Helping a young man with his certification plan

First of all, nice to meet you guys

i'm glad to have found this website... I've never seen a resource so much competent in IT certifications (maybe because i'm a newbie).

The young guy i was talking about in the title is me!
I'm a 23 yrs old italian man, currently living in Italy (and planning to move to UK). I've been working in IT since when i was 16, and during these last years i've built up some experience in Server Administration (i've been a Junior Server Admin in a good company here in the country) and as reference consultant and technician for some companies (IT and others) in my region.
I've been developing websites for a long time, and i've been involved in the development of various PHP/mySQL based online RPGs videogames.

Where is the problem? I'm planning to leave Italy soon because i feel like if i was born in the wrong place at the wrong time

...this is what has convinced me to ask some guidelines in making a certifications plan.
That's because even if I have a good number of very positive experiences of work, i have no certificates and i don't have any degree in IT related matters(well i have one in a completely different subject, to be used as back-up career if a huge EMP fries all the electronics in the world

).
I'm not complaining about this, but my passion is IT and i wanna exploit it since i really need to start up a new life as soon as possible.
So i'd love to value my experience with something of tangible as a certificate could be.

The question is from where do i start considering that i've really liked working as Sys. Admin (this doesn't mean i don't like Security and Networking...i actually love them too

)?
I was thinking that since I have no experience in this kind of exams, maybe it could be a good idea to start from some basic certificates.

What do you think about this? (i've put W7 because from what i've see at least here, companies are still using Win XP and Server 2008, so i exclude a short term jump to W8 based platforms).
MCSA W7 -> A+ -> Sec+ -> Net+ -> CCNA

I don't know if this could be good, as i don't know how it could go after a possible CCNA...as i don't know if this will fit well in a resume where i'd like to focus on my experience as administrator and technician instead of programmer.

I really hope someone will help me...i need some encouragement.

Amh....sorry about the not so perfect English

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Comments

N2IT

I would take the approach of focusing in on one certification that aligns to your position and that interest you.

MCSE comes to mind, although that requires several certifications to obtain. I would take a look and see if there is a track that interest you and then if there is a specific certification within that track that really interest you and go for that. If you do it and the experience is great continue on, if not you have a nice MS certification and you never have to do it again.

If you are looking at Linux there are other tracks. Oracle and RedHat come to mind.

Take a look at these and see if any of these interest you and align with some of your current skills

MCSE

betaman

Thanks for your reply

So it's like, MCSA: Windows Server 2012 ---> MCSE: Server Infrastructure (even "Desktop Infrastructure" is interesting)
The only "problem" is that they're both 2012 based...looks like this is the occasion to make a deep study about it.

With Oracle i'm completely unexperienced, while Red Hat could be interesting.

mishy

betaman wrote: »

First of all, nice to meet you guys
What do you think about this? (i've put W7 because from what i've see at least here, companies are still using Win XP and Server 2008, so i exclude a short term jump to W8 based platforms).
MCSA W7 -> A+ -> Sec+ -> Net+ -> CCNA

I don't know if this could be good, as i don't know how it could go after a possible CCNA...as i don't know if this will fit well in a resume where i'd like to focus on my experience as administrator and technician instead of programmer.

If I was in your position I would go this way A+ -> Net+ ->Sec+ -> MCSA W7 -> CCNA because you would find that these subjects overlap each other and by the time you are on MCSA you will be eager to start working or might be working already and CCNA with work experience will help get above £35K especially with your age. Just make sure when you move to the UK you move to the right area otherwise some areas will not do you any favours.

Your programming experience is going to come in very handy because I am doing the Office 365 exam and you need Powershell to administrate some of the stuff thats online and your cannot do the stuff using the GUI and I hear it is the same with Exchange 2010 and Server 2012. No more GUI for us chancers (cowboys) we now need to leave the job for the real smart people

betaman

That's very interesting to know.
Do you know if it's possible to find Pearson VUE coupons somewhere in the web? Because i feel like the 187$ = 187€/£ change it's something very close to scam

mishy

betaman wrote: »

That's very interesting to know.
Do you know if it's possible to find Pearson VUE coupons somewhere in the web? Because i feel like the 187$ = 187€/£ change it's something very close to scam .

I usually use ebay and buy the international vouchers. I pay using Paypal to be on the safe side and have not had any issues yet.

Qord

If I were you I'd probably skip the A+. Probably the Net+ too. If you've already worked as a technician and a server admin, the A+ is almost a step backwards. It wouldn't hurt to learn the material covered by these two exams, but I think your money is better spent on more advanced certs, like MCSA/E and CCNA.

betaman

I guess I'll do A+ just to get used to this kind tests and to release anxiety. I've never done this kind of exams, and CCNA is very expensive to risk a 1st attempt failure because of stress.
Maybe MCSA could be a good idea, since it's something like 3 unexpensive exams

jcadarsh

Redhat Certification is gaining ground ! And this is one job where trained resources are not available !

Just my opinion though !

jcadarsh

But you can always start out with the MCSA which is inexpensive though !

southerne

MCSA is inexpensive,certified,legal with proper licensing and copyright.Anyhow thanks for some good stuff.

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