Do you agree the A+ needs a serious re-writting?

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TBH 90% of what I know about IT I learned from the internet then just setup virtual environments and testing it out. I remember when Active Directory would scare the hell out of me.. I knew buggerall about it so I sat and I learned the basics by watching videos online.. then started to learn how to fix it when it breaks.. few months later I was the go-to guy for AD issues at my job, Id even go as far as saying I had the strongest AD knowledge on my team.. when there was an AD issue it would be bounced to me before being moved up to tier 3 if I couldnt fix it.

 

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I'm pretty sure that the A+ has always been like that. When i did it as my first cert {Cough, Cough} years ago it covered similar things by the sounds of it and the Mike Meyers book was alarmingly large, heavy and covered a very broad range in terms of subject. I remember having to memorise CPU Pins/sockets types (anyone remember Cyrix CPU's) pins on SIMMs and DIMMS ISA cards, IRQ's and a bunch of other stuff thats long been consigned to file 13.
Most exams you take will have an element of that where you don't really need to know it for day to day operations but its part of the objectives and having a vague recollection of its existence even if you have to google it to jog your memory is helpful.

When I obtained my A+ it helped me get my first proper IT job building and troubleshooting pc's in an independent workshop and helped me develop methods for study and maintaining interest even when you think the subject matter holds little value.

 

That is why we have interviews, references and probationary periods. Plenty of professions out there like plumber and surgeon, where they don't rely on a computer based exam.

Unfortunately not, I'm not saying the A+ is the worst, but there are plenty of certification exams out there that deliberately test outside the curriculum or have no fixed curriculum or trick questions. Its entirely possible to do good lab work and even have good experience and if you don't study to the exam and possibly go on an official training you can easily fail.

In the US they have managed to corner the market and insist that their qualifications are mandatory for many government jobs. This means they can basically become a tax on doing business or getting a job, not a good thing at all IMHO. IT has generally always been fairly meritocratic, based on talent, not pieces of paper, or being able to pay to pass the right exams, I'd like to keep it that way.

Its also rather expensive, time consuming and requires taking two exams. Which isn't really justifiable in my opinion.

 

Depends, on the employer I got my first gig based on lab work, and tbh now onto my second IT employer when being interviewed they asked if I had experience with Windows server etc.. I explained yes as I setup test environments, watched tutorials so I could talk about server roles, AD, Domain Controller etc etc. could even talk my way through Group Policy as again I played with it in the lab.

 

Ones time on this planet is finite, money is finite also, I'm simply saying I think there are places that time and money could be better spent. Young people going for an A+ aren't generally rich, that £300 on exams could be put towards a laptop or some books or a pluralsight subscription.

I saved up to buy my first house cash, and I've taken over 70 exams, I'm aware of the general arguments, I just don't agree, make time for whats important, and the A+ exam is not important.

Paying for bits of paper off some american corporation doesn't really mean much in most cases, and if you think that's your best chance to land a job, well then I really don't know what to tell you.

 

Am I missing something here?

 

True, I was amazing in the interview to be fair.