If you had to do it all over again, which Certs would you get?

OceanView

So I'm trying to find out which are the best certs to get to be marketable in the near future and secure a good job.
If you have to do it over again, which certs are the ones you would get and which are a total waste of time and money?

devilbones

SEC+ and an OS cert.

networker050184

I wouldn't change the certs I did, but that doesn't mean they're the same you should do. What kind of job are you looking to be marketable for?

tmtex

I am 45. Back in the late 90's/2K's I was entry level and the boss pushed us towards Novell if you know what that is. It was king back then. CNE's doing six figures so we all were doing it. Long story short, I was to late, never made it got my CNE when it died. A year or 2 later no one used Novell, MCSE was the new king. On a side note back in the early 2000's there was a MCSE class on every block, these boot camps that made you pass the exams. A friend of mine did it. I think it was like 2 weeks, passed the test, got a job with Dell at 60K at that time plus they moved him down there to Austin TX. He had no experience in IT, didn't even graduate HS. I talked to him a year ago and he still laughs about he had no clue about anything and basically imaged PC's. He only did it for a year and even though the money was good (60K was 100K+ back then) he couldn't take it any longer. I think he worked B/2nd shift.
Ok sorry for rambling I wished I got my MCSE is what I meant

gorebrush

Not sure I'd change a thing
21 = got my Degree
21 = MCP
22 = MCSA
22 = MCSE
25 = CCNA
27 = CCNP
31 = CCIE

I'm very happy with my progress so far in my career, just about to become Infrastructure Manager at 33.

DatabaseHead

Get a CS degree instead of a business degree when I got out of high school.

gorebrush

DatabaseHead wrote: »

Get a CS degree instead of a business degree when I got out of high school.

Actually I am very happy to have a Business IT degree not a pure CS one.

DatabaseHead

Yeah not me......

I'd would of rather scored a software dev job right out of college with one of the big software companies. Instead I had to do it like everyone else, ugh.... From your certs you look to be more of a infrastructure engineer and not software.

clouder

I have no regrets on my choice of certs. I chose ones that would help me get on the path I wanted, and lucked out in that it worked.

doctorlexus

I wouldn't have wasted so much time in school and academia. I would have just finished a BS in anything as fast as possible, then worked on CCIE R&S. I'm wondering if it'll even be worthwhile to pursue CCIE at this point, or if it'll end up being like tmtex's story of Novell's CNE.

ITSpectre

I have no regrets. The only regret I have is getting into IT so late. Sometimes I feel behind everyone else because I got into the field at 28 VS a lot of other people got in at 21-25. I am a late bloomer.

reload@

Agree with Spectre. I wish I got in sooner. I envy a friend of mine who got a networking job a month after high school. He's only 19 now and he's already a network consultant making a lot of money.

E Double U

I got my CCNA in 2010 and didn't go for another cert until 2013. I kept studying back and forth between CCNP R&S and CCIP then ended up not taking exams for either. I feel like I wasted a few years. Also wish I would've attended SANS training for GCIA instead of a CISSP bootcamp.

ITSpectre

reload@ wrote: »

Agree with Spectre. I wish I got in sooner. I envy a friend of mine who got a networking job a month after high school. He's only 19 now and he's already a network consultant making a lot of money.

And im 30.... about to be 31 next month and working at Help Desk roles..... SMH like they always say "Better late then never".

$bvb379

DatabaseHead wrote: »

Get a CS degree instead of a business degree when I got out of high school.

I am right there with you, brother.

mdhisapro

I would not change the certs that I got, but I would have def not have taken 10 years off after graduating before pursuing a BS. I guess if I had to pick something, it would just be the order I got them.

I would have finished CCNP:RS after CCNA:RS, and before my CCNA:S.

Got into IT directly after HS, doing third party tech support for Apple. Took magnet classes in HS which covered all of the ICND1 and 2 and graduated in 2005 but never took CCNA back then.

Net+ in 2013, ITILv3 Foundations in 2014, Sec+ and CCNA:RS in 2015. CCNA:S and CISSP in 2016.

Now a Deputy Director for Network Engineering and IT Security. Been pretty lucky in transitioning up every few years. Started as a Security Analyst at my current employer 13 months ago prior to becoming a Deputy Director position.

Ill be 29 this year, so I think I have managed to make the right jumps despite not starting earlier.

scaredoftests

I would not change a thing..(taking Novell and getting my CNE was pretty cool and it taught me a lot about taking cert tests..)

DatabaseHead

I applaud the late bloomers (I was one) who can work help desk at age 30. That is usually a young man game, most of the guys I went to college with who went through the CS program spent an internship or two at most on the desk, for 2 - 3 months and went into software dev, database or some hybrid in the app dev world. All but one is doing very well, I was the only business major out of the group. Don't ask, confidence in myself was the biggest reason I didn't pursue the CS degree. (Never let fear decide your fate)...... SoT

ITSpectre

DatabaseHead wrote: »

I applaud the late bloomers (I was one) who can work help desk at age 30. That is usually a young man game, most of the guys I went to college with who went through the CS program spent an internship or two at most on the desk, for 2 - 3 months and went into software dev, database or some hybrid in the app dev world. All but one is doing very well, I was the only business major out of the group. Don't ask, confidence in myself was the biggest reason I didn't pursue the CS degree. (Never let fear decide your date)...... SoT

Thanks.

