Best certs for starting out?

I'm making a career switch (isn't everyone these days?) from librarianship to IT. I have a Masters in Library/Information Science and a JD. I am not interested going back to school -- while I've seen people on this forum complain about cert. exam costs, school is even more expensive in my experience. I'm currently studying for the A+, since it should help patch up the holes in what I've learned on my own as a librarian (which is a strange patchwork of odds and ends) and show I know at least the basics. From there, I figure I'll need to put in my time at something entry level, gaining experience while working on further certifications. Only, I'm not sure what certifications to go for next. It looks like Network+/Security+/CCENT are all fairly popular, but I prefer to focus on one thing at a time in studying, so which one to start with? I'm looking mainly for input from people who've been in the field a short while, or from people who do hiring. No offense to everyone else, but I've seen a lot of more experienced IT people dismissing some basic certifications as stuff "Everyone knows" and therefore worthless, but as someone who's done a lot of work with the public, I've seen college students who don't know how to add a printer, so I think it's worth showing that, yes, I know at least the theory.

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Comments

DissonantData

Terrie wrote: »

I should add that one area I'm also considering is database work. As a librarian (despite having a JD, I have never practiced and have always been a librarian first and foremost), I worked heavily with commercial informational databases, though mainly from the user-instructional side. While syntax may vary, a query is a query is a query.

If you want to get into databases, I suggest you learn sql. I think of a query as having the answer, but knowing what question to ask and how to ask it to get the answer. Understand commands such as insert, query, delete, and update. Understand redundancy and normalization. Understand the concept of a relation as it relates to a relational database. You are going to have to learn sql through an extension such as MySQL or PostgreSQL.

Dakinggamer87

It depends on what area of IT you want to specialize in but I always like to suggest starting with the ComTIA (A+, Network+, Security+) certs to build a nice solid foundational knowledge before you decide where to go.