Career In IT

Mxdave

Hi Just posting to see what courses are good for a Career in the IT world, Only new to Boards.ie Anyways I have been working in a computer shop for 2 years now since I Finished school and am enjoying it a lot and learned loads from it, anything from OS problems to Soldering on the Motherboard. So here's the problem, I have been out of school 2 years and have still no real Qualifactions. I Done a Computer Maintenance and Computer Networking course last year at Fetac level but would like to do a another course that will show I have more Skills. I would like to stay working as I'm in a job I am enjoying it and been thinking about morning or Evening courses. I was thinking about a A+ CompTia Course And then going Net+ and so on. Any advice or Course Ideas would be great

Thanks

majiktripp

Hello Dave,
I would recommend doing the A+ exams from CompTIA as it will give you a grounding certification and show anyone looking at your CV that you have an interest in pursuing further certifications also. You could try and do the more widely recognised (hence more difficult) Microsoft exams, like becoming an MCP by doing 70-270 for Windows XP or even 70-271/70-272 which gets you the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technican title.
Exams can be expensive at €140 a go for the Microsoft ones in test centres here so you would probably have to do most of the study yourself if you cant afford to do dedicated training.
IT. is a fickle business to try and get a job in and while certifications are good, experience is also vastly important. So my final advice would be never shy away from tougher, harder jobs at work. Get stuck in to servers and the likes if you can or even just watch over the shoulder and pick the stuff up that way because for a better paying job you will have to tackle the more difficult stuff eventually.
Hope that helps

Mxdave

A+ Ill start with so and then go for the Microsoft exams, I am going to pay and do class based courses. I have been looking at places to study it in dublin and Dorsets are looking 1700 for the A+ and thats 25 weeks while College of computer training is 960 for 15 weeks, Anybody have any experance with the 2 colleges?

accensi0n

Mxdave wrote: »

A+ Ill start with so and then go for the Microsoft exams, I am going to pay and do class based courses. I have been looking at places to study it in dublin and Dorsets are looking 1700 for the A+ and thats 25 weeks while College of computer training is 960 for 15 weeks, Anybody have any experance with the 2 colleges?

I would seriously advise studying for these by yourself. With 2 years experience you will have no trouble with A+/Network+.

Get yourself a couple of books and some old machines to play with. You'll save a lot of money.

axer

accensi0n wrote: »

I would seriously advise studying for these by yourself. With 2 years experience you will have no trouble with A+/Network+.

Get yourself a couple of books and some old machines to play with. You'll save a lot of money.

I agree with this. If you have the head to take on things by yourself and research when you encounter problems you have never encountered before then you will have no problem self-studying. You just need to set aside time to pick up the books every week and stick with it.

tech

Hi DAve

Buy yourself the book and study and do test exams. With 2 years of fixing pc's all you need to do is get into their way of thinking and practise loads of questions

pclancy

Ditto all the above, you'll do fine in the A+ by studying yourself, the same with the basic MS exams. Just go over the book and do plenty of practice exams.

I also started in IT in a computer shop selling and fixing PCs, I got lucky after 2 years and moved up to a good job doing field service and got lots of exposure to servers and networking and I just went upwards from there over time to enterprise support that I do now. I actually miss working in the shop but the customer service skills that first job gave me have stood me well. I don't have a degree just some vendor certs, MCP and 8 years experience, as said its the exeperience and amount of work you put into your exams that will get you jobs. Good luck!

far2gud

pclancy wrote: »

Ditto all the above, you'll do fine in the A+ by studying yourself, the same with the basic MS exams. Just go over the book and do plenty of practice exams.

I also started in IT in a computer shop selling and fixing PCs, I got lucky after 2 years and moved up to a good job doing field service and got lots of exposure to servers and networking and I just went upwards from there over time to enterprise support that I do now. I actually miss working in the shop but the customer service skills that first job gave me have stood me well. I don't have a degree just some vendor certs, MCP and 8 years experience, as said its the exeperience and amount of work you put into your exams that will get you jobs. Good luck!

Experience is the name of the game in my opinion, you can study how to apply a gpo or deploy a scrip in AD but doing this in a productiojn environment is different. While the certs are good, I would try to work with the technology as you are working on the certs.

Mxdave

Thanks for the reply guys A Friend told me the other day they had the Cd's for the A+ at home and they would give them to me. So I'll take a quick look at them and see what I think of the Exams.

Where do you do the A+ exams? Can you do it anytime?

Volter

Mxdave wrote: »

Where do you do the A+ exams? Can you do it anytime?

You can book online the exams through Prometric Testing Centre for your convinience date.They have a few testing centres in the city centre.

Good luck!!!

the_syco

Mxdave wrote: »

Thanks for the reply guys A Friend told me the other day they had the Cd's for the A+ at home and they would give them to me. So I'll take a quick look at them and see what I think of the Exams.

Just make sure that they're for the new exam, and not for the 2005 exam (as a lot of CD's out there are for).