Where to go from A+

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A few weeks ago I really decided to start pushing myself to move into the IT sector. I've always enjoyed IT as a hobby, and I wanted to take it further. I'm currently in a reasonably average job as office administration which I've been doing for a few years, so I have no relevant IT experience at all.

I've checked the local job sites and theres quite a bit of work for helpdesk people, but I've not got a lot of chance being shortlisted with no experience and no qualifications; a few offer training but not many.

A+ seems a common entry level qoutation, so I grabbed a book a few weeks back and I don't think I'm far off being confident enough to pass the test, which I'll be booking soon. After that, what is my best bet? Should I take another CompTIA course, or a different course, or just start applying for jobs? I've read a lot here about people who are spending too much time doing certs who have no experience at all, and I want to get a new job as soon as possible!

Thing is i'd rather do my certification before I get a helpdesk job as I'm earning more money right now than I'll get at an entry level helpdesk position, and I don't want to start applying for loads of jobs with just an A+ if there are other qualifications I could learn relatively quickly that would really look good on my CV. Im honestly not looking at the 80k plus salaries (haha) advertised by companies like computeach, 14,000 will do for now!

 

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Start looking for a job right away experience is so much more better on your cv then any certifications will be. After the A+ I would recommend MCDST or N+.

 

Rob is spot on. I think you will find the majority of CF contributors will say the same. The experience gained from doing the job day in, day out, will hopefully make the studying to get those certs that bit easier.

I would go for Network + before MCDST by the way. I have started studying Network + and, even with some knowledge of LAN/WAN, it is an eye opener.

 

I also agree with what's been said... solid advice all around. Start looking now... when you get the A+, add it to your CV and keep looking... and study for your next certification. Anything past A+, Net+, and MCDST won't help you much... those are all the certifications you need until you build some experience.

 

You could split it down the middle, get your A+, keep your current job for awhile and see if you could pick up a few evening and weekend contract gigs. A lot of companies like to do hardware, OS, and network rollouts on the weekends, so if you are willing to put up with long hours, mundane worked, and the like, you could build some IT experience into your CV while still having your "day job" as a safety net. It worked for me.

 

Thanks for all the advice, everyone.

You pretty much confirmed what I believed, I don't want to be one of those people who spends years and a ton of money learning tons of certs and only having read books about computers.

I'm going to go for network+ after the a+ (one thing at a time, of course). I already had a lot of the knowledge in the A+ anyway, so network+ will probably teach me a lot more. I'll look into the MCDST at some time after that.

There not loads of IT jobs going around here, and hardly any contract jobs, looking on the main career websites and the temp agencies, so I'd imagine competition is pretty fierce. I have applied for quite a few jobs in the last few weeks (the worst they can do it say no, after all) but i've not heard anything back from any yet. Ive tried to bring up the most IT based part of my existing job, but would trying to get a small amount of unpaid work be a sensible option? I just want to prove on paper that I am serious about IT!

 

Arroyn posted a relevant article not too long ago about breaking into IT including a section on volunteering as a way to gain experience:

http://certforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19437

 

Thats the best attitude to have - aim high (well, not too high). Get any 1st line/helpdesk job, even apply for 2nd line desktop support roles and get out there. Start your A+ now (which you already have) and start applying - I've heard of people send out 5 job applications a day for a career/direction they wanted and they have got there also.

Another way of looking at it - if you are going to get 1 job out of every 100 you apply for - is 5 a day (20 days) better than 2 a week (1 year!)...... the more you apply to, the better your chances of starting soon are.