Question about certs

Hey guys I was hoping some of you could help shed some light on this!

Anyway, I guess this is more of a general question about certs.

Anyway, I'm still in college right now, last semester though, and I have this senior class where the IT majors, which is me, are to choose between a 15+ page paper on a topic that interests you, a 2 hour or longer seminar on something, or a certification and I decided to do a cert. And since I really do enjoy the server side of things I kind of wanted to go with the Microsoft server 2008 cert.

Now I have 3 months to try to get this cert. Which means taking all 3 tests.. And I have like a bunch of other crap to do for the end of the year as well, so in all reality I don't have much time and I'm not 100% sure that I can study/take/pass all 3 tests in 3 months.

So I guess my question is this: Is it even worth attempting to go for these certs in this short amount of time?

I do understand that certs are not EVERYTHING, but I kind of figured if I could do this i may get a better chance than someone who doesn't have one.. but yeah..

And if you guys had some other suggestions for some certs that would maybe be a little easier for the time I have that'd be awesome!
Edit: I was kind of thinking CCNA

Thanks in advance!

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Bokeh

If you pushed yourself, you could knock out Comptia's trifecta (A+ - 2 tests, Network+ - 1 test, Security+ - 1 test).

it_consultant

NateC16 wrote: »

Hey guys I was hoping some of you could help shed some light on this!

Anyway, I guess this is more of a general question about certs.

Anyway, I'm still in college right now, last semester though, and I have this senior class where the IT majors, which is me, are to choose between a 15+ page paper on a topic that interests you, a 2 hour or longer seminar on something, or a certification and I decided to do a cert. And since I really do enjoy the server side of things I kind of wanted to go with the Microsoft server 2008 cert.

Now I have 3 months to try to get this cert. Which means taking all 3 tests.. And I have like a bunch of other crap to do for the end of the year as well, so in all reality I don't have much time and I'm not 100% sure that I can study/take/pass all 3 tests in 3 months.

So I guess my question is this: Is it even worth attempting to go for these certs in this short amount of time?

I do understand that certs are not EVERYTHING, but I kind of figured if I could do this i may get a better chance than someone who doesn't have one.. but yeah..

And if you guys had some other suggestions for some certs that would maybe be a little easier for the time I have that'd be awesome!
Edit: I was kind of thinking CCNA

Thanks in advance!

Neither CCNA or MCITP:SA are easily achieved by someone with no experience in 3 months. It isn't impossible, but don't underestimate how challenging it can be to pass those tests.

NateC16

Yeah I kind of figured that the CCNA would be a beast as well. So I'll probably try to avoid that for right now.

But anyway, thanks for the replies hopefully I can get this squared away !!

JDMurray

Will studying for the certification be the only thing you are doing over that three month period, or do you have other courses to study for? If you have other subjects to study, I would suggest picking the one cert you feel is the most interesting (that is, easiest to study for) and go for it.

My vote is that you skip the CompTIA certs and go for your technician class amateur radio license. It's much cheaper to get, and much more valuable to have, than any CompTIA cert. If Jamestown College has a Ham Radio club, the membership will provide you all of the help you need.

dave330i

Took me 2 months to knock out CCNA, so that's doable. Sec+ took about a month. I've heard A+ & N+ are very easy. I would avoid Microsoft.

buzzkill

CCNA / MCITP would both require far more work than a seminar or paper, that's for sure.

Also for someone with no industry experience to knock out the SA in 3 months would undermine it in my opinion.

If you were keen to do a server one are you not able to just do one of the individual MCTS's i.e 640, or does it need to be the MCITP.

If you want the easiest route then the ITIL one is easy to smash out in a few weeks. I don't know whether the college has restrictions on the certs you can do.

Turgon

JDMurray wrote: »

Will studying for the certification be the only thing you are doing over that three month period, or do you have other courses to study for? If you have other subjects to study, I would suggest picking the one cert you feel is the most interesting (that is, easiest to study for) and go for it.

My vote is that you skip the CompTIA certs and go for your technician class amateur radio license. It's much cheaper to get, and much more valuable to have, than any CompTIA cert. If Jamestown College has a Ham Radio club, the membership will provide you all of the help you need.

Not to deride HAM and all that but is CompTIA not a little more beneficial than an amateur radio qualification for fledgling IT professionals? I agree with cost of Comptia..it's a racket. But certification is.

veritas_libertas

JDMurray wrote: »

Will studying for the certification be the only thing you are doing over that three month period, or do you have other courses to study for? If you have other subjects to study, I would suggest picking the one cert you feel is the most interesting (that is, easiest to study for) and go for it.

My vote is that you skip the CompTIA certs and go for your technician class amateur radio license. It's much cheaper to get, and much more valuable to have, than any CompTIA cert. If Jamestown College has a Ham Radio club, the membership will provide you all of the help you need.

