What's After A+ ?

Hi everyone. This may sound noobish, excuse my insufficient knowledge. If I wanted to take the path of Information Security, would I get both Network+, and Security+, or would I take CISCO/Other Certs? Also, if I wanted to be a Systems Admin, what type of certs would I be looking for? Any advice would help, really.

Thanks, a lot.

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Comments

chipcreep

I'd say Network+. Others might say otherwise. That's the path I plan to take. Then Security+ after that. As far as the System Admin recommendations go, that's beyond me at this point.

iBrokeIT

Network+ is a solid choice if you dont have a lot of experience with IT

Snow.bros

As far as entry level certs i would go for net+ and then move sec+.

Master Of Puppets

For a sys admin, Cisco and Microsoft certs are what you should be looking at.

SteveFT

After A+ and Network+, do you guys think that Security+ or an MSCA: Windows 7 would be better for a Help Desk position? I can eventually get them both, but I am trying to find my first job and don't have any experience. I'm trying to make myself as marketable as possible.

--chris--

SteveFT wrote: »

After A+ and Network+, do you guys think that Security+ or an MSCA: Windows 7 would be better for a Help Desk position? I can eventually get them both, but I am trying to find my first job and don't have any experience. I'm trying to make myself as marketable as possible.

Knock out the Net+, then follow up with sec+ (as many others have said, there is a large portion of carry over between the two so taking them closely together is advantageous for that reason).

Spend some time going over the job boards (dice, indeed, craigslist) for your area, see what pops up more: CCNA or MCSA. That will be the best way to determine whats more marketable in your area. Also consider the emphasis they place on the cert when you see it mentioned, is it the #1 or 2 requirement or is it thrown in a list of 15 other certs (most of them being more difficult to attain)?

In my area, I know after looking at boards for 2 months CCNA is requested more frequently than anything else for entry level work. After the big three (A+, Net+ Sec+) I plan on the CCENT then CCNA route for the exact same reason...marketability.

rwl1969

for myself I went with A+ then the Microsoft 6292 win7 course for exam 70-680 and the 6293 troubleshooting windows 7 in the enterprise for the 70-685 then network+ and overlapping it with the ccent (since so much of the info overlaps and it give an intro to ciscos os) security+ and the Microsoft 6294 for the 70-686 exam Admin Win7... I haven't taken any of the exams yet but have finished the objectives courses for the first 3 and start network+ next week....

DoubleNNs

I say you're facing 3 main choices after the A+:
1) Net+/Sec+
2) MCSA (Probably WIn 7)
3) CCENT/CCNA

Whichever of those you pick would be personal preference, but they're all good entry level knowledge to know and might all be certs you might want to get eventually (I know I plan to have all of them completed at some point.)
However, in terms of Return On Interest, options 2 and 3 will probably start pay themselves off quickest by allowing you to advance quicker (edit: or in your case, get a better paying, more involved 1st IT job). The Net+/Sec+ simply seem to give a good foundation to base the rest of your Infrastructure career off of. They don't seem to really be for job advancement.

You also could go he Linux+ route, if your'e interested. I know a bunch of other people in this forum went that route before the A+, or sometimes even instead of the A+. However, along w/ the Net+ and Sec+, I'm not too sure there's much immediate ROI on that cert, even if it gives an amazing wealth of knowledge to base the rest of your career off of.

Killerspec

Hi all

New in these parts just want to ask: I am doing A+ at moment looking at Net+, Sec+, CCNA but my question is am I better off looking at a comp science degree to make my work prospects better(if you get what I mean). Second question would you advise that I learn a computer language if I want to go into network management? If so what languages should I be looking at and why?

Many thanks

Matthew

JeanM

SteveFT wrote: »

After A+ and Network+, do you guys think that Security+ or an MSCA: Windows 7 would be better for a Help Desk position? I can eventually get them both, but I am trying to find my first job and don't have any experience. I'm trying to make myself as marketable as possible.

Concentrate on getting an IT job, even a help desk / desktop support. You don't need more certs to get your first IT job, as you also don't want to be looked at as a guy with 10 certs and 0 job experience.

It's a balance.