change of career for a self confessed geek

Discussion in 'New Members Introduction' started by glytch, Aug 4, 2005.

  1. glytch

    glytch Nibble Poster

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    Hi all!
    just been nosing around here after a search on technical support, you all seem to know what you're talking about here :)
    I have just changed careers and I would really like to go for what I should have chosen in the first place... computer support specialist

    I have a lot of experience of my own pc's and fixing and building others for friends and for extra pennies but I have found that I have to have some more qualifications to follow my chosen path :(

    it would be nice to find out what type of certs I will need to be able to apply for technical support positions in london, I dont mind starting at the bottom again, I'm (only) 32 :oops:

    seeya in the forums....

    Andy
     
    Certifications: none yet
    WIP: CompTIA A+
  2. Weemez

    Weemez Kilobyte Poster

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    Welcome Glytch,

    im 27 and not long started certs myself, this is a good place to come for advice.
    I'm recieving most of it at the moment though! :biggrin
     
    Certifications: HNC Computing A+ N+ ICND1
    WIP: ICND2
  3. KeithNN

    KeithNN Byte Poster

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    Hi, Andy. Welcome aboard. Depending on the tech support role I guess you're looking at A+/Network+ or possibly MCDST as your first cert...
     
    Certifications: MCSA/MCSE, MCDST, MOS Mstr, Sec+,Net+,A+
    WIP: 70-284
  4. Phoenix
    Honorary Member

    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    Ooo more geeks for my little club! great stuff!
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCITP, VCP
    WIP: > 0
  5. tripwire45
    Honorary Member

    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Greetings, glytch. Welcome to CertForums. Glad you found us. :)
     
    Certifications: A+ and Network+
  6. Jakamoko
    Honorary Member

    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Hi Glytch :)
     
    Certifications: MCP, A+, Network+
    WIP: Clarity
  7. Boycie
    Honorary Member

    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    Hi and welcome to the best resource for certs and general PC advice. Hope you stick around. :D
     
    Certifications: MCSA 2003, MCDST, A+, N+, CTT+, MCT
  8. Veteran's son

    Veteran's son Megabyte Poster

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    Welcome, glytch! :)
     
    Certifications: A+
    WIP: N+
  9. glytch

    glytch Nibble Poster

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    wow... didn't realise I would get so many replies already. I feel a little less daunted now.
    thanks again for your advice..

    Andy
     
    Certifications: none yet
    WIP: CompTIA A+
  10. tripwire45
    Honorary Member

    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    I don't think anyone answered this question for you Andy. I'd say that if you have no certifications at all and are looking at a tech support job, you probably want to start out with the A+ from CompTIA. You can learn more about it here:

    http://www.comptia.org/certification/a/default.aspx

    As far as desktop support, perhaps Microsoft's MCDST certification would be a good direction. It's just a suggestion but it wouldn't hurt to look into it:

    http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcdst/requirements.asp

    Visit CertForums' A+ and Microsoft certification forums for more information. Also see the Training & Development as well as the Employment & Jobs forums. There are plenty of threads there that will be informative. Click on the Articles link in the toolbar at the top of the forums page if you want to read a number of technical articles relevant to your goals. That should help you to get an idea of what you might really need to learn.

    Hope all this makes sense. Good luck. :)
     
    Certifications: A+ and Network+
  11. Jakamoko
    Honorary Member

    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Credit where credit's due, Trip - Keith answered several posts back :)
     
    Certifications: MCP, A+, Network+
    WIP: Clarity
  12. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    Welcome to the Geeks forum :blink
     
    Certifications: MCSE, MCSA (messaging), ITIL Foundation v3
    WIP: Breathing in and out, but not out and in, that's just wrong
  13. tripwire45
    Honorary Member

    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Oops. My bad. :oops: Apologies to Keith and all.
     
    Certifications: A+ and Network+
  14. glytch

    glytch Nibble Poster

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    but good info from all!
    thanks for taking the time tripwire. I have a friend that says he can send me 7 video cd's from learnkey about A+ so that'll help a bit!
    I am pretty geeky and technically capable with my pc stuff, how likely is it that I could go through those videos and go and take an A+ exam? are there mock exams out there that are a true representation of the real thing?

    oh, so many questions ;)

    Andy
     
    Certifications: none yet
    WIP: CompTIA A+
  15. zimbo
    Honorary Member

    zimbo Petabyte Poster

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    there are some good books by the guy who is doing the videos (mike meyers) - they come with practice questions - as for the real thing we not too sure... go to the comptia website (www.comptia.org) and see what info you can find there. Stay away from braindumps (apparently closest to the real thing never used them thou) they too dodgy in my opinion.

    The books you should look into are:

    1) Mike Meyers' A+ Certification Passport : ISBN: 0072229144
    2) A+ Certification All-in-one Exam Guide : ISBN: 0072229918

    the later being your primary source!

    hope this helps :thumbleft
     
    Certifications: B.Sc, MCDST & MCSA
    WIP: M.Sc - Computer Forensics

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