What certs should I look into getting?

I currently don't have real world experience. I'm currently enrolled in the Cisco Academy for CCNA. I'm not sure what certs I should look into to accompany the CCNA. I studied a+/networking in high school, so I should bother looking at the a+/n+ certs? How about microsoft certs? I'm interested in security, so security+ is on my list of certs to obtain. Thanks for any advice you can provide.

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Comments

ptilsen

If you're looking to go into networking as a career, you would probably be best just going after CCNA, maybe with Security+ at some point. No point looking at A+, Net+, or an MS cert at this point if networking is going to be your thing.

Ch@rl!3m0ng

computer g33k wrote: »

I currently don't have real world experience. I'm currently enrolled in the Cisco Academy for CCNA. I'm not sure what certs I should look into to accompany the CCNA. I studied a+/networking in high school, so I should bother looking at the a+/n+ certs? How about microsoft certs? I'm interested in security, so security+ is on my list of certs to obtain. Thanks for any advice you can provide.

CCNA will give you a good base for networking so N+ not needed. However if you are looking to get in to Security and am been general here as its a wide and broad area, ie Pen Testing, Security Anaylst, Security officer or Encryption specialist to name but a few. The A+, Sec+ and M$ certs would be a big help, or at least a good understanding of how they work. If you know how something works you can deffend or attack it. If you dont know then how do you know how to say harden a windows server or close ports or create ACL's in your network?

My advise would be to look at which area of Security you wish to get into. Once you know this you can start down your chosen path. If you have not already found it check out the The Ethical Hacker Network this website is for security pro's and is very insiteful. This may give you a better idea of where you want to be.

Hope this helps.

computer g33k

Ok thanks guys. Currently I'm not sure what path I want to take on the security route. Like you said charlie, security is wide and broad area. Do you know of any site that lists security roles with definitions so I can get a better understanding of what routes I can take? Thanks again.