Looking for a little help, advice and guidance please

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Hi all.

As I said in my intro post I am coming in new to IT in terms of qualifications and the industry so am looking for a little help in what chain of certs i should be looking at.

A little back ground on myself :

I have upto present always worked in a production environment (factory), working my way up to production manager. For the last 6 or so years i have been tinkering with computers, mainly laptops in so much as stripping them down, repairing, upgrading, reinstalling etc, even did it as a little business for a while on the side. I have also in the past set up and run 2 VB forums that I have since passed on due to time constraints at that point in my life.

I have already decided to go down the self study route and wil be starting with the A+ and N+. I'm thinking that the networking side of things will be more up my street than say programming. I have no doubt i could do the programming but like I said, I like to be hands on too and I'm guessing programming is mainly mental work.

I have already ordered Meyers All in one guide (7th) and PC TEch Street Smarts to get started with.

Going on from the 2 certs I have mentioned what would be the route up the networking ladder? Would MCSA/MCITP be the next step or is there something in between?

Any help you guys can give would be much appreciated, or if you think form what I have said that I could look at another IT route then please feel free to suggest anything

TIA

Scott

 

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I'd recommend the MCDST and perhaps upgrading to the Vista and/or Win7 MCTS/MCITP exams... but no farther until you get some real-world server admin experience.

 

Thanks for the reply

 

Hi.

Welcome to Certforums

Start looking for jobs now. You don't need certifications to get an entry level position (however this can make it easier). Also I agree with what Michael said, don't pursue higher level certifications until you get some real world experience under your belt.

Having said that I would also look at Microsoft Office certification track, because if you have a copy of Microsoft Office at home you can practice and it is widely used in corporate environments, so no harm done.

Regards

 

Thanks Luke.

I am already keeping an eye out on the jobs front but personally i feel it would be better to at least get the A+ before applying, seems to make more sense to me to at least have the basic qualification. True i could get lucky and find a job without it, but having interviewed many people in my current line of work and knowing what I would look for as a minimum then I think I can hold out a few months to get the A+. I'm in this for the long haul so want to make sure I do it right from the start

Thanks for the Office tip, I will look into that too.

Forgive a maybe daft question guys, but what sort of job titles are considered entry level? I can see that Helpdesk is a widely used starting point but are there any others that I should be looking out for?

Cheers.