Need some advice

jimmyjunior33

Hello everyone I happened to stumble upon this awesome website a while ago and have been lurking around ever since taking bits and pieces of info here and there. I now have a question that I am hoping someone here can answer.

I am studying for my Sec + exam so that I may have some credentials once I get out of the military and am wondering what else I should look into as far as taking. I would like to try and knock out two separate exams while home on mid-tour leave so can someone suggest what else I should take along with this exam? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My background is 4 years in the IT field for the army doing various things so if you'd like anything specific please feel free to ask!

Thanks,
James

jamesleecoleman

A+ and Network+. Maybe something with Microsoft or Cisco.

joshmadakor

A+, Net+ and Sec+ might be more feasible than Microsoft and Cisco for your current situation. Then again I've never been in the military and I've never taken a Cisco/Microsoft test. I'm just judging by the amount of labbing that should be done with preparing for Cisco/MS certs, whereas you can read a book and do practice questions and pass CompTIA tests.

My Opinion of the CompTIA Trilogy:
A+: Easiest
N+: Least Enjoyable (Lots of stuff to remember, but definitely doable)
Sec+: Most Enjoyable, Most difficult

Hope this helps

badboyeee

jimmyjunior33 wrote: »

My background is 4 years in the IT field for the army doing various things so if you'd like anything specific please feel free to ask!

Thanks,
James

Can you give us more details of your IT experience?

earweed

The CompTIA trio would be a good goal to set before getting out of the Army. With only some hardware PC experience I knocked out those 3 exams with about a month to month and a half for each.

jimmyjunior33

I have been in the military for roughly 4 years and still have 2 more years left. I work as a network manager for a network that supports roughly 3,000 users. I also am the help desk support to smaller outposts doing things from configuring routers and switches (Cisco based) to helping with troubleshooting problems on Windows based systems.

I mainly work on the network side of the house though focusing a lot of my time on switches and routers. The Windows troubleshooting is kind of a secondary role that I have filled since there is no one else that can fill this role.

badboyeee

jimmyjunior33 wrote: »

I have been in the military for roughly 4 years and still have 2 more years left. I work as a network manager for a network that supports roughly 3,000 users. I also am the help desk support to smaller outposts doing things from configuring routers and switches (Cisco based) to helping with troubleshooting problems on Windows based systems.

I mainly work on the network side of the house though focusing a lot of my time on switches and routers. The Windows troubleshooting is kind of a secondary role that I have filled since there is no one else that can fill this role.

Nice. With your experience I think A+ would be worthless. I don't think Network+ would be necessary either although you could probably pass it with minimal study. After Security+ I think you should do CCENT next, while you still have all the Cisco hardware available to you.

bobbaft

badboyeee wrote: »

Can you give us more details of your IT experience?

He could, but then he'll have to kill you. :P

earweed

From where you are experiencewise you should just skip on into either Cisco or Microsoft. Since your main duties are Cisco you should try your hand at that.