Cert Advice

loxleynew

Hi, I am wondering wether I should start my IT career path by getting MCDST or A+ cert first. Currently I have none but I do have IT exp as I currently work as one. My end goal is a MCSE or probabley CCNA.

Also does getting MCDST help at all moving up in the tech department as far as recruiters seeing it on your resume?

Any advice will be appreciated

thanks,

manny355

okay, i'll take a stab at this one...there are many posts from users like you and me looking for advice on which path/cert to take...in reading many of them the concensus would be to first figure out what you are interested in because when you are learning something you are interested in it tends to go a little easier. Secondly you want to figure out what is going to benefit your career...in other words, you must decide which cert is going to benefit you the most for right now. Lastly, after taking the first two into consideration, you want to decide which cert is going to get you to the next level. Notice how I stress that you want to figure these things out for yourself...everybody is different and on a different path...noone can tell you where to start because we don't know where you want to be and what you are willing to sacrifice or do to get there...only you can answer those questions.

Most start with A+ and then work from there...depending on what their own situation requires.

rlebah

I agree with manny355. I would like to add what I came across working in Information Technology.

I would say go for your A+ certification. To me this is the ground step and will benefit you throughout your career. We have applications people that do not know how to basic troubleshoot or replace hardware. This really impacts there project management. The way I like to base my career is you know as many pieces of the puzzle not just desktop, networking, applications.

As far as everything else, Politics, knowledge, Being there at the right time all plays a part. You can control your knowledge and as long as your growing your moving. Certifications change as so does the demand.

Having the MCDST has helped me land more interviews. Most Recruiters are not technical so if they see Microsoft they will place them aside (or the automated scanner will look for keywords) Tip....just make sure you spell out Microsoft etc they may not know MCDST etc.

loxleynew

Thanks for the advice! Yea I think I'm going to start on MCDST after reading through some of the advice first.

Reason being I have been building computers since 12 or 13 so I'm know kinda what's going on there. I just didn't know A+ was mainly all about hardware and bios and stuff.