which A+ track to persue?

snadam · May 2007

Hey guys,

My buddy is a hardware guru. At this point he is virtually certless. Im trying to get him motivated to get out of his over-the-phone help desk job and get promoted in his company, like the hardware bench or something. However, he probably needs to get some credentials first. A+ is right up his alley. However, we have been debating which version he should take. Im not too savvy on the new 2006 version, nor the demand for either one in the job market. In regards to the old A+ cert, him and I went over some practice A+ Hardware questions, and he got all 20 right without even thinking. He did okay on the OS. I know if he studies the OS portion he could easily pass.

however, he seems to be more interested in the newer 2006 version of the cert. An overview indicated that there wasnt too much hardware questions as before, but more customer service based questions. Im probably wrong, but from my inital look at it thats what it seemed like.

So, if anybody with any knowledge of the certifications; what exactly are the desires/demands for each version in the IT world today?

Any and all advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks in advance!

nel · May 2007

i dont know much about the new certs but the one thing i do know about the a+ i done - it was a rip off! its way to costly for what you get back out of it. think its £110ish per exam or something! its seriously not worth it in my eyes - yes its good to have if you are VERY NEW in IT. but if your friends intelligent ask him what he wants to do. i.e windows engineering or a networking engineer. if he wants the first tell him to go for mcsa and maybe progress to mcse, if he wants the later then skip network+ and go for the ccna path.

These are greater certs to have and are very desired in their respected areas because like it or not cisco and microsoft dominate a hell of a lot of the IT market.

snadam · May 2007

nel wrote:

i dont know much about the new certs but the one thing i do know about the a+ i done - it was a rip off! its way to costly for what you get back out of it. think its £110ish per exam or something! its seriously not worth it in my eyes - yes its good to have if you are VERY NEW in IT. but if your friends intelligent ask him what he wants to do. i.e windows engineering or a networking engineer. if he wants the first tell him to go for mcsa and maybe progress to mcse, if he wants the later then skip network+ and go for the ccna path.

These are greater certs to have and are very desired in their respected areas because like it or not cisco and microsoft dominate a hell of a lot of the IT market.

This would be his fist cert. I figured this can open some doors at his current job. I heard COMPTIA is discontinuing the "old track" in june? (unsure if it applies to US)

I appreciate your advice, and look forward to others!!!

Bob Kiwi · May 2007

I took the 2006 A+ at the end of January 2007, as my very first cert. I took the Essentials and then the IT Tech path (which, to my understanding of CompTIA, encompasses the other two tracks) because it's more in line with my job as a tech than help desk/depot which I believe the other two paths are.

The 2006 test does put a huge amount of time into customer service. But it's mostly the kind of customer service which is blatently obvious- with questions which were quite similar to: You popped a key off the user's keyboard, do you call in a WO, ignore the issue, fix it for the user, or tell the user to buy a new keyboard?

I aced both tests easily with minimal studying- I think that someone with a good head on them as well as hardware knowledge would do very well on the 2006 test.

I also think that, at its price, taking it is either due to that:

A) It's your only cert, which makes it the best entry level cert to take
or

Your company paid for it, which makes all CompTIA tests worth it!

It's a good one, it sets the bar pretty low but ace it and move on and up!

which A+ track to persue?

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