Landed new job! Desktop Operator (Question)

I graduated in December 2009 with a B.S. in Management Information Systems. After looking for an IT job for 6 months, I finally found one only 3 minutes from my house for a major oil company! My question is should I even bother with the A+ certification? Would Network + be a better choice? My goal is to become a System Admin. in the near future. Any help would be much appreciated.

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Comments

earweed

Welcome to TE!
No cert is necessarilly a waste of time be it the A+or Net+. What's more important is the knowledge you gain in studying for these certs. Download the objectives for the A+ and if you are comfortable with answering questions in the objective you could probably just skip getting that cert. The same goes for the Net+.
It would probably be a good idea to go ahead and study for and obtain the Net+ as the knowledge you gain from that will help you further down the road. The network knowledge I gained from the Net+ has helped me so far in studying for more advanced vendor specific certs.

Devilsbane

cqlove wrote: »

I graduated in December 2009 with a B.S. in Management Information Systems. After looking for an IT job for 6 months, I finally found one only 3 minutes from my house for a major oil company! My question is should I even bother with the A+ certification? Would Network + be a better choice? My goal is to become a System Admin. in the near future. Any help would be much appreciated.

First off, congratulations!

Second, I hope it isn't for BP

Third, I would personally do them. Even if you know most/all the information, the piece of paper is always nice to know. Then you should get on the MCSA/E/MCITP path depending on where you want to go.

asurania

Hi;

I currently to desktop support too.

The rule i followed. Get qualified for the job you have, A+, MCITP: Enterprise Support Tech, then get qualified by doing the cert for the job you want.

In all reality how long will it take to get A+ and MCITP: Enterprise Support Tech.. 4 to 6 weeks. (Also the things you learn in MCITP: Enterprise support Tech, might help you a lot)

kenny831

Congrats! A+ is a good place to start.

veritas_libertas

Congratz! If you goal is to become a SysAdmin then I would go

A+ -> Network+ -> MCITP:EDST -> MCITP:EA

cqlove

The thing is I have already read and studied for the A+ via Mike Myers 5000 pg book. Picked up some good info : ) Since I got the job though I am hesitate to throw down some money on this cert. Is it safe to say I should just take the N+ or CCNA or is A+ usually a requirement for a job higher than Desktop Support? Thanks again everybody!

veritas_libertas

cqlove wrote: »

The thing is I have already read and studied for the A+ via Mike Myers 5000 pg book. Picked up some good info : ) Since I got the job though I am hesitate to throw down some money on this cert. Is it safe to say I should just take the N+ or CCNA or is A+ usually a requirement for a job higher than Desktop Support? Thanks again everybody!

You could easily skip it if you think you have that knowledge. If Cisco interests you than just start working on that.

ipconfig.all

if you want to be certified in comptia things go for server plus it will be good for the futurre as you want to be a system admin. Mcsa or mcitp sa would be good too.

N2IT

cqlove wrote: »

I graduated in December 2009 with a B.S. in Management Information Systems. After looking for an IT job for 6 months, I finally found one only 3 minutes from my house for a major oil company! My question is should I even bother with the A+ certification? Would Network + be a better choice? My goal is to become a System Admin. in the near future. Any help would be much appreciated.

A+ at this point has very little ROI in my opinion. Especially at 239.00 USD. Eeeeeek

The path Veritas listed is a nice one as far as I am concerned, if you really want to specialize in Microsoft. I would concentrate on impressing your peers and managers at this point. Learn the environment, study the environment, and soak everything up about your job.

And remember management liking you and respecting your work ethtic trumps any certification.

Just my opinion.

veritas_libertas

I should mention that if you are going to do the A+ and Network+ then get them over before the end of the year. If you don't then you will have to renew them each year, or they will be expire in three years.

cqlove

Thank you for all the replies. I think I will just forget about A+ and concentrate on other certs that you guys mentioned. Also just took a TeXes teaching test today to teach EC-12 Technology Applications here for our school district. Thought I might try that too since they start you off at $50,000 here. One thing that is tempting is that teachers only work 168 days out of the year! That's a lot of extra time to pick and grin on my guitar!

N2IT

cqlove wrote: »

Thank you for all the replies. I think I will just forget about A+ and concentrate on other certs that you guys mentioned. Also just took a TeXes teaching test today to teach EC-12 Technology Applications here for our school district. Thought I might try that too since they start you off at $50,000 here. One thing that is tempting is that teachers only work 168 days out of the year! That's a lot of extra time to pick and grin on my guitar!

BTW gratz on the MIS, very nice.