Need Opinion on my track...

goasakawa

First of all, big Matapachees to this site for the help, great forums and practice tests. Ive gotten my A+ with this sites help alone and N+ comming next week.

My cert track is as followed: A+, N+, MCP, MSCA2K3 then to MSCE2K3

I want to color my education a little bit. But not sure whats in emand these days. Im looking into Citrix so far since thats been the bizz word around the office. But I do know that Cisco is big too. And on the soft side SQL, Exchange and Unix is big.

So I guess this is just a general question, but where would you go after youve gotten the 'basic' certs. Or if your allready 'there' what area are you in currently.

cliffjag1987

Well i follow the basic track now :

A+ , Network+ , MCSA 2k3 ,Maybe later MCSE 2k3

I choose for MCSA 2k3 because many place they work with windows server 2000 or 2003.

But after i am done with my MCSA 2k3 I will look what certifications are very hot to study And especially where you can get more $$$$$$$

Munck

I don't quite understand this "basic track" concept.

Why spend time/money on A+/N+ if starting on MCSE right afterwards? When you have your M$ titles, no-one will ever notice the + certs on your resume anyway. I'll say, start with the MS client MCP, and get it over with.

About the what's hot/in demand issue: search the job ads in your area. Don't bother doing this "hot" exotic cert. no-one knows.

my 0.02ct

garv221

Munck wrote:

I don't quite understand this "basic track" concept.

Why spend time/money on A+/N+ if starting on MCSE right afterwards? When you have your M$ titles, no-one will ever notice the + certs on your resume anyway. I'll say, start with the MS client MCP, and get it over with.

About the what's hot/in demand issue: search the job ads in your area. Don't bother doing this "hot" exotic cert. no-one knows.

my 0.02ct

Very true. Start with 70-270 & go down the list - 70-290, 20-291...& so on.

Drakonblayde

You've still got to learn to crawl before you can walk, so it's worthwhile to at least study for entry level certs.

I went A+, N+, MCSA, CCNA and working on CCNP. I made a conscious decision that I don't particularly want to work as a Microsoft shop engineer or admin, so I decided not to go for my MCSE. Maybe I'll do it someday if I get bored, but my skills and preferences have always slanted towards the *x world (what can I say, I'm a command line kinda guy...). While I certainly do have windows sysadmin experience (more of it than I'd like), it's not what I want to do as a fulltime job. I like playing with networks and internetworks. I like playing with certain machines that have to interface with those networks (web servers, mail servers, etc). I do not like playing with crap like database servers. I'm more of an ISP NOC kind of guy as opposed to a large corporate data center kind of guy.

So what you need to do is identify your skillsets, decide if that's the kind of job you actually want to do in this field, and then pursue it. You may want to do everything. If that's the case, there are more than a few companies out there that will happily let you. They just won't pay you what it's worth

I don't know about everyone else, but I never really wanted to turn my hobby into my career, but when it came time to grow up and face the big bad world, I found I didn't have much choice.

ajs1976

goasakawa wrote:

Im looking into Citrix so far since thats been the bizz word around the office.

Citrix is a niche market. Not a lot of places use it, but there are not many other Citrix people around. I would only go for this cert if you can get the experience to go with it. Having a good Windows 2000/2003 background helps.

cliffjag1987

You've still got to learn to crawl before you can walk, so it's worthwhile to at least study for entry level certs.

AGREED

When you did A+ you are very familiar with the windows OS. A+ learns you the basic concepts of the OS. And MCSA 2k3 lets take Xp as an example : You get it more in depth ( AM I RIGHT )

And for the Network+ believe it or not when you are studying eg MCSA an take Xp as an example You learn a tiny little bit about some technologies like eg Cable modem or ISDN. But when you have done Network+ you know what they are.

Thats why all COMPTIA Certs are VENDOR NEUTRAL means you learn of every Technology to think in what you specialize yourself.

Who AGREES with me !!!!!

Munck

Drakonblayde,

I fundamentally agree with you on the walk/crawl statement. But not with almost useless certs. (Yes, I know, people are going to flame me for this ). I consider comptia certs pretty useless. Here's my point (besides what I've stated ealier):

I studied for and passed the CCNA in 4 months. I consider it an entry level cert. There is not any "rocket science" in the CCNA. Basic networking and IOS concepts. Most people do N+ first. I simply don't understand why. It costs 150$ + study material + 1-2 months of studying. To me time is everything. I have a whole list of certs I want to pursue, so spending time on a cert. that will prove useless to me 1 year later is simply not acceptable.

Same thing with MCP. I did the 70-270 in 2 months. Very basic XP stuff. It dosen't come any easier than this my friends. I don't want to work with MS products either, but at the time, I was looking for employment, so I did a couple of MCP's to brush up my resume.

That's just my opinion. Time is precious to me. Others thinks differently. That's fine by me

goasakawa

You all have made a lot of good points. From my view, I started out doing contracts for non profits. Nothing fancy. Just 'do this and that' stuff. Now that I have relocated to a more metropolitan city (='ing more $$$ potential) Ive decided to brush up my resume and skills. (All this in hopes of broadening my work experience).

As far as what the benifits of the certs are to me (as a 'newbie' so to speak) is that as I do the studying, I can learn the technology, then apply it. And I guess certs are a good thing to have to get the foot in the door if you have no [work] experience....vs. the John Doe who has been in the industry longer for 20+yrs w. no certs.


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