I have no idea where to start! Someone Please Help!

josholdenburg

I really want to start getting my Certifications and have no idea which books to get or where to start could someone (seriously) point me in the right direction?
Just shoot me a message if you can help.

Thanks!
Josh

johnnyg5646

I'd start with the all-in-one by mike meyers for A+

royal

Hey Josh. First of all, I'd like to welcome you to the site. Second of all, your question can result in a ton of answers. It all comes down to what you want to end up doing. Are you interested in security, networking, windows administration, or router/switch configuration? Starting out, I would definitely go for your A+ and Network+ certifications. This will give you a foundation of knowledge to build your certification career upon. From there, you will have to make a decision on whether you want to go into the Microsoft realm or Cisco realm of networking. Of course you can dabble in a bit of both, but it is best career wise to focus hard in one and maybe get some knowledge in the other.

For example, if you were to go into Windows administration, I would recommend the following exams:

A+
Network+ (both A+ and Network+ count as your MCSA elective)
Security+ (Optional but definitely is a big plus)
Server+ (Optional but a plus)
70-270 (Windows XP and will give you your MCP certification)
70-290
70-291 (Will give you your MCSA)
70-293
70-294
70-298
70-284 (Exchagne 2003 will give you your MCSE). I always choose Exchange 2003 as an elective because most companies that run Active Directory will implement Exchange as their messaging system. It will be beneficial to you career wise to have some applicable knowledge on a company's messaging infrastructure.

Afterwards, you can always go for specializations such as MCSE: Security, MCSE: Messaging, MCDBA (Microsoft Certified Database Administrator), etc.. If you wish to get into networking which contains mostly router, switch, firewall, etc. configuration, then the Cisco realm of networking might be for you. If this is the case, I will leave it up to the Cisco guys to give you advise what to do career wise. Even if you do focus mostly in Microsoft certifications, it is still beneficial to get CCNA at least, and perhaps CCNP in the future. I plan on doing my CCNA in the next year or so.

Hope this helps. And again, welcome!

JDMurray

Josh, what kind of certifications are you interested in getting? Hardware? Operating systems? Networking? Programming? That's your first decision.

blargoe

Why do you want certifications?

Kaminsky

Also, what level of knowledge / experience do you currently have ?