What certs (besides A+) are attainable without work experience?

Like the title says, which certifications have you all found are reasonably attainable without the benefit of any real IT work experience? I have just started school for a degree in CIS with a networking specialization, and while I have 8 years of work experience, none of it is in IT.
Browsing the A+ requirements that seems like a fairly obvious answer. But what about things like Net+, Sec+, CCENT, CIW etc?
Any and all input appreciated.

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drumrolfe

jcole4lsu wrote: »

Like the title says, which certifications have you all found are reasonably attainable without the benefit of any real IT work experience? I have just started school for a degree in CIS with a networking specialization, and while I have 8 years of work experience, none of it is in IT.
Browsing the A+ requirements that seems like a fairly obvious answer. But what about things like Net+, Sec+, CCENT, CIW etc?
Any and all input appreciated.

It really depends on the person and how much they commit to their studies. The CIW certifications cover a lot of material but they aren't very focused. I personally think the Net+, Sec+, CCENT, and some of the CIW certs are obtainable without I.T. experience.

I would recommend the CCENT over all the others, especially with consideration to your degree focus. The Security+ is also useful, but is more difficult than the CCENT in my opinion.

dave330i

I've gotten CCNA & Sec+ w/out any IT experience.

N2IT

Security + is a nice one and from what I hear the CCENT is another good one.

If you like Windows, maybe one of the Windows 7 certifications would work well for you.

jcole4lsu

dave330i - I've gotten CCNA & Sec+ w/out any IT experience.

how difficult was that? I never really considered being able to get the full CCNA without some sort of work experience.

pham0329

I would say any cert is attainable without work experience. It depends on whether you have the time and put in the efforts to learn all this stuff once you get off work.

I completed the MCITP track without any experience, and most of my CCNA was done without work experience.

cyberguypr

pham0329 wrote: »

I would say any cert is attainable without work experience. It depends on whether you have the time and put in the efforts to learn all this stuff once you get off work.

I was about to post the same. If you really want something and work hard, it may take longer, but you'll get it no matter what.

dave330i

jcole4lsu wrote: »

how difficult was that? I never really considered being able to get the full CCNA without some sort of work experience.

Wasn't too bad. About 2 month studying full time reading Lammle, watching CBT Nugget and doing sims to get familiar with CLI.

alan2308

jcole4lsu wrote: »

how difficult was that? I never really considered being able to get the full CCNA without some sort of work experience.

As dave already said, it's not too bad at all. I spent two semesters taking the classes in college, though if I were self studying I would have gotten through it a lot quicker.

jcole4lsu

Thanks for all the answers folks.
Does anyone have any thoughts on which to study for first: Net+ or CCENT?

snokerpoker

I would go CCENT myself. Cisco just carries more weight than CompTIA.

kurosaki00

you can get a loooot of certifications without real experience
but then is the real world application issue

and this is for all certs, even A+

Yeah you read everything, memorized it but then your employer expects you to take off the jumpers of something in your motherboard
and you've seen the book pics
but you've never done it

what you do now?

thats kind of the issue with certifications and no experience
just get yourself a 75$ pc from someone, some ppl even throw working stuff out
just gather that and experiment, practice
same with routers, same with err programming or windows server.
Install in a virtual and play around

But if you just read and memorize the "text"... hmm
gonna hit a wall somewhen in your job

N2IT

snokerpoker wrote: »

I would go CCENT myself. Cisco just carries more weight than CompTIA.

No question about it.

I would go CCENT and directly into the CCNA.