What next? SkillSoft is paid for.

Moebedda

I work for a rather large company. IT jobs in the environment I am in are pretty much specialized and separated by groups. Server, security, desktop, networking, app support, and so on. They are paying for SkillSoft training. I was told to pick from the whole catalog.

Currently I work as a 3rd level desktop support engineer and regional field tech. I've been doing this for 8+ years and have 13+ years of IT experience, although probably lower level than many of you here.

I currently have MCP, ITIL, A+, Net+, Security+ and recently Server+(work paid for it or I probably would have skipped this one). I took a couple of years of college courses when I was younger but never got a degree. I am 45 and don't plan on getting one.

So now I get to pick a direction for my career and like the title says, SkillSoft is paid for, but I don't have any experience with them for a learning resource. I don't know what I want to do. Out of all the above certifications, Security+ was probably the most interesting. Circumstances at work are such that I can pretty much go in any direction.

I am looking for advice on what I should do next. Any advice or questions to help me in that direction would be much appreciated.

Dakinggamer87

The first question I think that needs to be answered is what interests you the most. You can then more accurately make a wiser decision on how to invest your money/training. Do you want to be into Systems Administration, Networking, etc...?

Moebedda

So I've basically boiled it down to two areas.

Get MCSA in server 2012 or go for more security oriented certs, although I don't know which ones. MSCA is a logical move for me. I already work with servers 2008 and 2012 working with AD, DHCP, printer server config, and printer GPOS and I certainly enjoy what I do. I don't do anything with Security now, but it interests me.

My only put off with the Microsoft direction is their test questions suck. I don't get why they try to trick you, but I haven't' taken a Microsoft test in a while so hopefully that has changed?

Mike-Mike

i use Skillsoft for every cert i can, i think it is great to add on to other training sources. I would say go the CCENT then CCNA route. CCNA is ALWAYS brought up when I interview