Deciding which Cert to start on.

bowmatty

Hi guys,

Just wanting some advice on which IT Cert I should be trying to get? I've been revising for my CompTIA A+ which seems to be really full on!

I'm currently working as an ICT Support Engineer and have an advanced diploma in Telecommunications and Network Engineering. Looking into Networking/ Telecommunications or security side of IT.

EANx

That depends what country you're in. If you're in the US I'd suggest Network+ but the way you said "ITC Support Engineer" makes me think you're elsewhere and perhaps Network+ isn't as valued there.

Have you looked at online job ads to see what employers in your area are looking for, for the job you want to do?

bowmatty

Hi mate, I'm living in Australia.

Yeah ive looked and most jobs are asking for Cisco CCNA (which is my main goal), however I would like to work up to that an get all round knowledge of the IT industry before taking.

Nutsy

bowmatty,

If CCNA is what you want to do. Just got for it. Build your resume around being whatever specialty you plan to go for. Don't waste time with A+ if that is not where you want to go.

-Nutsy

EANx

I always suggest that people become generalists before they become specialists. The last thing I need is to ask one of my VMware guys about how their suggested solution works with DFS compared to CIFS and get a blank stare back. If you want to get into networking and the thing they're looking for is the CCNA then you should probably start with CCENT which will then lead to CCNA. But as you're working toward CCNA and beyond, don't forget to add in other things. Learn a bit about Active Directory, Linux, storage networking and virtualization. These will be valuable later in life when someone asks if there is anything odd about the network that will cause problems with a VMotion. At least you'll know what a VMotion is.

yoba222

bowmatty wrote: »

. . . I've been revising for my CompTIA A+ which seems to be really full on! . . .

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Between the advanced diploma and a job with the title support engineer, I get the impression that career-wise you are mid-level to advanced. But CompTIA A+ is an entry level cert. If you find the A+ to be a challenge right now (which doesn't make sense to me), I'd spend more time on that material before getting into more complicated things like CCNA. I might be misinterpreting your situation.

But then again, the A+ will not advance your career from a CV perspective if you already have a job in the industry. With this in mind, I suggest spending several months digesting the CCNA.

bowmatty

Information and Communication Technology

Engineer

bowmatty

Not that the A+ is hard its just theres so much information to take in.

Ky131550c001

Unless you're trying to find your first entry level job the A+ exam probably won't be very beneficial to you, especially if you're focusing on Networking. I took it when I was transitioning careers and didn't have any experience or a technical degree, and it helped a bit to build out my foundations and stand out on my resume (barely) but that was about it. You'll likely just spend a lot of time that could be better spent studying other things trying to memorize little minutia that you'll forget as soon as you pass. I would suggest Network+ is you're going for an entry level certification and to get the feel for taking a certification test, and then start digging into the CCNA.

bowmatty

Thank you all!