What to do?

goldenshower

Hi all.

I just passed my CompTiaA+ today with F.Á.S. but I'm wondering what to do next? I would like to further my training, and had been set on doing the CompTia Network+ and then the CompTia Security+, but after reading through the posts I am getting the impression that CompTia isn't worth the paper that it is written on I suppose that my questions are:

(1) Is the CompTiaA+ and the City and Guilds worth anything on their own, employment wise(considering that I could be up against graduates with degrees, etc.)?

(2) If going onto further training which direction should I be leaning towards? A lot of posts here seem to value the CCNA over CompTia, so would I be better off just going straight into the CCNA or trying to get the CompTia's out of the way first.

(3) Is there any other route that I could be taking into the I.T. sector that I havn't considered?

P.S. Time spent training is a consideration as I am 31(yesterday:)), mortgage, wife, child, etc. Currently unemployed.

Cheers,
Anto

Rossin

The best thing you could do is get some work experience imo. Keep studying by all means but if you can get some experience its a lot more valuable and that includes working for nothing.

CCNA is a lot more valuable than any comptia cert(than most IT certs tbh), but it's a lot more difficult

moneymad

goldenshower wrote: »

Hi all.

I just passed my CompTiaA+ today with F.Á.S. but I'm wondering what to do next? I would like to further my training, and had been set on doing the CompTia Network+ and then the CompTia Security+, but after reading through the posts I am getting the impression that CompTia isn't worth the paper that it is written on I suppose that my questions are:

(1) Is the CompTiaA+ and the City and Guilds worth anything on their own, employment wise(considering that I could be up against graduates with degrees, etc.)?

(2) If going onto further training which direction should I be leaning towards? A lot of posts here seem to value the CCNA over CompTia, so would I be better off just going straight into the CCNA or trying to get the CompTia's out of the way first.

(3) Is there any other route that I could be taking into the I.T. sector that I havn't considered?

P.S. Time spent training is a consideration as I am 31(yesterday:)), mortgage, wife, child, etc. Currently unemployed.

Cheers,
Anto

Those certs are good for an intro, but that's about it.
If you go for an ccna, you will find it extremely hard to get even an entry level job.By the time you do your ccna etc, you would have a degree and it will stand to you later on.
If you are serious about IT, go to college and do a degree. It will save you a lot of hassle down the road . As all these little courses don't hold any weight and you just keep going round in circles.


Well done on passing your course.

T-K-O

I studied the CCNA in ITB and it cost 2500k. Some of the guys in the class were able to do the course for free under springboard.

I suggest you apply for the course and at the same time apple for an intern ship. 9 months later you will have experience and certs

druidhill

www.jobbridge.ie

You need to get real-world work experience. I would disagree with moneymad about going to college to get a degree, given your current circumstances.

goldenshower

Thanks for the replies guys. I think that i'll go down the CCNA route. Work experience isn't an option as I have applied to go back to college in Sept and in order to claim the BTEA I am not allowed to work for the year beforehand(which sucks:mad:).

WOCM4

moneymad wrote: »

If you go for an ccna, you will find it extremely hard to get even an entry level job.By the time you do your ccna etc, you would have a degree and it will stand to you later on.
If you are serious about IT, go to college and do a degree.

Excuse me? Bullcrap.

CCNA is the most respected Associate level cert available.

You will get an IT job with a CCNA. Eventually.

Not any form of real Net Admin, but if you are very lucky possibly some junior role where you can get that vital foot in the door.

Foot in the door is the most important thing. CCNA will provide that foot in the door.

You may be just hopping desks or picking up 2nd level phone work for a while until the exp builds up. But thats the game.

Start your CCNP Switch while doing the daily slog in your first IT job and look for Junior Net Admin positions as you go.

It should take 6 months(more or less) to do CCNA.

Do not pay €2500 for a course.

Spend 200-300 on a lab or use GNS3 and Packet Tracer.

Get CBT nuggets, Train Signals Videos and Odoms Offical Cert Guide.

That is enough.

Weather you pay thousands or not, you HAVE to do the learning yourself.

You cannot buy a CCNA.

A lot of uninformed guff here about CCNA.

UDP

WOCM4 wrote: »

You cannot buy a CCNA.

unfortunately you can with braindumps.

You are correct that the CCNA is respected though as anyone doing braindumps will be caught out in an interview.

OP, the A+ is probably sufficient to get a helpdesk role. Doing certs in MS Office and Windows Clients would help you get into such a role.

To do a desktop support type of job you are going to need hands on IT experience but that doesn't necessarily need to be as part of a job. You just need to know how to practically do things with computers, printers etc.

You could get some practically experience by doing jobs for people and possibly volunteering somewhere but I don't know if there are places you can volunteer IT skills to but I'd imagine there are.

Since you probably don't know what you want to specialise in yet then at most you should look at doing the CCENT (ICND1) exam rather than the full CCNA. Should you get a job that would benefit from achieving the CCNA you could start working towards it then as focusing on other exams to go along with your CCENT might be more beneficial for getting started in IT.

WOCM4

UDP wrote: »

unfortunately you can with braindumps.

I really dont think you can pass CLI sims's with a brain dump and or sub netting probs.

Its a pool of thousands of questions. Its more work to memorise all the answers than to learn it.

It aint 2003 anymore. Brain dumps had their day for Cisco imo.