Hybrid profile....what certs

Hello guys. I promised myself to make a change in life. I put some money on the side and I decided that I will try my best to finish some studying by October in order to gain qualification to help me to find a new job and step into IT. I am trying to develop a hybrid profile to spot more opportunities even if I am happy to find a role as help desk to start with. At the moment I listed the following areas as major certs and products CCNA for networking. MCSA Server 2012. MCSA Win 7. VMware desktop. I would love to receive some feedbacks from you.

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srabiee

Go for it. Start with MCSA or CCENT/CCNA and go from there.

Ivanjam

@zen4x - srabiee is spot on about the CCNA/MCSA combination. Personally, I plan to get the CCNA, then the 70-680, before seriously applying for IT jobs. After that, it will be time for the MCSA Windows 7 by passing the 70-685. Depending on the type of job I land, the MCSA Windows Server 2008 R2 or the CCNP Routing & Switching would be up next on the agenda.

instant000

If you're literally ready to start at help desk, you should be able to find something right away.

I just did a quick Monster search for the "help desk" keyword in this town, and saw a job on monster paying 14.50/hr for help desk with only high school diploma or GED required.
they preferred 1 year experience, but it wasn't required.

I saw another one that required A+ or Security+, and it was 17/hr.

Do you have any experience? It would appear easy to get "started" if you want to do this. It's on you how far you want to go in the field.

That is, my idea is to start doing something, then work hard at improving yourself while building experience and working on projects of increasing responsibility.

sratakhin

I'm not sure if MCSA 2012 is more difficult than 2008, but based on my experience, it will be difficult to obtain those certs if you don't have a few years of IT experience. There is just so much stuff to learn. CCNA, on the other hand, is quite easy.

zen4x

Hello. I hope I am not going to find much difficulties to pass the exams. So far I have found trainsignal.com for the theory and I will use boson.com for the labs and tests to the pass the exams.

instant000

I'm just trying to caution the cert-only approach. Experience will help you stand out more.

Which would you rather hire:
Candidate A: Someone with only CCNA
Candidate B: Someone with six months on the help desk plus CCNA?

So, if you're in a position where you can't afford to totally quit your current occupation, that's understandable. In that case, try some volunteer or other projects to build up the experience portion of your resume.

The volunteer or other projects will help you to discover where you find more rewards, so you can better focus your study efforts to be the most productive.

I hope this makes sense.

zen4x

Ivanjam wrote: »

@zen4x - srabiee is spot on about the CCNA/MCSA combination. Personally, I plan to get the CCNA, then the 70-680, before seriously applying for IT jobs. After that, it will be time for the MCSA Windows 7 by passing the 70-685. Depending on the type of job I land, the MCSA Windows Server 2008 R2 or the CCNP Routing & Switching would be up next on the agenda.

Hi Ivan. I hope that MCSA Client/Server and CCNA will be enough for any basic position. I just planned to stay out from work from July until I do not finish those exams. Unfortunately I do not know anybody in the industry but as I said I hope is enough to get a basic job. I am trying to minimize the impact of my bad cv and previous jobs doing many certs and showing initiative being a self-starter.

Ivanjam

zen4x wrote: »

Hi Ivan. I hope that MCSA Client/Server and CCNA will be enough for any basic position.

I am relying on that assumption too - CCNA and MCSA Windows client (server will come later). Good luck in your job search!

d4nz1g

I went for MCSA before CCNA, but I only went far on my carreer after CCNA. Now i'm working on CCNP, and im getting really recognized for that.
I don't regret that, because MCSA can someday be a plus on my resume, meaning that i have a wide vision of the technologies involved, not only L2/L3.