Network+ is too much expensive ?

BK

Network+ is too much expensive or not ?

sthomas

All CompTIA exams are too expensive. Are you asking is it worth it? Some say yes and Some say no. In my opinion the good CompTIA certifications to have are A+ and Net+, and if you have some experience then Security+.

garv221

bkirin wrote:

Network+ is too much expensive or not ?

You paid for A+?

silentc1015

bkirin wrote:

Network+ is too much expensive or not ?

What does this cert cost now, $250? If someone isn't willing to invest $250 into their career, I don't know what to tell them. I just spent $750 on my RHCE. CCIE's spend on average like $10,000 for their lab equipment. What is more valuable than investing money in yourself? Most people spend more than $250/year in coffee.

sthomas

silentc1015 wrote:

bkirin wrote:

Network+ is too much expensive or not ?

What does this cert cost now, $250? If someone isn't willing to invest $250 into their career, I don't know what to tell them. I just spent $750 on my RHCE. CCIE's spend on average like $10,000 for their lab equipment. What is more valuable than investing money in yourself? Most people spend more than $250/year in coffee.

I agree 100% with that post. I also forgot this in my previous post but you can get a voucher for Net+ for $208.

http://www.getcertified4less.com/network.asp

Steely

I wonder if you can take a tax write-off on this? Anyone who works for a CPA firm can advise?

BK

silentc1015 wrote:

bkirin wrote:

Network+ is too much expensive or not ?

What does this cert cost now, $250? If someone isn't willing to invest $250 into their career, I don't know what to tell them. I just spent $750 on my RHCE. CCIE's spend on average like $10,000 for their lab equipment. What is more valuable than investing money in yourself? Most people spend more than $250/year in coffee.

I agree, but Microsoft is much cheaper, exam price is about 100 $ !

sprkymrk

bkirin wrote:

Most people spend more than $250/year in coffee.

For sure, that's only about 1 trip to Starbuck's a week!

bkirin wrote:

I agree, but Microsoft is much cheaper, exam price is about 50 $ !

Last I heard, unless you had a voucher or academic discount, MS exams are $125 in the US.

nel

prob the biggest mistake ive done so far is do the a+ and n+. They are not good value for money. i dont care what anyone says. even if your new to IT i would rather get the materials as a base ground but i would of gone straight to my MS stuff or for the cisco stuff.

i paid £105 per a+ exam and £155 for my n+. thats roughly over 700 USD for those! rip off i say! if i knew better that could of been the start of a nice ccna lab (which i cant afford now at the min)!

Megadeth4168

nel wrote:

prob the biggest mistake ive done so far is do the a+ and n+. They are not good value for money. i dont care what anyone says. even if your new to IT i would rather get the materials as a base ground but i would of gone straight to my MS stuff or for the cisco stuff.

i paid £105 per a+ exam and £155 for my n+. thats roughly over 700 USD for those! rip off i say! if i knew better that could of been the start of a nice ccna lab (which i cant afford now at the min)!

Sorry, but my experience is far different. For me the A+ was my first certification and that is after I had been working IT for 3 years and had a business for 2 years doing side jobs. That A+ was required for a job that I landed, that job doubled my yearly income, not to mention got me benefits and all the perks of paid holidays ect......

Even now, I've been looking through job sites lately to see what I could potentially make and have seen several positions requiring only an A+ and 2-3 years experience... These positions actually make more than I do at the moment.

The one thing I can say is that the A+ by itself is useless.... A+ with a couple years of solid experience can land you a decent job. The same can be said for most certs though.

Besides the A+ and network+ combined do count as MCSA electives. Although, the Security+ by itself counts as the MCSA elective and as a MCSE elective.

Forgot to mention, that the skills learned from studying for the A+ and Network+ are usually under-appreciated. They are stepping stones into learning higher level certifications. Of course, you can study these without having to actually take the exam.

iowatech

To many people are coming into the system now days not understanding where everything they are using came from and how it effects todays technology. Basically a lot of techs with a weak foundation. The A+ / N+ exams do a great job giving people the chance to build this foundation. This enhances their understanding of the current technology and enchanes customer satisfaction when they can fully answer a customers questions.

A+ / N+ are worth it hands down.

Plantwiz

bkirin wrote:

Network+ is too much expensive or not ?

Depends by how a person defines 'expensive'.

Personally, I'd say it is NOT TOO expensive.

Plantwiz

nel wrote:

prob the biggest mistake ive done so far is do the a+ and n+. They are not good value for money. i dont care what anyone says. even if your new to IT i would rather get the materials as a base ground but i would of gone straight to my MS stuff or for the cisco stuff.

i paid £105 per a+ exam and £155 for my n+. thats roughly over 700 USD for those! rip off i say! if i knew better that could of been the start of a nice ccna lab (which i cant afford now at the min)!

Sorry you feel this way. However, this can be said for anything. Education, other Cert exams, etc...

Not everyone 'needs' every title, cert, degree that is marketed to us. Pick and chose the best ones that fit you. Or go into business for yourself and let your skills sell themselves. The exams merely offer a benchmark of knowledge and do not predict success in a job.

None are needed, but they can help open the door.

