application as I've been handling up to now. So application server admin basically - that's what I meant rather than network admin. I am not really interested in networks to be honest, but do get frustrated with myself in interviews when I have to say that my network knowledge is zilch. I would like to have some knowledge in the area so I can present a more rounded individual to companies, and also for my own benefit. To clarify - I don't want a job in networks per se, but sometimes in application support a little bit of knowledge in that area would be useful.

paul78

Welcome to the forums...

Based on what you indicated as your interest - I may suggest ITIL certs. It sounds like you enjoy business-level application support. Also - if it's a specific industry like finance, healthcare, etc. then you may want to explore certifications in business domains instead.

This is just me and may not apply to other hiring managers. But when I hire application support personnel, I prefer to see generalist certifications and more industry domain expertise.

Remedymp

You could also look at ISC2 CSSLP or ISACA CISA. Your background qualifies you as well as goes parallel with the certifications.

PhilF

Thanks for these replies. ITIL comes up a lot - I would be happy to do this if a company I was working for wanted to put me through it if they thought it worthwhile in my post, but right now I would like to improve my technical portfolio. And for business area specific certifications - the software I have been working on is not industry specific - manufacturing, banking, big/small government, pharmaceuticals, transport, etc, all use ECM, so I want something that can be seen as of use to anyone. And yes, security is another grey area for me, but hasn't come up much; I shall certainly keep this in mind for the future though. Paul's comment about generalist certifications - yes, I think about this too, which makes me lean towards A+, but I read that much of this is outdated, plus there is a hardware module that I don't really need. It still might be a good idea. MCSA would be useful anywhere.