Help And advice needed please.

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Hello my Name is Lee, i want to continue my carrer in I.T
I'll just start with a little about my I.T experience.
I'v been building P.C's on a hobbie level ever since the days of the old Intel 486DX processor! The only I.T industry experience i have is 1st line Laptop&Desktop telephone support (nearly 4 years). I also repaired Laptops which involved striping them to replace motherboards and lcd screens ect. I dont have much network experience, i just about know how to ping a network card.
I'm thinking about home study, i dont really want to spend the asking price of about 4k for a A+ and MCSE with computeach.
I think i'v decided to go at it alone. Oh i'm unemployed at the moment. My last job was working for NTL:Telewest as a cable engineer, and 3 years before that was the I.T job Mentioned.
Should i start with the A+ then the Network +?
Brearing in mind of my level of experience, i'm not sure wether i need to do the A+. Therefore maybe a waste of money?
Like i said i'm unemployed at the moment and need to get back into I.T, but i'm not sure of which part of the I.T industry i want to get back into? To be honest 1st line support i found to be soul destroying, but with remote access now looking likely to be the norm things might not be so bad? One thing i know is that i love working with my hands, and enjoy building pcs.
Prehaps 1st line and 2nd line support? Anyways the important thing is should i pass on the A+ and go for the network+ instead?
Many thanks for all the advice in advance!
Regards
Lee Thornton

 

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Hi and welcome to CF!

IMO i think you should go for N+ then decide between Microsoft certs and Cisco.... A+ i think would be a waste of time and money cause the exams are expensive!

This is assuming you have the knowledge an A+ tech does.... like build a pc, hardware upgrades and installations and OS troubleshooting

 

Thanks for that. what i would like to do carrer wise, would be to work for a company in-house maintaining the network. If i go for the network + i'm not sure wether my level of os trouble shooting skills are enough?

 

To be honest, in today's world, I would try the A+ first. I did, and my experience at that time was much the same. To me, I wanted to get my exam-feet wet on a subject I knew. Plus, since my knowledge was very high at that time, it didn't take much studying, and my labwork was all the PC's I built for friends, relatives, and myself. I bought one study guide -- probably a Mike Meyers, read it in about 2 weeks casually, and took the tests. Now, it was version #1, because it was years ago, but still helped to build my confidence level. Sure, CompTIA exams are almost twice the M$ ones, but it's something you can tag onto your name, in the least amount of time, and may get you to an interview.

Self-study? Absolutely. you can do it. Search for the SS thread, which is loaded with great info. My general rule of thumb was 1 large book per exam, and a smaller one for bulletpoints (ExamCram2). Also, I had Minasi's 2000 Server bible, and his 2003 is just as good. To top it off, I invested in CBTNuggets, which is CD-based video training, and at the time it was $330 for the MCSE2k course. To me, without any professional training, it was invaluable. For my next endeavors, I'm going with TrainSignal, another CD training outfit. Since I wasn't employed in IT, and really didn't know what to do, seeing it done and then doing it in my lab environment was excellent for me.

My .02 -- good luck!

 

mate - i think the best thing to do is to go to the comptia site and download both objectives for A+ and N+. If you feel that you know everything on A+ then go with N+ or at least 80% worth...

 

Thanks for your views. I'v just looked at whats covered in the A+, i think if i'm honest i prob know about 65-70%? i dont think it would do me any harm in brushing up on diagnosing/troubleshooting stuff, plus any knowledge about networking?
I'v found what seems like a brandnew A+ book on amazon... wont this book be more uptodate than the meyers book which is 3 years old?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CompTIA-+-C...047004831X/ref=pd_sbs_b_1/202-3018910-7523831

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CompTIA-+-E...ef=sr_1_2/202-3018910-7523831?ie=UTF8&s=books

could you take a look at these 2 books....they seem the same? but 1 hardback and the other paperback?
What do you think of the books?

 

If I were starting my career from scratch, I'd get the A+. Consider it an investment in your career. It shows potential employers that you can perform those tasks at a benchmark level. Additionally, the A+ is recommended for entry-level folks; the Network+ certification is recommended for individuals with 9 months of networking experience.

 

Thankyou Micheal, thats a very good point.

Lee