Will you still recommend CompTIA?

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I disagree, a degree is of far higher status, the exam cost is generally covered under the tuition costs (except some resits). All you have to do is turn up to your normal college during examinations, theres really no point not turning up!

The degree conveys major status and also that you were continually assessed by real people over a prolonged period of 3-4 years. An honours degree proves you probably wrote a half decent thesis, possibly with an acompanying project.

The degree is good for life, does not expire, does not require maintenance, does not require vetting or CEU.

It is a quite different proposition.

Self studying the A+/N+ can be done for £25 with one book and a few bits of kit off freecycle.

I have read 100's of computer books, played with electronics circuits, played with old/new kit, written code, installed, configured, troubleshot, hundreds of stuff over the years.

Every time I read a £25 computer book I don't feel the need to pay £200 to CompTIA for the privilege.

If you must spend the £200, spend it on some CBTNuggets, it will probably do more good !

A+/N+ is a piece of paper proving you took a test, hopefully it also proves you learnt some stuff and didn't cheat or get lucky. Thats all certification is, a small piece of evidence to put on a CV to prove that you did in fact learn something.

Now this evidence costs at least £200 for three years, there are alternative ways of getting evidence for your CV !

Get work experience, volunteer, get references, attend college, get an academic qualification (NVQ, OCR iPro, BTEC, Certificate/Diploma, HNC/HND, Foundation Degree, etc), enter coding contests, contribute to open source, maintain a blog, create a website, etc.

There are even ways of direct marketing yourself that do not even involve a CV !

 

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http://www.comptia.org/certifications/policies/agreement.aspx

Regarding email notice, don't hold your breath !

 

Ericrollo, I am assuming you are talking about within your company, right? Maybe its time you certified your knowledge with some of this "CV Fodder"

 

...or, for those who don't get the point, it's like auditing a college class and doing all the work but not getting credit for it because you don't want to pay the course fees.

 

Thats a better analogy, although with self study there is no course, and therefore need be no fees.

I agree the student loses some evidence of proof in the case of not taking the cert, but then they don't pay £200 for it either.

Those that do sit courses pay for tuition, the credit slip is free so again makes no sense not to get it.

In fact I often keep records for courses that I sat just in case I'm required to prove CPD.

Theres no need to have a certificate for every course you ever sat.

We are not children collecting gold stars in pre school.

 

There are no fees for auditing a course without credit, either.

At this point, I think you're arguing for the sake of arguing.

We are if the gold stars help us get noticed by employers. And they do. Whether the gold star is worth the £200 is the question that everyone must ask themselves.

 

I think it's interesting to note on this thread and others like it that a few people seem to be planning to ditch A+ and get on with MCDST, or recommend MCDST to people in preference to CompTIA.

I was just wondering exactly how much use MCDST will be to people when XP finally gets the boot in the next few years and businesses are forced to switch to Vista or W7.

About as much as an expired A+ I'd have thought...

 

Two issues CompTIA have got now are:

1) Their exams are overpriced for a 3 year renewal on an entry level exam
2) They aren't really valued in the UK

The reason people did the A+ was for knowledge and a sense of achievement in gaining their A+ for life. Take that away and the A+ just isn't worth doing. It doesn't now add any value to your CV.

 

Yeah probably true but you can update it to the new cert path and you have MCDST for life (obviously when XP retires it will loose it's usefulness).

 

wow i can't believe its come down to how much it costs

you know how many graduates do 'entry level' work?
do you know how much a degree costs? in any field? let alone medicine, legal, etc?

if 200 squid gets your foot in the door then pay for the damn test and stop whinging about how expensive IT is
we have it easy by comparison, we can self study most of the way through our career, and training is hardly expensive outside of that route


I only suggested not 'renewing' a cert that will probably hold little weight on a CV after three years of hard grafting, I wouldn't suggest doing all that work and not 'sitting the test' at the end, i mean, anyone can 'say' they know all the material and did all the work, we all started out fixing and building PCs for the old dear down the street no?

 

Aggree with point 2 Slypie

they really dont seem to hold much weight in the UK

A+ seems a lot more of a deal over here, most our entry level guys list it and its actually listed on our client support contracts if an A+ certified folk will be assisting you


in the UK it meant very little, and as such didnt take a place on my resume much past my first job

Does that mean you shouldnt do it? probably not, just hope the guy next in line for an interview didn't ;)

 

I really find the whole FUD thing quite tiring, just because you don't have an A+ or N+ does not mean you don't have the skills or evidence of skills to do the job.

In the UK there are many ways to prove competence and training, the A+ is NOT the only way.

No one can know the employers preferences on any one day, they might prefer the guy that helped out in the Internet Cafe, the guy that took an NVQ/BTEC, the guy that used to run cable for Sky, their cousin vinny...

Nobody knows, please stop the FUD that if you don't suck CompTIA's balls you're never gonna get a job !

Its simply not true !

 

Concur fully

 

But... but... but... IT'S FOR LIIIIIIFE!!!

 

You had a good argument until you said, "It doesn't now add any value to your CV." That statement is absolutely untrue. You might not think it gives you enough value for the money you spend, and if that's your choice, then so be it. But you cannot say it doesn't add ANY value to your CV, because that's absolutely incorrect if there's even ONE employer who values the A+.

 

Very true.

But either way, we're talking about having to do an extra exam, aren't we.

 

Nobody's said that. Why do you insist on twisting people's words?

All I've said is that it gives you an advantage over your competition.

In truth, you don't HAVE to have ANY certifications to succeed in IT. It simply increases your chances of getting an IT job.

 

dmarsh, you seem to be taking this pretty hard. I just don't see it as that big of a deal. It just forces me to reevaluate the value of CompTIA's certifications for my situation when they come up for recertification. If I feel like they'll add value, then I'll recertify. If not, then I won't. Clearly, you don't see that they add value, so you should probably just let it go, not recertify, and not recommend them.

I encourage you to write CompTIA to let them know your displeasure. Maybe hearing from people upset about the change will help them decide to grandfather in existing certified people or change their policies. Regardless, I'll still be recommending CompTIA certifications, because they are relatively low cost for the benefit that I've personally seen them provide.

 

No takers on that bet mate.