This is how I got my foot in the door. The Help Desk is like a revolving door. But the company I am with is a good one and I hope to stay with this company providing they can give me a job in GA. If so then I will still be doing help desk, but I will have a way to move up. I have found some help desk jobs just want you working on the desk and then you leave by getting a different job..... Very few help desk jobs want you to move up within the company.

cyberguypr

No "regerts" here either. I always pursued certs for two reasons: fill gaps in knowledge for a current role or position myself for my next career move. Every single cert I took served its purpose towards those two goals. It always helps to keep an eye on where the industry is moving. As tmtex mentioned above, try not to fall for dying certs. The opposite side of the coin is also true: do not pursue things that you don't care about just because they are hot (security, cloud, etc.).

DatabaseHead

Nothing wrong with the desk, nothing at all. My only comment about it, is that the younger you do it the better off you are (from my perspective). Lots of 21 - 24 on the desk when I was on it, funny thing a lot of them stalled at project coordinator or implementation managers. (Catch phrase for I don't know IT). But...... The youngsters who hit the desk early who dedicated themselves are doing tremendous now. (At least from what I can tell on LinkedIn). One in particular is a Senior Engineer at a privately held company in the midwest. The guy just hit 32 and is making 95,000 or so. Not that impressive from the standards on this board (which at times I think are inflated), but nevertheless he is doing well from my perspective.

Keep at it and you'll cover ground like a cheetah.

scaredoftests

Better to have bloomed than not at all. Ah, a poet and I don't know it. LOL. Learning can never be stopped.

DatabaseHead

@Cyber - I shy away from certs now, because it seems to be a target on my back. (I know this is me just being soft, but I have decided to go that route). I like playing fox and then come up and deliver like crazy. My boss even directly commented to me about that. Said Head, there are two people in this world, people who stretch the truth of their skills and those who sell themselves right on par and then there is YOU. Who completely undersells themselves when you are near the top lol. Maybe it's my strategy or a flaw.

At 40 years old and making 80,000 you don't want to follow my financial advice.

beads

(*Queue music*)

Been through the CNE, MCNE, MCSE... stuff ad nausea. Completed Security+ during the Y2K thing as well. Always came up through the certification ranks with the lowest certs then worked my way up through the ranks. No regrets. Some certs I will sit through simply to make myself learn the material well enough to pass, even if its not part of my core job responsibilities as a Security Architect or Security Management type, whatever I am doing that day as a consultant. I'm in a position where I have be able to do everything, anytime of the day, any day of the week and make it look easy.

Regrets? No. Been getting paid to this sort of work for a long time. First hack? 1979. Brought down a mainframe with a misplaced colon in a COBOL program no one had ever seen. Ooooops! Forgiven for my error but I was 14 at the time. Hey! Free coding time is just that - Free!

There is no single automagical certification in IT that is going to provide you with an unlimited career for the rest of your life. Read what the old timers above are really saying about career progression and UNDERSTAND you will likely be changing career fields about ever FIVE years. "Computer years" are roughly 4.5:1 compared to other disciplines, say finance which changes very slowly. So five years is comparable to 20-25 in another field. That's what keeps the field both interesting and challenging to those of us who choose to stay. Its also why we keep adding more and more certificates while dropping the old ones to the wayside.

We all enjoy the money and industry prestige/notoriety of having the latest and great hard to earn cert but IT and sales have one thing in common: What have you done for me lately...? Gotta know how to walk the walk and do more than just talk the certification talk.

This has been another fractured fairy tale production.

- b/eads

ITSpectre

DatabaseHead wrote: »

At 40 years old and making 80,000 you don't want to follow my financial advice.

Well you do have some knowledge of what NOT to do that may help someone like me who wishes to make 80K a year BEFORE I turn 40

blargoe

Linux and some more advanced security certs. Possibly PMP since I was partially on that track at my last job, but I didn't pursue it further beyond the compulsory training we were all required to attend.

powerfool

I think the OP is really different things... what you would do based on today isn't what would really change things in the past if I had it all to do over. For instance, if I had it all to do over again, I would have taken advantage of opportunities I had to get my MCSE on NT4 and perhaps even my CCNA right afterwards... and get some undergrad courses out of the way. I waited three more years before I did much of anything. That would all have propelled my career early on because those things really mattered then (you had the paper, you got the job).

Based on what I would do now... I would think I could have benefited more just by becoming more familiar with the technologies I am studying now, just sooner.

EagerDinosaur

If you want to get a C# programming job I recommend MS exam 70-483, simply because it seems to cover all the most popular interview question areas (interfaces, garbage collection, generics and exception handling in my experience).

NOC-Ninja

I regret partying hard for 5 years after work.
1. CCIE.
2. Sec cert = CISSP, OSCP, CEH, Cisco sec certs
3. Masters

ITSpectre

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

I regret partying hard for 5 years after work.

The party never stops!

GSXR750K2

I'll be 34 next month and have been in "the game" for about 14 years. I didn't get my first cert until 2008 and that was only because an employer required the A+. I never placed much emphasis on certs simply because I always believed, and still do to an extent, that experience trumps the results of an exam every day. It wasn't until later that I understood having a vendor's stamp of approval meant more to employers than I thought. So...I would definitely go back and put more emphasis on certs during my first real IT job since it was slow and I had lots of time to study (the job I had when I joined TE actually).

If I knew then what I know now, I would have earned my MCSE on 2003, my CCNA, and whatever version of VCP-DCV was current back then. The VCP would have opened a lot of doors in an area I'd like to move to. To satisfy personal goals and make up for lost time, I plan on pursing the VCP after I renew my MCSE in the next couple of months.