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I graduated at 25 with a B.A. in Economics and since then, I haven't held down a job. Truth be told, I was either extremely lazy or had high expectations out of work and it resulted in me job hopping a lot in my 20's. Honestly, I was a bum, I was coddled and have had 4+ years of being unemployed. In the end, I have NO technical experience in anything whatsoever.
What turned me around was meeting someone like me who was 45 years old and it was a sad sight to see. Now that I'm applying for jobs, I understand that my poor work ethic and live choices has created a lot of obstacles; nobody is willing to hire someone with so many jobs, unemployment gaps, and no real job experience. I've only managed to get basic two 2 week temp jobs doing braind-dead work and job agencies are having a tough time trying to place me because of my resume.
During one of my temp jobs, I worked with someone who was a help desk analyst and thought his career was interesting. I read about Comp TIA A+ certifications and subscribed to their website. Now they have a promotion where I can take their online course and have 2 exam vouchers.
I have a few questions that will help me decide if this is a worthwhile investment. After I get certified, will I still be in the same situation as now considering I have ZERO IT job experience? I do plan on pursuing Network / Security + but if it's not going to overcome my job obstacles or any slight improvement on my job search, I will not invest in this. What are your thoughts?
I read about Comp TIA A+ certifications and subscribed to their website. Now they have a promotion where I can take their online course and have 2 exam vouchers.
The first question I have is how much they charging you for their online course? I work in the IT field and ten years ago the company I was working for decided pay would be based on how many certifications you possessed. At the time I didn't have any certifications, I picked up the exam cram books for A+ and Network+, studied them for a week and took and passed the tests three in a row over a 2 week span. I received a modest pay increase due to my efforts. It cost me about 50 bucks, not including the cost of the tests to obtain the certifications.
If you thinking of paying thousands of dollars to take an A+ certification course, I think your wasting your money. If you can't read an exam cram book and take the test, you probably shouldn't be in IT to begin with. No one should be shelling out thousands of dollars for these certification courses, there value without IT experience is very limited. I do know someone that shelled out 3 grand of his own money to get his Mercury Test Tools Certification, he increased his salary about 50 grand that year, but he had years of experience with the product before he did this.
The position I have now, I really need a Security+ certification, I'm studying the book now and expect to take and pass the test in the next month or two. Unless the company your working for is paying for your certification training courses, the return on your investment is devious at best.
Take this from someone around your age who also has an econ degree and worked in help desks. You need to find another employment track.
An A+ is really foundational computer knowledge - I passed it while working at a local PC shop coming out of high school. A+ is more geared toward teaching you how to assemble a PC, what parts do what, and background knowledge than anything useful in the job market.
Pick up an A+ book, see if you like it, then take the exam, which is $200-$300. DON'T pay any money for a course, as the cert is probably worth less than the $200 it costs.
I agree with the others. If you have the opportunity to get certified with little to no cost (aside from time/effort), go for it. You can feel good intellectually that you now know more than before you started. But the value it brings from a job/career standpoint is minimal.
In the end, operational disciplines like that are measured by experience/skills. You can have every CompTIA certification there is with no experience (and you can probably get all of them with zero experience), you'll still lose out to someone with a year or two of actual experience.
I have my A+ Certification card still in my wallet.. Dated 5/1/1997.. Luckily, I got it back when it was good forever. If you get an A+ certification now, as I understand it.. It's only valid for 3 years.
Most places require A+ certification.. Not because it tells how good someone is or anything like that.. It's just a litmus test.. They don't want to hire anyone who doesn't have that certification, because if you can't get that due to not being able to pass the test, you don't have the basic knowledge needed to do the job.
It used to be that the CCNA and CCDA certifications were sort of 'top shelf'.. But those have dropped down in prestige in the past 10 years or so.
Hey thanks for the insight! The course online is 250 dollars for 801 and it comes with 2 exam vouchers with the second one being a retake. So I'm investing 500 into both 801 and 802 with 4 chances to get certified.
I figured getting this certification will help land me a basic desk job and get me working. Felt it might be better than my current position.
Go ahead and complete the online course. Additionally, checkout out your local library. There are usually shelves of A+ books along with other certification books that are free to checkout. Look through the collection and find a couple that make the most sense to you.
In the meantime you should start searching out part-time help desk jobs in your local area. Craigslist tends to have many. The more experience you can get the better you will look when you start searching for full-time work.
Every poster here gave you some good advice. Experience trumps certs. But at the end of the day, you have to start somewhere.
I have my A+ Certification card still in my wallet.. Dated 5/1/1997.. Luckily, I got it back when it was good forever. If you get an A+ certification now, as I understand it.. It's only valid for 3 years.
I obtained my A+ back in 2003, so mine if valid "forever" too. It's my understanding that so long as you take a free online course or two to keep your A+ current, it doesn't "expire".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Labonte18
It used to be that the CCNA and CCDA certifications were sort of 'top shelf'.. But those have dropped down in prestige in the past 10 years or so.
They are much more common now, there are a lot more people that possess them, so they are not as prestigious due to that fact. Where I work, even the janitor's have CCNA's.
I have to echo everybody's sentiments. It added little to no value career wise. I got a job making $8/hr at a call center with mine. It was a paycut from my file clerk position for $8.50/hr.
I found an easier path to making money with a SQL certification in Oracle SQL Expert. I work as a business anayst, instead of IT. With just SQL and Excel, business analyst salaries are $70-100k for 5 years exp.
any IT certs don't mean anything due to those exams have cheat sheets of original exam from real test so anyone can memorize and pass the real test.
A+ is a lower level cert. just to fix hardware of the PC. which anyone can do! Just googling troubleshooting the problem of the PC!
pay $15/hr try higher othrer specializations may get better luck
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