Starting over .....need some help !

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Hi everyone ...
really excited about this great site , you guys are doing great job here .

(you can skip to questions directly)

so I wanna give you a good background about me, hoping this will help you answering my questions .
I loved IT since childhood , my dream was to be an IT expert ( didn't really have enough knowledge back then to determine what really this means)...
after the "baccalaureate exams " my father convinced me to get into Dentistry -where I used to live this was a dream to a lot of people- .

so I studied Dentistry for 6 long exhausting years.....I didn't have the courage to stand for my passion (IT) .
I have been a dentist for almost 2 years now , but I can't take it anymore .... I quit working and decided to take sometime out to rediscover my self , managed to come to US and I have been searching for a new career\life since then (about 7 months now ).
it is really very hard to take such a decision where you throw 8 years into trash basket, that's what took me so long , but finally I can say that I have now a dream to achieve

as many others here am new to the IT world, I spend time with my laptop more than anybody else , I am one of those who knows little about every thing but without any real fundamental or academical base, English isn't my native language (although I don't have serious difficulties about this issue ), I am 25 years old ( I know it isn't the best age to start a totally new career) , but I know this is the way I wanna go.

so for those who were patient enough to reach this line , I figured out that A+ will be a great way to start , I am looking for a career in networking/security , so as you now have a good idea about me please help me with these basic/stupid questions and please don't forget I am here looking for help so I will be more than glad to hear any ideas and thoughts from u ...now my questions are :

1- How hard is it to start a career in IT (regarding my age ) , do you have any thoughts about that ?
2- Is A+ the right way to start for me, do you have another suggestions for the first step/s ?
3-I don't think I'll be able to do any paid courses or either a real training , So I will take the "Self-Study" approach for A+ at least - I am a Kind of "fast-learner" and "self-motivated" and I am totally dedicated to this (I am living with my older brother now ,he is supporting me financially as I can't work in US so far ) so I'll have pretty much all the time I want - ,any ideas about this ? is it enough or useless ?
4-should I study for the 701-702 exams or 801-802 ??? <<<<< I really didn't get when the change will be and what are my options here .

Finally ....I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read this post whether you replied or not ( although I will appreciate any thoughts).

 

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Don't worry about the age, 25 is not old etc so you shouldn't have any problem in that respect.

Definitely do the A+ and the N+ as your first Certs, as soon as you are able to work then get applying for some 1st line Helpdesk support roles.

Until you have some working experience I wouldn't go any further than the 2 Certs mentioned above, but if it's networking and Security that you want to follow then you will probably want to follow the Cisco certification tracks once you have some commercial IT experience.

 

This. Security + might be worth a go when you get to that point too.