Good Afternoon!

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Hello everyone!

My names Sam, 21 years old living in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Just found your site on google and I'm hoping it's exactly the forum I've been looking for!

Basically after completing my A-Levels I decided to go to university to study Law ... Which I enjoyed about as much as having needles stuck into my eyeballs so decided to leave that well alone. Since then I have just been working in retail jobs to pay the rent etc. However I have always been interested in IT and have an A-Level in Computing to show for it.

But I really think my knowledge goes much further than that and I want to really try and carve a career for myself in the world of IT. I've been looking at the Comp TIA A+ and Microsoft certifications (specifically MCTS). I ideally want to end up working in technical support somewhere as for some sad reason I get a great feeling from helping people with IT problems and sharing my knowledge. Also I think my retail and customer service experience will probably help me be even better at the job!

Just wondering if everyone here had any advice for me?

There are 4 main questions I have that haven't been definitively answered anywhere else I've looked online:

1. Which certification should I prioritise, Microsoft or CompTIA?
2. How long should these certifications take?
3. Would I be better of paying for a college / training program or self studying for them?
4. What should I be spending to get certified for either cert?

Sorry for such a long post everyone but thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

Cheers,

Sam

 

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Hi Sam,

Welcome to CF, I'm currently doing my A+ at the moment and hope to be taking the exams soon. I'l try and answer your questions that you have.

1. Which certification should I prioritise, Microsoft or CompTIA?

I think the best place to start would be to start with your CompTia, seen as you have already achieved your A+ why not try and get your N+ then move onto Microsoft Certs.

2. How long should these certifications take?

That really depends on the individual themselves, it's taken me over a year to try and achieve my A+ due to work commitments and other personal stuff.

3. Would I be better of paying for a college / training program or self studying for them?

A lot of people go down the self-studying route, but that can depend on the individual as some prefer to pay for a training program or go to college if they think they could learn better by this, but it is much cheaper to self-study and it will save you a lot of money. It's what I am doing at the moment.

4. What should I be spending to get certified for either cert?

That depends on what study material you purchase and which cert your trying to achieve.

I hope the answers to your questions help.

But there are others on this Forum who can really help if you have other questions to ask!

Regards

Rob

 

Thanks for the advice Rob!

Maybe self study is the way to go!

Seems to be a bit of confusion, I don't have an A+ yet, but its one of the certs I want to get! The qualification I was referring to in my original post was A-level Computing. Not from CompTIA!

Where would I actually take the exams? Presumably there are some kind of exam centers where self studiers can take the exams? How much would the exam paper itself cost?

Thanks again!

Sam

 

You would take the exams by visiting any Pearson testing centre Computer-Based Testing Provider for Certification and Licensure Exams: Pearson VUE. You will just need to register with them and find the closest centre to were you are. You can find out more information by visiting CompTia's Website CompTIA.

Rob

 

Thanks for all your help Kopite!

So in terms of getting a job after completing these qualifications, as I want to try and get into technical support I should be focusing on:

MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician on Windows 7 ?

or


MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Administrator on Windows 7

As they share 1 common exam I suppose I could always complete both in good time if I feel that 1 qualification didn't quite do what I needed!

Thanks again,

Sam

 

Hey Sam,

Welcome to Cert Forums!

Go for the DST which is 70-680 and 70-685.

This is because the 70-686 is heavily focused on enterprise deployment and system life cycles - something that you won't really experience until you already have experience.

Also, a lot of it would (hopefully) already exist in the enterprise environment

 

Thanks Boffy,

I've started applying to a few 1st line support jobs at entry level which it's looking increasingly like I'm going to have to do to get experience, irrelevant of any certs I may or may not have.

Definetley looking like DST is the route for me!

Thanks all for the advice!

Sam