What type of Certification should I look into?

akeim

Right now I am going to community college working on my Associates degree and I am in my first year second semester. I want to get some certifications to land me a job that can give me some good experience and help me with some pay. What types of certifications are good to have and could help get me into the door for some IT entry level jobs?

themanwholaughs

Comptia A+, Comptia N+ is the basic networking side and then get some Windows certs like MCSA: Office 365 as lots of businesses are using that now and MCSA: Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2016. It's good to learn 2012 before learning 2016 so you know the differences. I started on Windows Server 2003 and moved to 2008 & R2 and then did work with 2012 etc. Good luck with degree.

Jon_Cisco

So many variables in that question. Personally I think MCSA and CCNA are both great options for generic IT. One is more for systems and the other networking but they both help you with basic IT jobs. When I got my associates a few years ago I took the Cisco classes and passed my CCNA. However I only had a basic understanding of windows servers. I am now working on my MCSA.

EANx

You might want to talk to the school that runs the program to see which classes lead to certs. I think all of the certs previously mentioned are valid but I think it's more efficient to do it as part of the degree rather than on addition to it. You don't say what your major is in but some CCs have degrees in networking and other IT operations disciplines.

NetworkNewb

What type of job are you looking to go into?? If your looking more systems/networking side go with what was mentioned above.  If your leaning towards wanting to get into programming, then its a different story. 

yoba222

EANx beat me to it. Talk to the dean and check the course descriptions. It would be unfortunate to get the A+ and then begin a class next semester where the final exam could be waived by obtaining the A+ then. Some teachers do this kind of thing.