LOL! Okay, that was epic...

None the less, I have to agree with Turgon that a CompTIA certification is more likely to help a fresh out of college student get an IT gig of some sort than an Amateur Radio license. I would actually recommend that OP study slowly for the CCNA or Windows 2008 server certifications. I'm of the personal belief that CompTIA is not worth it unless you are required to have it by your employer.

JDMurray

Turgon wrote: »

Not to deride HAM and all that but is CompTIA not a little more beneficial than an amateur radio qualification for fledgling IT professionals? I agree with cost of Comptia..it's a racket. But certification is.

I'm thinking it's better to study on your own pace to really learn the certification material than to just "cram to get the paper" for a class project.

The paper only gets your foot in the door for a first interview; it's your knowledge and experience that gets you the job.

ptilsen

JDMurray wrote: »

The paper only gets your foot in the door for a first interview; it's your knowledge and experience that gets you the job.

Just to clarify, was your earlier post meant to indicate that cramming in those certs and not really learning the material is a waste of time? Or, were you saying that those certifications have little to no value in the job market?

To OP, my suggestion would be to get Net+. Network+ is a good collection of material for the entry-level. There is enough information that you should definitely get something out of 1-2 months of concentrated study. It's also easy enough that you should be able to pass it in that time.

Getting MCITP:SA should be nearly impossible in that timeframe for someone with no experience, and indeed, you wouldn't learn the material well enough to actually use it IRL if you crammed it in that timeframe. That said, if the requirement is to get a certification, you should understand that you don't need three tests to get a Microsoft certification on Sever 2008 R2. You can take exam 70-640 to obtain Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration. It's by no means an easy test for someone with no experience, but I would say it is obtainable in a three-month timeframe.

Similarly, you can take ICND1 and achieve Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician. This is the first "half" of CCNA, if you will, and is a cert in and of itself. It is similar "theory" material to Net+, but contains more practical switching and routing material. Once again, this is a certification that should fulfill your requirement and actually help you learn useful skills and knowledge.

Of those three options, 70-640 is by far the hardest, while Network+ is the easiest. Taking either the MS or Cisco exam would be wise if you are already set on either as a career path. If you're not, Network+ would be a better pick IMO as it is vendor-neutral and its material will be a good starting point into either career path or a separate career path altogether.

NateC16

Thanks for the replies guys, I really do appreciate it!

JDMurray wrote: »

Will studying for the certification be the only thing you are doing over that three month period, or do you have other courses to study for? If you have other subjects to study, I would suggest picking the one cert you feel is the most interesting (that is, easiest to study for) and go for it.

As for this, no it wont be the the only thing I do all semester, I have to read a pretty lengthy spanish book for my spanish minor and prep a presentation on it, I have a pretty decent sized database/website project to do, and I also run track. So I guess you could say my time is kind of limited.

If you were keen to do a server one are you not able to just do one of the individual MCTS's i.e 640, or does it need to be theMCITP.

Sadly I asked him the other day and he said if I wanted to do the server 2008, I would need to do all the tests so I could get the "package cert" or whatever.

If you were keen to do a server one are you not able to just do one of the individual MCTS's i.e 640, or does it need to be theMCITP.

As for this, I do prefer to work towards a server test, but like everyone says those tests are beasts and honestly since I really have no XP in this type of work, I guess I really don't think I have enough time to study when I have quite a few obligations to do. And I guess they don't want it to be "toooooo easy" so we have to do like 2 tests. Like how the A+ requires 2 tests to get the full A+ cert. Or how the MCITP takes 3 to get the "full" cert.

Honestly, I just kind of wanted to do a cert because, it may not even be close to being true, but I want to think that if I have a cert of some sort on my resume that it's possible the employer where I go for an interview, sees that I did a little extra work, and it's possible that I may get a chance over someone who doesn't have one? I'm not sure, if that's even close to how it works but..

ptilsen

NateC16 wrote: »

Honestly, I just kind of wanted to do a cert because, it may not even be close to being true, but I want to think that if I have a cert of some sort on my resume that it's possible the employer where I go for an interview, sees that I did a little extra work, and it's possible that I may get a chance over someone who doesn't have one? I'm not sure, if that's even close to how it works but..

That is exactly how it works, IMO. While it's true that some employers don't care about certifications, many (probably most) do, and in many cases certifications will be the difference between you and another candidate. Certifications will also be the difference between getting the interview or not, and even the difference between having a human look at your resume.

