IT Certifications

[LinusOnLine]

Well experience and education is always the best deal. I used certifications to get in to the tech jobs in the 90's. It was really easy back then since no one had any certifications and there were pretty much no cheating either. Just having a simple MCP back then was big. Ended up doing a combination of tech work and teaching which was interesting since I got to see how the Certification industry actually worked. Had to take tons of certifications since it does not look that great to teach someone something you do not have your self. For a long time I was the only freelancing MCT in Sweden

[LinusOnLine]

11 minutes ago, Dekenizer said:

HAHAHA I had CNA.... Certified Novell Administrator... Useless now days.

I miss Novell, their NDS they had back then is still better than Active Directory. Got to work a few years with Novell stuff though before they totally went away  Their Master CNE was a very cool certification back in the day

[TacoSenpai]

@redteam4ever had a pretty good post.  I'm actually saving that for my reference.

 

It depends on what you want to do. Lots of good certifications out there but it can also be overwhelming.  Remember you also have to maintain them and most require you to renew them every 3 or so years by earning Continuing Education Credits (effectively taking approved courses watching lectures etc) and paying a fee.  Also as you get on in your career certain certs don't make any sense to keep.  For example having the CompTIA CASP will trump having the Sec+ and having the CISSP from ISC^2 will trump both of them.
 

Additionally,  whatever your position or employer requires will ultimately be the deciding factor.  Though in cases like that most employers will reimburse the test once you pass. 

[TheTwist]

I would have thought that companies are looking for particular qualifications on their CV and proof that they have studied a particular course.

 

@Dekenizer- does Udemy give our some sort of qualification showing evidence that you have done a course?

 

 

 

[Dekenizer]

In early 2000, my first "Boss" had graduated from an 'establishment' here... He was MCSE!!!.... I showed him how to install a network printer.... This 'College', he went to, teached the tests questions more than the subject... Probably why I'm so jaded about certs...

 

Now I teach the new kids about the days before plug and pray... the days of the jumpered IRQs and DMAs. The AGP, ISA and  ASM slots.... and boot from 5 1/4 floppys and MSCDEX in config.sys .....  Bet they don't have that in the A+ anymore

[Dekenizer]

42 minutes ago, TheTwist said:

 

@Dekenizer- does Udemy give our some sort of qualification showing evidence that you have done a course?

 

The employer has to have a mechanisme to get it's own proof...  It's all in the screening...  A piece of paper is never a real proof....

 

But some do give a 'certificate' there is no real structure for that... nor real value... it's just a cheap place to get knowledge.

[LinusOnLine]

8 minutes ago, Dekenizer said:

In early 2000, my first "Boss" had graduated from an 'establishment' here... He was MCSE!!!.... I showed him how to install a network printer.... This 'College', he went to, teached the tests questions more than the subject... Probably why I'm so jaded about certs...

It was really silly for a while. So much cheating that it was insane. 

[Endeavor01]

19 hours ago, TheTwist said:

Has anyone taken CompTIA courses?

IT is a very broad field, certifications are what narrow down your field of experience.

I've taken the A+, it's an easy exam if you study for it but all it shows is technical proficiency.

 

The CompTIA exams are more of an introductory into specifics. If you have a Net+ and are competing with someone who has a CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate), you'll get the job in a say Netgear Prosafe environment while they'll walk all over your application if the company is a Cisco environment.

[redteam4ever]

On 1/23/2019 at 1:47 PM, schwellmo92 said:

If studying for one of the exams you should always study material specifically for that exam, there is plenty. I have used Pluralsight video courses before to good success, they cover every topic in the exams. If you are a university student I think you can sign up for free Azure credits and setup your own Intune instance, I'm not sure about 365 though.

Yes, this is true. I was taking a course at school that tackled some of the topics like AppLock, file sharing and Windows deployment with labs where we could try everything on VMs. That was very helpful. For trying Intune, I created a demo organisation on a trial 30-day account for Enterprise Mobility + Security E5 (that is free for everyone).

 

For literature, we were recommended to avoid Microsoft Press because their books usually don't cover all topics on the exam. I was looking through the Exam Ref for 70-697 and it was true. To prepare for my exam, I used MCSA Study Guide for Exam 70-697 by William Panek, published by Wiley (Sybex) - great book!

 

While looking at the page of my exam, I noticed that Microsoft will be deprecating it after March. I think that this is a good move, because Windows changes so rapidly these days that some screenshots in the study guide (and in one question on my exam even) were already outdated. So Microsoft might be changing how the mobility path works very soon.

[schwellmo92]

11 hours ago, TheTwist said:

I would have thought that companies are looking for particular qualifications on their CV and proof that they have studied a particular course.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, a qualification in no way dictates someone’s skill. All the employers that are actually worth working for see through certifications and don’t value them.

[Theminecraftaddict555]

On 1/23/2019 at 4:00 PM, TheTwist said:

Has anyone taken CompTIA courses?

Yep taken the network+, security+, and A+ exams. However imo, there is a fair amount of reading you gotta do for all of them. A+ is pretty basic but can possibly help you achieve better certifications if I remember. Network and security + is less basic than the A+ from what I have seen. 

[Ja Krispie]

2 hours ago, schwellmo92 said:

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, a qualification in no way dictates someone’s skill. All the employers that are actually worth working for see through certifications and don’t value them.

That's not true at all. Employers do see value in certifications. There are thousands of jobs where a CCNA is apart of the qualifications out their now. A good employer will look at the resume as a whole. If you're applying for a job specifically in networking certs are great to have. The interview process if the company is worth their salt can weed out the people who actually studied and applied their knowledge when obtaining their cert against those who just studied a brain dump.

[TheTwist]

So best thing is to go through Udemy courses that I would like to learn and go from there.  At the end of the day i guess its all knowlage and i can just say to the employer what i  have the knowlage of.

[LAwLz]

8 hours ago, schwellmo92 said:

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, a qualification in no way dictates someone’s skill. All the employers that are actually worth working for see through certifications and don’t value them.

Employers who don't value certificates are morons. Employers who base their entire decision solely on certificates are morons too, but I am not convinced anyone actually does that.

 

A certain number of certificates are also sometimes necessary in order to get certain partner levels with manufacturers. For example I do not believe you can be a Cisco Gold Partner without a certain number of CCIE and CCNP certificates. Same for Aruba IIRC.