A+ qualification

John2002

Hi guys,

I'm considering doing a course on this with the intention of doing the exam. I'm just wondering what the general consensus is on this qual. Would it be worthwhile and increase my future job prosepects, or is it just a half-assed course that would be a waste of time and money?

Thanks,

John

PS I have retired temporarily after 3 years of a Computer Science degree so I currently have no qualifications at all. Would it be worth having this at the very least?

KdjaCL

DO it with Fas for €130 and it cant be a waste of money its a good course.

kdjaC

sutty

A mate here in work done the A+ Hardware corse a few weeks ago. He just studied with a book, and used past experance. He walked through it, but in the long run its does look good on a CV to have corses and what not. However even with that you will still find it hard to get work in the current state of the IT sector in Ireland....

sceptre

I've heard mixed things about the usefulness of the A+ course from people in the US (mostly around the topic of "doesn't guarantee you a job"). Not that anything guarantees anyone a job.

Add something like the A+ to your uncompleted CS degree and it'll be a nice advantage. At €130 with FAS, I'd be really tempted to do it myself.

Assuming that you were never taught useful things in your degree like hardware, networking and so on (haven't found a CS degree that goes into any depth on these), it can't be a liability. Look at it this way - it would show potential employers that you want to work in computers but that the stuff you were learning in your degree wasn't for you.

LoGiE

I'll be sitting the exam in march. I've been doing it through FAS net college as something to do besides just working in IT while waiting to do a college repeat. I've found I already understand most of the stuff as it's mostly hardware/trouble shooting. For the price it's well worth in IMHO. Any quaification you put on your CV might give you an edge. Certification can only be a good thing and I plan to do the .net course when I'm finished!

John2002

Thanks guys, I think I might as well go ahead and do it. At the moment I'm farting around in a SAP implementation job while forgetting all my IT experience so I think this might serve as a good refresher while also adding to my CV.

LoGie, how do you find the online Fas course?

Sceptre, you're right about this course proving to potential employers that I would be interested in computers, but more the hands on approach as opposed to the theoretical stuff that my university tended towards. I think it would also show a bit of initiative that I decided to get off my arse and do the course by night, which can look good to prosepective employers.

LoGiE

Its excellent but if possible do the course from work over a better connection as it loads the screens and sound files faster.

After you log in the course is broken into simple chapters each with a number of topics. You read a topic then answer questions at the end.

After completing a chapters, A multiple choice question type exam is done to check your knowledge of all the topics covered.

You do have 6 months access to the Fas Servers. You can log in whenever you like. After this you sit the exam and collect your A+ cert....hopefully;)

If you've any questions I'll answer them if I can

Cake Fiend

Get the A+ cert on top of your imminent CS degree. Also think about going for an MCP or MCSE, and possibly a CCNA. I can't really see a CS degree being worth dick if you're going for a hands-on position.

John2002

Originally posted by Sico
I can't really see a CS degree being worth dick if you're going for a hands-on position.

I agree and that's why I decided to quit. Programming bored the life out of me and the hands on IT stuff was very vaguely covered. Still it would be nice to eventually have a piece of paper.


Logie, another one for ya. How does the online course deal with the hardware side of the A+?

Cheers.

WhiteWashMan

i have the a+ and the network+ and the server+ exams all under my belt. they are good all round vendor independent courses and well worth a look.
plus, the a+ and the network+ together is worth a quarter of the MCSA if you are thinking of doing it.

plus, it never looks bad to have some certs under your belt, especially if they are self study ones. it may be easy to you, and pretty basic in some parts, however, you can always expand the certs and waffle on about how you did it yourself etc etc and make yourself out to be the go-getter achiever the company wants.
interviewers love that sort of thing.

uch

A+ gives you a good grounding in Hardware and OS's and is definitely worth doing but don't just do it from a book as there are too many "PAPER" technicians out there already, try and get some hands on experience somewhere, this will also help you to understand a great deal more as there is nothing like getting your hands dirty and fiddling with the bits and pieces to see what they actually look like.