JJbiggle

nel wrote:

prob the biggest mistake ive done so far is do the a+ and n+. They are not good value for money. i dont care what anyone says. even if your new to IT i would rather get the materials as a base ground but i would of gone straight to my MS stuff or for the cisco stuff.

i paid £105 per a+ exam and £155 for my n+. thats roughly over 700 USD for those! rip off i say! if i knew better that could of been the start of a nice ccna lab (which i cant afford now at the min)!

So you are going to tell me that having your Net+ and A+ in no way prepared you to take your Microsoft Exams. Study habits etc. BTW what were your scores on either CompTia exam? You however have seemed to benefitted from taking those CompTia exams. By the look of your certifications they seem to have gotten you out of taken another Microsoft exam.

Slowhand

It's all in how you look at it. Sure, CompTIA's exams are more expensive than other entry-level certs and other exams. Then again, how much money will you be spending on renewing other certs? Sure that CCNA exam might only be $150, but every three years you have to either renew or upgrade in order to keep it. A CompTIA cert is good for life, and that's what you're paying for upfront. As for whether it's worth it, that's more of a question of what your experience is going in.

If you've been working with enterprise networks for ten years, then you might be overqualified for Network+. If you're just starting out, or you got hooked when you set up your home router, then it's probably a good fit. That also ties into the feeling that your time and/or money could be better-spent on more advanced or different certs. You need to learn all you can about a certification before you take it. Read the exam blueprint or exam topics, go through threads on a site like this one in order to get some reviews and opinions, and check some job-boards to see if the cert is going to be worth it out in the working world. For all intents and purposes, all of us could skip over Network+, CCNA, CCNP, and just save our money for lab equipment and books to go straight for CCIE. Does that mean that the lower-level certs aren't worth anything? Not for me, those certs on my left suit my particular skill-level and experience.

nel

i am merely going of my experiance, this guy asked for our opinions. i have gave mine. Going of what i have seen (in my country) most jobs have always asked for mcse or ccna at a minimum, or a lot of entry level jobs usually ask for some kind of education award. Many jobs nowadays ask for things like the certs mentioned and a degree, why? because in the UK there are that many people going to uni, thousands and thousands of people are walking out with IT degree's every year who cant actually do jobs they have been trained for, thus actually degrading the value of such an award therefore employers are actually asking for people with higher qualifications.

So you are going to tell me that having your Net+ and A+ in no way prepared you to take your Microsoft Exams. Study habits etc. BTW what were your scores on either CompTia exam? You however have seemed to benefitted from taking those CompTia exams. By the look of your certifications they seem to have gotten you out of taken another Microsoft exam.

Well, did i say ANY of the things you are stating there JJ?

it doesnt "get me out of taking another MS exam", it has done for mcsa, but for mcse it is NOT elligable but the S+ is. All i was trying to point out is for the amount of money i have spent i dont believe that it is in line with entry level certs.

my view maybe a slight variation of others as i learnt most of the a+ and net+ on the job even before i thought about taking certs, so maybe if i had no experiance whatsoever then it may have been beneficial, but i had a few years in an entry level job before hand so maybe thats why i think this way about it.

whats the experiance of the guy who originally posted?

...but honestly ive been in this forums a couple of years and mean no offense because i know how gd these ppl are!

sthomas

It depends on what location you live in I guess. In the US A+/Net+ are fairly popular. Sure they won't get you that high paying Network Admin position everybody is looking for by themselves but when it comes to looking for entry to mid level tech support type jobs they can help a lot. Perhaps in the UK CompTIA certifications aren't as popular or well known as in the US.

plettner

silentc1015 wrote:

bkirin wrote:

Network+ is too much expensive or not ?

What does this cert cost now, $250? If someone isn't willing to invest $250 into their career, I don't know what to tell them. I just spent $750 on my RHCE. CCIE's spend on average like $10,000 for their lab equipment. What is more valuable than investing money in yourself? Most people spend more than $250/year in coffee.

Absoltulety correct. The cash one could earn after a bit of study, hands-on experience and some outlay for exams greatly outweighs the costs in my opinion.

nel

i totally agree that investing in youor education is a necessity if you want to achieve high things in life. all i would say is consider where to invest your hard earned cash and spend it wisely. because although i sometime curse at my degree and having to do so much time studying for certs and stuff, doing certs and my degree is the best thing ive done in recent times because if not then i would not be learning a thing at work anymore.

networker050184

Investing money in your career is not a bad thing, but you should invest wisely. You can invest in a degree, but if it is not acredited its a waste of money even if it was an investment in your career. Just make sure what you invest in can give you a return. IMHO CompTIA exams do not have the return to merit the investment. I'm not saying the fundementals covered in the exams are not important, but like others have stated you can learn the material with out paying (way too much) for the exam....


Just my $.2

147

I don't even work in consumer IT and I took the A+ and Net+. The two certifications help me in the areas of my job concerning industrial controls and makes me more marketable in my field. A grand total of about $500- I spent $20,000 of my own money on my A.A. and B.S. degrees, not including the portion my employer covered.

astint1

A+ and Net+ also help out if one if working with contract jobs.

tigerpaw

Steely wrote:

I wonder if you can take a tax write-off on this? Anyone who works for a CPA firm can advise?

Hey, my very post here,...wow... anyway I had spoken with my CPA a few months ago and I was told that if any classes or certifications are a requirement for your job OR are required by your employer you can write it off. However I would still check with your CPA/tax consultant before proceeding.