New Member

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hey,

I suck at introductions. I'm looking to get some official IT certifications to help get a job. No one seems to think a degree is enough

I've been lurking for a while, and everyone here seems really helpful. Seems like a good place to be...

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Welcome to CF

What certs are you considering?

NB

 

Hey Stevie, welcome to the forums!

 

Honestly, I'm not entirely certain yet. Most of the jobs I've seen advertised are asking for Microsoft or Cisco certifications. I just need something to help me get my first job, and maybe something to make me stand out from the crowd a little. I've been considering doing the MCITP desktop administrator, just so that I can get an entry level support position...

Thanks for the welcome

 

Generally the Comptia A+ and N+ certs are considered a good place to start, and if you can complete both relatively quickly if you have the time. I would say look at those first personally before moving on to anything else unless you already have a reasonable amount of experience in IT etc!?!

You haven't mentioned what your degree is in and if it's IT related, or if it hasn't helped so you are now moving towards IT?

Welcome to CF though!

 

My degree is in Computing and Networks. I got a 2:1 and have a reasonable amount of experience with research projects, but that doesn't seem to count for anything when applying for jobs, and I need some kind of industry certification. I'm not sure that there is much point in doing an A+ or N+ because I have looked at the syllabus for each of these and I already have more knowledge than that. I'd like to gain a certification that would challenge me a little to attain.

Thanks for the welcome and for the advice

 

Yeah that's fair enough, you could probably jump straight into either the MCITP or the CCNA qualifications then, depending which way you wanted to go.

Although you may also be able to bang out the A+ and N+ in a matter of weeks given your experience which would at least add to the CV short term, it depends on your current financial status and how quickly you are looking to get into work I guess. I would imagine the MCITP and CCNA courses may take a little more time to study etc, although given your background these also may not be too difficult or long winded for you!?!.

 

Its good to see a lurker turn member, welcome to CertForums.

 

My research project went far beyond the material covered in the N+ (Traffic analysis, logging malformed packets). The problem is, I don't have the money to do a lot of exams. I would love to have a job in a network design or administration role, but the jobs advertised require experience as well as industry certification. I think I'm looking at doing at least a few months at entry level support before I can move on to something that is more suited to me, and that's okay. I can live with it. I could probably even learn a lot from it.

I don't want to spend money on an exam or training that will not challenge me, especially when I have a massive student loan hanging over my head! My main interest is networking, but the MCITP might help to ensure that my knowledge is a bit more well-rounded, and get me into that all-important first job.

Seriously, Coupe2T, thanks for the advice. I've contacted a few training companies and they've been no help whatsoever. It's great to hear from people who have no ulterior motives

 

Yeah training companies, I suppose understandably only have one idea when you contact them.

What sort of roles are you currently applying for? Where abouts are you based as well?

Times are obviously a little tricky at the moment but I personally managed to get a job on a helpdesk without any real qualifications at all, but I had a very strong customer service background which helped me as well as an obvious interest and reasonable knowledge in IT etc. I did have an NVQ2 in use and support of IT which I did about 10 years prior to getting a job in IT and which to be honest was simply about how to use MS Office, things like mail merge etc! lol. So there are jobs out there, it's just about keep applying until something comes up. In the short term maybe even just a CS job would help where you are working on a call desk and logging calls, as that is what a lot of help desks like to see.

I appreciate that might feel like a bit of a step backward and a bit back to front as it's potentially moving away from IT but it may help and means you could be earning some cash and adding to your CV in the meantime?

 

Welcome to CF!