Which certifications have brought you the most success?

tprice5

Sec+

I don't see much value in CompTIA as a whole but this was a prereq to government employement.

FloOz

even though im still a newbie in the IT world my A+ and four year degree helped me a ton in getting a solid offer from the company i was interning at during school. i was offerend low 40s salary no exempt. which to me is a great offer for a fresh out of college student.

powerfool

Woot! Congrats on that one... that is a big friggin percentage increase. I would like to do that over the course of my lifetime, adjusted for inflation, of course.

VisionITTech

I don't have my CCNA just yet but, it seems to help...I cant' say "the most helpful" but it does help. I have a friend that landed a nice job after receiving his CCNA. He's doesn't have any past IT experience and his last job was at McDonald's.

Chrono

VisionITTech wrote: »

I don't have my CCNA just yet but, it seems to help...I cant' say "the most helpful" but it does help. I have a friend that landed a nice job after receiving his CCNA. He's doesn't have any past IT experience and his last job was at McDonald's.

What was his job title/ approximate salary?

DoubleD

Priston wrote: »

None of my certs have given me any success.QUOTE]

what he said

N2IT

Yeah different environment value certifications differently. Some just want a degree, others want a degree, certs, and experience, some just experience, etc.

Most of the environments I have been apart of respect experience and degrees, but there have been some to give raises and more responsibility when you achieve a certain specific certifications. ITIL was like that with me on a project. The program manager gave me the additional task of gathering reporting requirements from the customer. That was great experience and vaulted me into management level work.

Mike-Mike

Mike-Mike wrote: »

NOC spot open at my company... lets see if this still fresh CCNA makes an impact...

Well the NOC job at my company is still posted, and I'm still waiting on the word....

but I got a call about a NOC at another company, the CCNA definitely helped there.. so far the CCNA has been a sweet bonus for me

N2IT

Yay!

Mike keep me posted man I have been wondering what the situation was. If you feel like it's a good fit, apply for the other NOC position!

Mike-Mike

I had an interview, I feel it went really well. We'll see how it pans out

YuckTheFankees

Good luck Mike-Mike!

N2IT

Good luck Mike!

wmrebs

yes. good luck mike

jibbajabba

I don't think any certs given me any "better" success to be honest. I got most IT jobs without them and was almost "forced" to do them at some point because our director wanted Microsoft / VMware accreditations.

N2IT

Jibba I have been in an environment like that before. Everyone had to get either server or A+ certified within 6 months. Another project I worked on looked extremely favorably on the project team if they received their ITIL V3 F certification. Both had seperate reasons for wanting us to get those, but they wanted them nonetheless.

sandman748

N2IT,

How do feel about the OSA cert? Did it provide you much benefit, in either career advancement or your ability to do your job? That's the next cert i'm looking at tackling but it's cost is quite high considering the mandatory training.

N2IT

Sandman

Yes I thought it was an outstanding certification. It really opens your eyes to the management view of service desk and operational support. Let's say you are working at about 5,000 feet, it really pulls your vantage point up to 15,000 ft or so.

If you like operations I recommend it!

paul78

I never gave the concept of getting a cert any thoughts before I came across this forum. I am a college dropout and I did not get a cert for the first 23 years of my career.

I lately have developed a theory based largely on the anedotal comments from TE that getting certs are a byproduct of an individual's drive and ambition. And its not the cert that brings the success but the willingness to succed in one's career. The certs are a byproduct in the sense that its a learning mechanism.

I think I still need to refine my theory so I can articulate it properly but hopefully it doesnt sound like too much dribble.

N2IT

Without drive and ambition none of this happens. However drive and ambition without a properly mapped or aligned career road map can lead to a lot or rework and failed trial and error. A wise man will learn from others failures and successes AKA lesson learned. Recreating the wheel is costly and makes little sense when you have a large data set to compile information from. Is it flawless, of course not, you have to interject your own plans.

With that said if you are desperate to get out of help desk for instance and are looking for the most efficient way to get out of the help desk, maybe aligning your certification plans to others who have succeeded makes sense.

This is just my theory as well, so maybe it's nonsense. Again it's just my opinion.

Iristheangel

Most helpful: CCNA and CISSP. The CISSP gets a lot of attention even if you're not security focused and the CCNA is a good starter for networking. Plus they both have excellent reputations among employers

Least helpful: Everything else under my name. LoL. All the CompTIAs weren't worth the money except the S+ because that waived a year off my experience requirements on my CISSP. The CIW's were good for learning the basics but the naming ("Specialist") is deceptive so I wouldn't put them on my resume. I don't want an employer thinking I am a database or JS master when I know I'm not. The MCSE was useless because I never really used the knowledge. It might have been useful for someone working more with Windows servers.

the_hutch

ETA (Electronic Technicians Association) CFOI (Certfied Fiber Optic Installer). This is obviously the oddball in my collection of certifications. I originally worked for one of the earliest commercial fiber optic companies in Houston. But the company went bankrupt in less than 6 months from the time I came onboard. Since then, I've never done any cable work.

UnixGuy

Iristheangel wrote: »

...

Least helpful: Everything else under my name. LoL. All the CompTIAs weren't worth the money except the S+ because that waived a year off my experience requirements on my CISSP. ...

A training center once contacted me to give Security+ training part-time, and they wanted someone Security+ certified

log32

Well, I would say MCITP:SA/LPIC-1 since these landed me the sysadmin job I have now, but the production experience I came with had a larger weight in the job acceptance than the certs, funny thing is that I was LPIC-3 before I the interview, they didn't get my updated resume with LPIC-3 Core cert lol but I got it anyways.