It has been over a year since...

THartmann9374

It has been over a year since I passed Core Hardware exam on my first try (July 5th) and almost year since I passed my OS Technologies exam on my first try (November 22).

What has A+ Certification does for me? It helps me to get my own business to travel around Portland, OR area for my clients to offer cheap rates comparing to what CompUSA or BestBuy would offer. I often got in arguments with CompUSA or Best Buy because I can tell that they aren't certificed in A+ which they ought to be fired cuz they have no clue what I am talking about.

On way up to move to the next level - Networking, then MSCE.

By the way, any deaf technician out there, I am a deaf technician.

- Tom

sprkymrk

Good luck on your Net+.
I'm glad getting the A+ has been of good use to you.
Questions:
Does being deaf make it hard to troubleshoot at times? By not being able to hear beep codes in the bios, or fully understand/hear what a customer's question or problem description is? Or is your hearing loss able to be corrected through the use of hearing aids?
Thanks!

jojopramos

I salute you for your disabilities did not stop you from pursuing your IT career......Continue what you've started for....

Plantwiz

THartmann9374 wrote:

It has been over a year since I passed Core Hardware exam on my first try (July 5th) and almost year since I passed my OS Technologies exam on my first try (November 22).

Congratulations

What has A+ Certification does for me? It helps me to get my own business to travel around Portland, OR area for my clients to offer cheap rates comparing to what CompUSA or BestBuy would offer.

Well you can be in business without an A+, but congratulations that is working in your favor. I do have a little problem with the undercutting of service rates. Short-term it may yield you some business but long-term it hurts all technicians in a competitive market and drops the bottom out making it difficult to afford liability insurance for a company and offer any packages for employees....so I'm not a fan of that (FWIW).

I often got in arguments with CompUSA or Best Buy because I can tell that they aren't certificed in A+ which they ought to be fired cuz they have no clue what I am talking about.

I thought it was a company wide policy that all techs at CompUsa (and possibly BestBuy) had to have an A+???? Perhaps it is just our region

Holding an A+ doesn't make someone competent. I have know plenty of A+ people who didn't understand a thing about jumpers on Mobos, Drives or anything about Hot-swap vs. non-hotswap. It is a pretty easy exam and is easy enough for someone to cram for and forget everything once they've passed the exam....performance speaks more to me then certificates....but that's just because I grew tired of punks walking assuming they'd get hired because they held an A+, but when given a phyical test couldn't figure out voltage settings or some other basic stuff.

On way up to move to the next level - Networking, then MSCE.

Good luck!

blackzone

Holding an A+ doesn't make someone competent. I have know plenty of A+ people who didn't understand a thing about jumpers on Mobos, Drives or anything about Hot-swap vs. non-hotswap. It is a pretty easy exam and is easy enough for someone to cram for and forget everything once they've passed the exam....

That's see... One year later...

only thing I remember is how to clean my CD!

From inside to outside!!! Not in circular motion!!!

I also pass my finance CFA level 1 test... And I can't even remember the difference between GDP and GNP

Plantwiz

blackzone wrote:

That's see... One year later...

only thing I remember is how to clean my CD!

From inside to outside!!! Not in circular motion!!!

so long as you use blue jeans or sandpaper

I also pass my finance CFA level 1 test... And I can't even remember the difference between GDP and GNP

Well I hope your not going into make a career out of Economics, accounting or finance. I do know of some places looking for a good shovel man

wwpranma

Heh, so far I've applied for jobs at both best buy and a security tech firm around the area and I haven't gotten word back from either yet. I'm not gonna start hating on the fact they'll hire anyone who says they know what they know, cause I am using certifications as an alternative to college, and someone who has earned a college degree pretty much deserves the right to have a job first... but regardless, it's almost funny that the level of competance required almost boils down to a peice of paper or papers. I'll be happy when I'm doing IT work proffesionally. I've been telling peopel all along that my goal in life was to see anakin die, and now that that's that, I'm just gonna commit myself to study. I just need a job to pay the bills, but I'm not planning on buying a house anytime soon or trying to get alot of fun toys. i dunno, I guess being a bum has it's ups and downs. All I know is that working with computers is something I enjoy, and hopefully with this cert. I'll be able to move forward with my goals.

TecShdw

Plantwiz wrote:

Holding an A+ doesn't make someone competent. I have know plenty of A+ people who didn't understand a thing about jumpers on Mobos, Drives or anything about Hot-swap vs. non-hotswap. It is a pretty easy exam and is easy enough for someone to cram for and forget everything once they've passed the exam....performance speaks more to me then certificates....but that's just because I grew tired of punks walking assuming they'd get hired because they held an A+, but when given a phyical test couldn't figure out voltage settings or some other basic stuff.

Agreed. Unfortunately alot of employers don't look at it that way, they like the piece of paper to go with your know how. That's where I'm at now [working on Network+].