Nervous Newbie

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Hi Everyone!
Have spent the last few months dithering about training and actually enrolling at college to do the City and Guilds Level 2 Systems Support, but having read loads of posts on here, I've decided to go it alone on the A+ with my trusty copy of Mike Meyers. College fees would have been about £800, and early starts in the morning to get the train put me off a bit!
Have gone part time with my real job, at least until September, and am hoping to get A+ and N+ done by then - am I being realistic? Have no work based IT experience but am a very keen home PC user, and am very quick at learning new things.
My big concern is my lack of IT work experience. Will this count against me when I get certified, and if so, what could I do about it? Can't really do much at my current workplace (a primary school) although the school network is a mess and I am itching to have a go at sorting it out!
My main reason for doing the Cert is interest, but I would also be quite keen to get a job out of it eventually - would A+ and N+ make me employable?
Anyway, am very glad to have found this site and look forward to bothering you all with my witterings over the next few months!

 

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Welcome! Is it ok to call you Sam for short? lol!

Well you have certainly joined the right place - sounds like you already know there's loads of great advice on here

A+ and N+ will certainly get your CV noticed, but the more experience you can get the better - great if you could help with your schools network!!

Take care,

L x

 

Hi Welcome

Studying the A+ and N+ is a good idea, the certs won't garantee you a job but they will make you look more attractive to an employer.

How long it takes is entirley up to you and how fast you learn.

The A+ and N+ are entry level certs a decent so don't worry too much about real life experience, although it doesn't hurt to have some.

Once you are employed then you good look into higher certs if you want to, but do not go for certs like MCSE untill you have a years experience.

BTW good choice with the Mike Meyers book, also if you want to have a book that has exercises in it get PC Technician Street Smarts by James Pyles.

Good Luck

 

Hi there and welcome to CF

 

Welcome to CF and nothing to be nervous about

 

Hi there, hope you are well welcome to CF!

As long as your prepared to put the time in, If you're part time and a fast learner, You should be able to do them both. It took me ages to do the A+ but that was my own fault!

I'd also recommend the A+ Passport book, also by Mike Meyers. Its small and easy to cart around, ideal for reading while on a bus in a rush hour jam!

Get yourself a cheap PC as well which you can take to bits and install windows on. It helps to visualise the parts and what they do.

Good luck with your studies!

 

Hi and Welcome to CF,

Not much to say that hasn't been said already!

Witter away at your free will.................

 

Welcome.....nothing more to say..good luck with your studies

 

Greetings and welcome to CertForums.

-Trip

 

Hi Sam and welcome.

Seems your doing the same thing at the same time of life as me with similar experience .

I would say that getting the A+ done by September is more than possible but cramming the Network+ in as well will probably be a lot tougher. I have my N+ exam booked in for Monday and the hardest thing that I have found studying for it is that I have no real way of applying it. Given that there is an awful lot of things to remember (gotta love all those acronyms) it's been hard for me keeping it all in my head and I find that by the time I get towards the end of the book a lot of the earlier stuff is just a hazy memory. My advice would be to certainly try it but not to set yourself too tight a deadline. After all, at our age we gotta keep the old blood pressure under control

Not sure what the situation is where you live Sam but here in Leicester, the Primary Schools do not have dedicated IT Technicians, as their budgets are too small to pay for one. I know this because I recently had a job interview for the Local Authority Department who provide IT support to Primary Schools in the area (didn't get offered the job but I’m next in line in case the other guys pulls out, or at least, that's what they told me). My point here is if the school where you are at have a similar situation then maybe you should put yourself forward as someone who can deal with the IT issues. As you must know, schools are all about budgets these days and I'm sure that if the headmaster can save some money by having you sort out his IT problems he/she will probably jump at it. If you can get your foot in the door at your school, it could open a lot of opportunities for ya down the line as your srudies progress.

Just a thought.

 

Welcome to the forums!

Depending on your mindset and how sharp you are, I think September is a very realistic goal for achieving your A+ and N+.

Whatever your decision, I wish you well!

 

As others have said, lack of IT work experience is not a negative where the A+ and Network+ are concerned... those are entry-level certifications that are designed for techs entering the IT field.

Now, if you had said you were pursuing the MCSA, MCSE, or CCNA without experience, I'd have advised that getting those certifications without experience is NOT a good idea.

A+ and Network+ can certainly give you an edge over other candidates when applying for entry-level jobs. They won't help you get a higher-level job... but they'll certainly be a great asset and advantage when applying for entry-level jobs.

Welcome to the forums!

 

Thank you all for your kind words and helpful advice!
I've had my head down for the last few weeks slogging through the books and am now over halfway through the Mike Meyers - doing Command Line chapter at the moment (yawn!)
It seems to be going really well - have done a couple of the CD practice tests just to see what they're like and managed to get 50% and 68% with a bit of educated guessing, so not bad really!Might even pass one soon!
Just a quick question - do I really have to learn all the CPU specs? It seems a massive waste of time and not especially useful in a practical situation. Did all of you experienced techs learn them? (please say NO!)

 

I don't think you will need to learn all of the specs for a CPU, just the speeds and wattage would do.

 

Hi & welcome to CF

Good luck with the certs

NB

 

It depends on what you are going to do. Any good tech sorting out problems will know a lot of the spec stuff - it makes trouble-shooting things so much easier. So - sorry - it is practical in some circumstances.

Harry.

 

Hi and welcome to the forums,

I did my A+ last year, I had a few years experience myself tinkering with others PC's and stuff. I found that the A+ was such a wide range of material that I went into it by reading what I found interesting at first, realising what I couldn't make sense of (noting that) and then going back over the things that I found difficult.

Making notes and building up some sense of structure about the whole thing helped me remember key elements of the material. But each of us study differently (and view things, process things, differently; for example, I'm a visual kind of person, have to see it in my mind's eye to remember it, that kind of thing).

So I'd say take it easy with the material, read up on what makes sense at first and go back over the more trying stuff later. Then have a break! And then go back to it...with your mind refreshed you'll pick up on something you might have missed first time round.

I say good luck and all the best for your studies. Don't fret about the exam either, believe me, you have plenty of time (not tons, but enough ), just relax and you'll get through it.