Is getting an CompTIA A+ certification worth it?

[Heavys Lambda Sandvich]

I was wondering, would it be useful to get a CompTIA A+ certification? Currently I'm a young teen hoping to get some work soon, and I thought getting it would help me land a "techy" type job. I would say I'm pretty tech savvy. Built my own PC and the like. I ask because the downside is the price, which runs a steep 200 USD per test. Can anyone who has taken it help out? (PS: Any tips or anything is appreciated) 

[YedZed]

3 minutes ago, Heavys Lambda Sandvich said:

I was wondering, would it be useful to get a CompTIA A+ certification? Currently I'm a young teen hoping to get some work soon, and I thought getting it would help me land a "techy" type job. I would say I'm pretty tech savvy. Built my own PC and the like. I ask because the downside is the price, which runs a steep 200 USD per test. Can anyone who has taken it help out? (PS: Any tips or anything is appreciated) 

Gosh, I was wondering the same. Will follow this topic.

[kurtstir]

7 minutes ago, Heavys Lambda Sandvich said:

I was wondering, would it be useful to get a CompTIA A+ certification? Currently I'm a young teen hoping to get some work soon, and I thought getting it would help me land a "techy" type job. I would say I'm pretty tech savvy. Built my own PC and the like. I ask because the downside is the price, which runs a steep 200 USD per test. Can anyone who has taken it help out? (PS: Any tips or anything is appreciated) 

Gonna follow this. I am studying to take the test in a few months, You must know a wide variety of things about both hardware and software but it will pay off because it marks you as understanding and knowing how to do what is necessary for many tech and IT jobs.

[2FA]

It would only be useful for entry positions such as tech support. I would suggest taking the practice exams found here: http://www.examcompass.com/comptia-a-plus-practice-test-1-exam-220-901

[JefferyD90]

13 minutes ago, Heavys Lambda Sandvich said:

I was wondering, would it be useful to get a CompTIA A+ certification? Currently I'm a young teen hoping to get some work soon, and I thought getting it would help me land a "techy" type job. I would say I'm pretty tech savvy. Built my own PC and the like. I ask because the downside is the price, which runs a steep 200 USD per test. Can anyone who has taken it help out? (PS: Any tips or anything is appreciated) 

It is useful to get your foot in the door.  Companies legitimately value that certification.

[Sniperfox47]

6 hours ago, JefferyD90 said:

It is useful to get your foot in the door.  Companies legitimately value that certification.

Which is kind of ridiculous considering how outdated, incorrect, and plain useless a lot of the information it certifies is...

 

Like it still only expects knowledge of BIOS with no reference to UEFI... And a quiz from a few years back asked what lowering the *voltage* of a processor is called and expected the answer under*clock*ing as opposed to under*volt*ing...

[JefferyD90]

51 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

Which is kind of ridiculous considering how outdated, incorrect, and plain useless a lot of the information it certifies is...

 

Like it still only expects knowledge of BIOS with no reference to UEFI... And a quiz from a few years back asked what lowering the *voltage* of a processor is called and expected the answer under*clock*ing as opposed to under*volt*ing...

Its not outdated at all...  The 901 and 902 was released this year, and it DOES reference the UEFI.  Not only that, businesses ARE NOT on the bleeding edge.

[Dash Lambda]

Louis Rossmann doesn't think so, but he also said that companies do care about it (in the middle of a rant about why they shouldn't), so...

I guess it's good for getting certain jobs, but other than that functionally useless.

[KuJoe]

It's good for help desk and Geek Squad, not worth much else though. It's one of those certs you get in high school if you're bored. There are plenty of better options for roughly the same price and effort.

[SCHISCHKA]

Have a look at your local job ads. Where i am A+ is useless; thats the kind of work they exploit migrants for. Networking, Windows server & VOIP knowledge is more useful

[Sniperfox47]

1 hour ago, JefferyD90 said:

Its not outdated at all...  The 901 and 902 was released this year, and it DOES reference the UEFI.  Not only that, businesses ARE NOT on the bleeding edge.

*Clap*...*clap*...*clap* oh how up to date they are. Wow! Just this year they added info about a standard that has been around for 18 years and has been widely used commercially for 10 years! Oh boy!

 

It's a certification you'd get going into tech support, not one you'd use for administrating a system of business computers. Even if you're doing tech support for ancient business computers, why pray tell is it important for you to know the clock rate of older legacy SCSI standards that haven't been used since the 90s? Modern SCSI standards I can understand but why do we need knowledge of detailed technical info about SCSI-I and SCSI-II in there?

[JefferyD90]

8 hours ago, Sniperfox47 said:

*Clap*...*clap*...*clap* oh how up to date they are. Wow! Just this year they added info about a standard that has been around for 18 years and has been widely used commercially for 10 years! Oh boy!

 

It's a certification you'd get going into tech support, not one you'd use for administrating a system of business computers. Even if you're doing tech support for ancient business computers, why pray tell is it important for you to know the clock rate of older legacy SCSI standards that haven't been used since the 90s? Modern SCSI standards I can understand but why do we need knowledge of detailed technical info about SCSI-I and SCSI-II in there?

Well duh, but this kid coming out of high school isn't going to be applying for administration job...  you're acting like its the be-all-end-all solution. 

[Sniperfox47]

18 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

Well duh, but this kid coming out of high school isn't going to be applying for administration job...  you're acting like its the be-all-end-all solution. 

You missed my point entirely...

 

My point is not that A+ isn't the right certification for the OP, it's that A+ contains a lot of information that is "outdated, incorrect, and plain useless", and that's it's ridiculous that hiring managers put so much value in it.

[JefferyD90]

2 hours ago, Sniperfox47 said:

You missed my point entirely...

 

My point is not that A+ isn't the right certification for the OP, it's that A+ contains a lot of information that is "outdated, incorrect, and plain useless", and that's it's ridiculous that hiring managers put so much value in it.

But it really isn't.  Its standardized and contains a lot of relevant and valuable information.  A lot of thing things you deem "outdated" are used every single day in MANY companies around the world.  For example, I worked for a fortune 100 company for about 3 years where they used the SAME exact system they built in the mid 90s, never touched.  The Travel industry uses the same system from the 70's, and not only has it not been updated its never been hotfixed, patched, or modified in any way since 1989.

 

So then MY point is that it might not be relevant to you, and its a totally different conversation if it SHOULD be relevant (I would give anything if people would forget about all of these old technologies that are still in use).  The point is it is VERY relevant and is totally valuable.

[Phentos]

IMO yes, the A+ is worth taking. However, one should never stop there.

 

MTA, Net+, Server+, Security+, Linux+, MCSE, VMware certs, and Cisco certs are very much superior (in ascending order of awesomeness).

 

CCNP can easily net you a six figure job, though it requires substantial amounts of networking knowledge and experience to even hold a chance of passing the exam. Not to mention the CCNA is a prerequisite(a difficult exam in its own right).

 

I myself am going for VMware certs at the moment.