Hi All! I have just got my first IT job...

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Hello to all the people at certforums!

I have just got my first IT job working as a IT Technician. This has been the hardest step for me as I took well over 10 interviews to get that far. My background is a degree in computer science and was wonderin what would be the best certification to work towards?

1) COMPTIA A+
2) COMPTIA N+
3) MCDST

Does any1 have any opinions out there and could point me in the right direction?

FAT P

 

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Hi Welcome

Good choice with the certs, you can do them all by self study so there is no need to pay a training provider.

 

Congrats on the 1st job...
All 3 are good entry options depending what you want to do. Since your role is IT Technician I'd suggest A+.

 

Those three are great... I'd suggest doing them in the order you listed them.

 

Congratulations

 

Hello again guys. thanks for the encouragement.

I am going to now pursue the A+ with the help of the mike meyers book which has been reccomended my most the folks on the forums.

My next question is: After 6 - 12 months experience and possibly the A+ and Network+ under my belt, what is the the next 'level' job that I shoudl be going after? any suggestions... first/second line, system admin???

I am thinking ahead, as I like to plan for the future and know what lies ahead and what steps I need to take to get there!

 

it depends what you are actually involved in with your job, I'd get MCDST aswell and then if you have been doing network admin for about 6th month look at the MCSA

 

If you're not already doing desktop support, I'd recommend that. If you are doing desktop support, try to find opportunities to help your company with some light server administration so you can start working towards being a systems/server admin.

 

Like BosonMichael said…start with desktop support and progress to sys admin.
6-months is early to make an official move. Closer to a year would probably be better to pick up additional responsibilities – but you’ll know the situation and atmosphere better.

 

Well done! So what does your job involve?

If your alone and are managing a network + including servers, I would read up on server admin/active directory admin / permissions/ login scripts etc.

My current part time job as I.T. Tech allthough I came in with a years experiance still has been hard as Ive had to learn alot of stuff about group policy/login scripts/ permissions and many other things I hadn't a clue about before. So perhaps reading over server mcp stuff may help if your using microsoft stuff? Of course you could do all this stuff ad hoc..

Other than that.

A+ N+

MCSA - starting with MCSDT maybe? at least 6 months - year experiance with servers before taking MCSA exam. No harm in reading over and studying though towards it.

Would be my route.

The way i see it, a certificate can back up your experiance. + learn new stuf. So I wont be taking anything above my ability and experiance.

 

Congrats on the job mate. I am also doing a desktop support job right now and I really enjoy it. I decided to go with the same certifications that you listed in your post and believe me with the knowledge you get it helps you a lot on the job and now that you'll be getting experience plus the certification you'll have many opportunities.

For me after about one year I asked my boss so that he'd give me some responsibility with managing small servers which he did and now I am doing my desktop job plus administering WSUS and an Anti virus server, plus doing some basic BES task. It all depends on how your employer perceives you, whether you're interested in your job or not. When you show responsibility and willing to learn you will climb the latter up in no time and before you know it you'll be a network admin.

 

Congrats on getting the first job mate

 

A+ then N+ would be a suitable route to go down.
And then see if you need to do more job specific quals after that?