Annoying newbie after some advice!

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Hi All!

Advice please!

Having started out as a secretary at a doctors surgery, I have been their IT support for the last 3 years but have absolutely no IT training or qualifications but somehow I get by!

I would love to get started in gaining some professional IT qualifications but dont want to make the mistake of choosing the wrong course.

The MCDST seems the best place to start but will I be out of my depth?

Thanks for any help!

 

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Welcome to the forum.

That all depends on what you know! Have you looked at the requirements for the MCDST? What about the A+? Have you looked at that?

 

MCDST is definitely a great place to start because it's an official Microsoft Certification that you can show to employers and also quote on your CV

It depends where you want to go next really, I think CompTIA and Cisco are much more "Techy" certifications that most employers outside of IT won't have heard of, whereas being able to show an Official Microsoft Certificate at Interviews is pretty impressive I think.

271 & 272 are generally regarded as the easiest of the MS exams but they're not a complete pushover so you'll have to put a lot of work into studying for them but more importantly, you'll need to get used to the tedious and confusing exam questions Microsoft use(!) It seems half the battle is trying to keep focused on what the actual questions are asking as well as answering them.

I've really come to hate MS exams and some of the questions are just stupidly long and convoluted as they seem to want to try and confuse and trick people.

 

Hi Rach, I would say it depends on what you have been doing to support the network thus far. If you have been opening up PC cases and delving into the guts to replace RAM, network cards and video cards etc then the A+ is perfect for you.

If you have been involved in cabling and networking then the N+ would be a bonus, though most people do the N+ after they have passed the A+

If however the hardware is not something which you get involved in on a day to day basis and networking doesn't play a big part but you do find yourself helping others with operating system issues, printing problems and general application configurations then the desktop support tech cert would be a good option for you.

Interestingly in the classes I attended for MCSE we never removed the cover off a PC, not even once in seven courses.

Pete

 

Hi and welcome to CF. I would start looking into MCDST, A+ and Network+, I believe that these three certs are a good base to start. Anyways good luck with the studies.

 

Rach,

Questions:

• Are all, some, or none of the computers at the doctor's office under warranty?
• Which operating system(s) are running on the computers?
• Are the computers networked into a workgroup or domain?
• Which software(s) are running on the computers?

 

Thanks everyone - you've been really helpful.

I was looking for a course that would get me started in I.T. which would still help me while I'm working here. I have never been involved in the hardware side of things more networking and software issues.

The surgery uses XP Pro with Office 03 on a domain network.

Therefore the MCDST looked the most appropriate place to start but didnt know whether I needed the A+/N+ first to be able to do it.

 

have a look at A+ or N+ before MCDST, it would give u a good start to your certifications...MCDST is a good microsoft cert...