What path should I take? Help/advice needed

jam3s121 · March 2014

I recently decided I want to pursue a career in IT work, I bought myself the A+ textbook/study book and began reading.. I am more than half way through the 1550 pages and I've found to pretty much know or vaguely know everything before reading it so the reading has only reinforced my understand. I understand A+ is quite simply a beginning and isn't the end all.

I am curious if people think a 12month program, that costs $22k that teaches A+, Network+, Security+ and MCP prepartion is worthwhile? My friend who already work in the IT field said that security and net+ are important but doubtfully needed for a helpdesk or IT desktop tech job and that if you are considering those certs that over certs out rank them by a lot like ccna, while mcp would be much more useful.. I have a good amount of prior PC knowledge including building my own computers and troubleshooting various things on my own.. I have taken a few A+ practices without reading the full book and seem to be close to passing.. to pay that amount and be learning some stuff seems remedial to me at this point. But going to that degree program provides a lot of hand on labs I wouldn't have access too and the fact that the students in the program are the helpdesk/it techs.

I don't really know what route I want to go with a IT career, I understand/like working with windows and repairing pc's at this point.

srabiee · March 2014

The ONLY time you should be spending anywhere close to $22,000 would be for a regionally-accredited bachelors or masters degree.

If you want to learn A+, Net+, Sec+, etc, then buy the books on Amazon and study them on your own accord. You'd be surprised how quickly you can learn this material on your own.

DO NOT waste your money on something like this. You're going to be in debt up to your neck and you're not going to have anything to show for it.

Do you currently have a degree?

jam3s121 · March 2014

I currently have a associates in science with a focus on criminal justice, something I don't really want to do. I choose it not knowing what I wanted to do and the community college I was at didn't have many options.

Like I said I'm more than half way through a A+ textbook and seem to really understand most material, I've built my own Pc's for 4 years and troubleshooted since.. have recommended parts etc so I have great hardware experience. Right now the book has taught me a lot of stuff about what was used prior to my own use like agp, pc slot cards. I took a 801 practice test and scored in the 80s without touching the chapter on printing technology yet which is the only section i seem to score bad on.

My main concern was is reading through lets say network+ without the hands on experience is it still quite possibly to pass without the experience? Ultimately, I want to find something starting out as either helpdesk or it support technician with windows 7 for the first few years. I would need something like the msca windows 7 680 for that I believe.

srabiee · March 2014

I recommend you finish studying for the A+ and pass both exams. Then you can add that cert to your resume which will help you land an entry-level helpdesk or support position. Then look into taking the Server+ (never expires) and possibly the Network+. If you want to focus on working with Windows OS and server technologies, then yes the MCSA: Windows 7 and MCSA: Server 2008 is a good place to start after you're finished with the CompTIA stuff. Microsoft exams are no joke and will likely take you quite a bit of time to study for. Do this while you are working and gaining experience in an IT position.

Also, you should think about transferring your Associates degree into a BS program at a school like WGU and actively work towards a bacherlors in IT. A BS in IT will open up many doors for you going forward (unless you have tons of experience, which you don't at this point).

jam3s121 · March 2014

thank you for your input i really appreciate it. I think at this point I will continue my A+ prep, take the exam soon and hopefully start network+ on my own.

From there we will see what happens, I know a community college I could go to that offers ccna prep that could be completed in fall/spring. I'm slightly more interested with the windows side of things but thats always a option and it would probably cost $2000 total. I see a lot of online or classroom led cert classes but these are like 4-5 day things, they must be for people that already have prior work experience that just need the cert to get a better job or there employer demands it?

Xyro · March 2014

jam3s121 wrote: »

From there we will see what happens, I know a community college I could go to that offers ccna prep that could be completed in fall/spring. I'm slightly more interested with the windows side of things but thats always a option and it would probably cost $2000 total.

You could do a CCNA on your own a lot more thoroughly than anything you could find at a CC. Keep in mind that you could also do it for less than half that price ($2K) and that includes setting up your own lab.

I wonder why you would consider this though since this is on the networking side of things and you have stated that you prefer the Windows side of things for the moment. In this case I would suggest the MCSA, not the CCNA.

What path should I take? Help/advice needed

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