DOes it make sense to get A+ certified

sizeon

any if i have 4 years of Tech Support experience>?

ptilsen

Probably not, but you'll need to start somewhere. At least get Net+ if you have no other certs. If you don't truly know the majority of A+ off-hand, you should take it just for yourself. Take a couple of free, current practice tests. If you don't get 85-100% right, take A+.

ImTheKing

I'd say it depends on what you're trying to achieve. Are you trying to get out of tech support and move to a higher level (ie sys/network admin)? If that's the case, A+ probably isn't that beneficial cost wise (the tests alone are $350). If you want to continue working in tech support at the same or a higher level, it can be beneficial. When I brushed up for the 702, I found a handful of useful things that I'd either forgotten, never learned, or never tried.

If you are trying to move beyond technical support, that $350 can be stretched quite a ways and could get you 2-3 high level certificates.

cyberguypr

ImTheKing wrote: »

I'd say it depends on what you're trying to achieve. Are you trying to get out of tech support and move to a higher level (ie sys/network admin)? If that's the case, A+ probably isn't that beneficial cost wise (the tests alone are $350). If you want to continue working in tech support at the same or a higher level, it can be beneficial. When I brushed up for the 702, I found a handful of useful things that I'd either forgotten, never learned, or never tried.

If you are trying to move beyond technical support, that $350 can be stretched quite a ways and could get you 2-3 high level certificates.

Good point. I never got A+. I was a desktop support tech for 3 years and felt that the cert wouldn't do much for me. Since I wanted to move up I did N+ and then Microsoft certs.

Daniel333

There is nothing wrong with certifying your experience, and rounding off any knowledge gaps you might have. But A+ has become VERY expensive now days. Most jobs that are looking for A+ cert (geek squad, help desk etc) don't pay enough to recoup your costs given the fact you already have the experience.

What are your long term goals?

Zartanasaurus

I probably wouldn't in your shoes. In fact, other than the knowledge gained, the A+ seems pretty worthless to me. I'm sure there are plenty of jobs out there that will require or prefer A+, but everywhere I've worked none of the entry level guys had A+ but me. Many didn't even have a technical background at all and just got in because their dad worked at the company in another department or the applicant knew the bosses son or the secretary got her husband a job there because he "liked computers" or something (all 3 are actual examples I've encountered).

I worked at an MSP before that basically took anyone off the street that knew how to use a computer. That was my first tech job after getting my A+ in fact. We would just unbox and follow instructions on a piece of paper for making sure the computer was setup properly. 99% of the time, the other guys were no more than well-trained monkeys. No matter how long they'd been doing it, they still had to look at the paper for each step every time and still made errors. The couple of us that actually had some know how got hired on directly by the company to do "real" IT work, or used it as resume experience filler to take on a real job somewhere else.

Silly me getting an A.A.S and an A+ before I started applying to tech jobs. OTOH, none of those guys have advanced as far as I have in my career in such a short time.

Anyway, I think I've gotten off track here. No, I wouldn't get the A+ in your shoes. At 4 years in the tech support role, it's time to start thinking about what you want your next job to be. I could see getting the A+ if you had zero experience and had been working there for 6 months. Then you can use A+ to help you in your current job and as a sign to your employer that you are committed to learning.