I think the A+ would be a good choice, if it's an option, but I think it's absurd that your instructor would allow you to take A+ over a single MCTS exam. You could knock out A+ in a few days if you put your mind to it. Conversely, the MCTS exams from the MCITP SA/EA tracks should take an absolute minimum of 20 hours, but more like 40-80 for someone with no experience.

victorastacio

If I were you, in my opinion, you should always find out what is it that you love, me, I'm a network guy, I went in directly into Cisco without any prior experience at 19 and got my CCNA and my CCNA Security. If you really want to do, either microsoft or Cisco, my opinion is that you simply buy a CCNA book, learn it really well(not just memorize it because you don't want to be paper certified), and knock the test out !!

Turgon

JDMurray wrote: »

I'm thinking it's better to study on your own pace to really learn the certification material than to just "cram to get the paper" for a class project.

The paper only gets your foot in the door for a first interview; it's your knowledge and experience that gets you the job.

I cant disagree with that.

NetworkingStudent

ptilsen wrote: »

Just to clarify, was your earlier post meant to indicate that cramming in those certs and not really learning the material is a waste of time? Or, were you saying that those certifications have little to no value in the job market?

To OP, my suggestion would be to get Net+. Network+ is a good collection of material for the entry-level. There is enough information that you should definitely get something out of 1-2 months of concentrated study. It's also easy enough that you should be able to pass it in that time.

Getting MCITP:SA should be nearly impossible in that timeframe for someone with no experience, and indeed, you wouldn't learn the material well enough to actually use it IRL if you crammed it in that timeframe. That said, if the requirement is to get a certification, you should understand that you don't need three tests to get a Microsoft certification on Sever 2008 R2. You can take exam 70-640 to obtain Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration. It's by no means an easy test for someone with no experience, but I would say it is obtainable in a three-month timeframe.

Similarly, you can take ICND1 and achieve Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician. This is the first "half" of CCNA, if you will, and is a cert in and of itself. It is similar "theory" material to Net+, but contains more practical switching and routing material. Once again, this is a certification that should fulfill your requirement and actually help you learn useful skills and knowledge.

Of those three options, 70-640 is by far the hardest, while Network+ is the easiest. Taking either the MS or Cisco exam would be wise if you are already set on either as a career path. If you're not, Network+ would be a better pick IMO as it is vendor-neutral and its material will be a good starting point into either career path or a separate career path altogether.

I agree with ptilsen

I can tell you that some employers love certs, while and others could careless; it just depends on the employer.
I agree, with ptlsen, the 2008 sever certs aren’t to be taken lightly. I think it would take me at least a year to obtain that cert(at the bare minimum). I think you got to take 3 or 5 exams, to get that one cert.

I say skip the certs for now and try your hand at the seminar, or the paper. My suggestion is to write some sort of capstone project, were you fix some kind problem.

Next Big Ideas shine at Capstone '10 | Information School | University of Washington

Why a capstone project? If you did this you could have something to show employers during the interview.
My other suggestion is that you could ask about getting internship, temp work and documenting your experiences. Maybe write a paper on that, or just document your experience and turn that in for a project.

The seminar might be fun because right now you are a student, so typically you can call and get a discount at the student rate , which is typically way less than what the regular attendee pays.
Another option would be to get a student membership at an organization such as ISSA, and you could attend a meeting, or a few.

Student Membership
$30.00/year, plus chapter dues (if applicable)
Student members are full-time students in an accredited institution of higher learning. This membership class carries the same privileges as that of a General Member except that Student Members may not vote on Association matters or hold an office on the ISSA International Board. There is no restriction against students forming a student chapter. All membership dues are non-refundable.

Membership Types - Information Systems Security Association

You can put the issa membership on your resume too.

These are just ideas..good luck

Turgon

NateC16 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys, I really do appreciate it!

As for this, no it wont be the the only thing I do all semester, I have to read a pretty lengthy spanish book for my spanish minor and prep a presentation on it, I have a pretty decent sized database/website project to do, and I also run track. So I guess you could say my time is kind of limited.

Sadly I asked him the other day and he said if I wanted to do the server 2008, I would need to do all the tests so I could get the "package cert" or whatever.

As for this, I do prefer to work towards a server test, but like everyone says those tests are beasts and honestly since I really have no XP in this type of work, I guess I really don't think I have enough time to study when I have quite a few obligations to do. And I guess they don't want it to be "toooooo easy" so we have to do like 2 tests. Like how the A+ requires 2 tests to get the full A+ cert. Or how the MCITP takes 3 to get the "full" cert.

Honestly, I just kind of wanted to do a cert because, it may not even be close to being true, but I want to think that if I have a cert of some sort on my resume that it's possible the employer where I go for an interview, sees that I did a little extra work, and it's possible that I may get a chance over someone who doesn't have one? I'm not sure, if that's even close to how it works but..

You have a full schedule. Concentrate on your school work first and foremost. For certification go for something achievable without pressurising your college commitments.

FloOz

i am in my final semester of college as well. I knocked out A+ over christmas break. Id recommend you do A+ and network+.