A few questions from a newbie RE: A+

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Hello all,

I've had a good read through the forum, and you all seem like a friendly bunch, so I thought I'd ask a few questions, if I may. Some of the questions may seem quite daft, but I'm just looking for a friendly steer......

I'm 27, from Birmingham and have been looking at a career in IT. I have no relevant work experience. I also have very little work experiemce in any sector due to ill health. However, I am now fully fit and able to get on with my career.

My only current IT qualification is a GCSE in IT from 1997.

Anyhoo, here are the questions:

1- I have the chance to do the A+ at a local uni' full time over 2 weeks. Does the course presume any prior knowledge, or is everything taught 'from scratch'?

2- If I successfully pass the course, will that be enough to gain employment in IT support (etc)? I find it incredible that you can study for just 2 weeks and then get an IT job! How can you possibly learn everything you need to know for IT support in just 2 weeks?!

3- I'm 27, so I'm hardly likely to get a 'trainee' job. Plus with my lack of experience, I'm really worried that I won't be able to get a job. Can you offer any advice?

4- I plan to do the MCDST after the A+. Will this increase my employability?

Many thanks in advance!

 

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Hi and welcome to the forums

your points in order:

1) if you have no experiance that is going to be a lot to retain as that is one week per exam with all the training, I would personally stay clear. The A+ is a really good start but not in that time frame.

2) you might get an IT job on that but it would be deffinatly bottom of the ladder kind of thing.

3) There is no reason why you can't bee a trainee at 27 mate. My advise ask arround everywhere to see if they will let you help out, even for free. Get some old pcs that are broken from business or ebay and fix those up (possibly even sell them on) just play with computers break 'em, fix 'em just build the experiance.

4) The MCDST would help but it is by no means the only way of doing things, and to be honest if I saw an candidate with an A+ and 2 MCPs (there are 2 exams to make up the MCDST, each exam is one cert) without experiance I would be cautious, and would make very sure of your understanding of things before I employed you.

Neither Certs nor experiance is the whole game in IT but experiance does carry more weight. As I said try to get some experiance and see where it goes. Everyone here as worked to get where they are, none were born with it, (although sometimes I do wonder) it sounds cheesy but true and you can be a part of it.

Good luck.

 

1 ask this qustion of the uni.

2 no qualification will guaranty you get a job, experience as well will help. Two weeks from scatch seems a bit optimistic.

3 Once you feel confidant enough in what you can achieve try some agencie work to get more experience.
age shouldnt come into it.

4 concentrate on the A+ first and maybe think about self study afterwards for the MCDST.

maybe you should think about what part of IT you want to slip into, Good luck with what ever you decide there are plenty of pros on this forum should you get stuck with your studies.

 

Pretty much agree with what has been said above. The A+ is an entry level cert, but if it's for 2 weeks I guess they would be expecting a certain level of prior knowledge.