got A+ and N+ where next?

phily2002

hows it going, as the title says, I did a course and got these exams, now I want to further my education and was looking for opinions on what I should do next.
I have a job at the moment(one of the lucky ones) so could do online courses or evening college... cheers guys

zoom_cool

It depends on where you see yourself goin probably the next thing to aim for would be a MCITP or CCNA

Digitaljunkie

phily2002 wrote: »

hows it going, as the title says, I did a course and got these exams, now I want to further my education and was looking for opinions on what I should do next.
I have a job at the moment(one of the lucky ones) so could do online courses or evening college... cheers guys

Just as a matter of interest what area are you working in? I'm working on them at the moment, the A+ and N+ that is.

phily2002

Digitaljunkie wrote: »

Just as a matter of interest what area are you working in? I'm working on them at the moment, the A+ and N+ that is.

part of my course had work experience(fas, it support specialist course), and the company I did it with have kept me on, the job basically consists of going out to shops and fixing printers, tills, ect... I really like the job but not sure how long Ill be kept for, so recon I should try get more qualifications for the cv if the dreaded day does come

@zoom_cool: cheers man, gonna have a look at those and check them out!

Digitaljunkie

phily2002 wrote: »

part of my course had work experience(fas, it support specialist course), and the company I did it with have kept me on, the job basically consists of going out to shops and fixing printers, tills, ect... I really like the job but not sure how long Ill be kept for, so recon I should try get more qualifications for the cv if the dreaded day does come

@zoom_cool: cheers man, gonna have a look at those and check them out!

Thanks for that Philly.

dlofnep

CCNA if you wanna further networking. Network+ will cover a decent amount of CCNA material anyway.

Captain Commie

all depends on where you want to go.

Im personally working on MCSA (dated i know but seeing as many Irish businesses are late adopters there is method to my madness) as I want to work more with windows server environments especially in messaging

NullZer0

Go for the CCNA.
My Microsoft Certifications have brought pretty much nothing to the table.

gnolan

iRock wrote: »

Go for the CCNA.
My Microsoft Certifications have brought pretty much nothing to the table.

Do you mean from the point of view of employment/promotion opportunities?

In spite of this, do you think that they've given you a greater understanding and made you better at what you do?

phily2002

cheers guys, think im leaning towards the CCNA at the moment,
sort of looking forward to it :eek:

NullZer0

gnolan wrote: »

Do you mean from the point of view of employment/promotion opportunities?

No - it wouldn't have made a difference.

gnolan wrote: »

In spite of this, do you think that they've given you a greater understanding and made you better at what you do?

Greater understanding as compared too?
I don't believe they have made me better at what I do - the only thing that did that was breaking and fixing stuff.

At the end of the day it depends on what track you want to take but in my own opinion any Microsoft Certification geared towards what they call "administration" or "engineering" is not worth it.

On the other hand - if you have a recruiter looking for a buzzword then it can do you the world of good. Everyone is different.

NullZer0

phily2002 wrote: »

cheers guys, think im leaning towards the CCNA at the moment,
sort of looking forward to it :eek:

Do some research on the EXACT job opportunities for each certification.
Whichever one your choose - only you can decide really - its down to personal taste.

Kinetic^

iRock wrote: »

Greater understanding as compared too?
I don't believe they have made me better at what I do - the only thing that did that was breaking and fixing stuff..

This. Qualifications may help you getting an interview but it's your experience that will seal the deal.

Digitaljunkie

phily2002 wrote: »

cheers guys, think im leaning towards the CCNA at the moment,
sort of looking forward to it :eek:

Have a look here this will help with your CCNA, http://www.howtonetwork.net/public/department95.cfm

Kur4mA

Hi guys... I probably should start a new thread for this completely but would appreciate everyones advice. I am thinking of doing both the A+ and Network+ and then hopefully progressing from there but I haven't a clue what to aim towards.

I'm not an IT Professional although I had Microsoft MCSE training (not certified) and Lotus DB/Admin training back in my IBM days. I veered away from that and for the past year or so I've worked with a large international online marketplace essentially doing triage work between Customer Support and our various global Product Development teams plus IT teams (PD for both site issues/bugs and IT for high impact infrastructure/architecture/network issues). I've picked up various bits of knowledge but no hands on experience or actual cerfication.

I'd appreciate ANY advice to be honest as I'd like to get back to the beaten track.

dubhthach

I agree with other posters regarding the CCNA especially as you've done Network+

From a Linux point of view the Redhat certifications are the best. Completely practical exam as well which is refreshing compared to multiple-choice.
http://www.redhat.com/certification/

I did the RHCT on Redhat 5 back in 2009, with release of Redhat 6 they altered that to RHCSA (Redhat certified Sys Admin) which I was recertified for. Nice thing with the RHCE exam is that it has two parts, you pass the first part you get a RHCSA, ye pass the second part as well you get the full RHCE.

If you want to get into Virtualisation the intial VMware cert is the VCP (VMware Certified Professional). I did it last summer, I'd like to do one of their more advanced exams (VACP) probably in the Design-Architecture stream.

NullZer0

+1 dubhthach

RHCE is really in demand at the moment.
While the jobs listed are limited... there are fewer candidates and the work is usually in large companies pushing new solutions (rather than reinventing the wheel).