I think i'm going to look towards a different career direction & want to start with getting me A+ cert. I have no idea what this entails & looking for guidance. Thx.

buy this here book (book)

study this book, know it inside and out, then go book your exam through compucollege (now eastern college) and good luck?

what, exactly, are you looking to do?

no idea yet really just figure can't do much without having A+ cert in the comp field

Mind you that you still can't do much with just A+.

It's a very basic course. You already have a jump start from your experience. But there are little questions on the test that will catch you off guard.

IE: #of pins in a VGA connection. Who really thinks of that? But it's there..

Once/if you do A+. Check on Network+, CCNA, As well as anything to do with web editing. Always someone looking for PHP/MYSQL as well.

I didn't think anyone bothered with A+ anymore. In fact I thought that whole "getting certified" craze was dieing down unless it was for something very specialized and you had a degree as well.

Nobody cares about A+ anymore, if you wanna make money go into software dev, or get cisco certs. Everything else is just a waste of time these days. This is just my opinion after 10+ years in the IT field.

Vmware certs are becoming more valuable as well, something to consider.



Heres my break down of the most lucrative areas at the momment:

1- Software (C#, C, C++, Java)
2-Communications (Cellular technologies, and Fibre optics being the 2 top areas)
3- Virtualization technologies

These are just based on what I see and deal with everyday, others may disagree.

yeah, you can go get a cert but it doesnt count as much in the serious I.T. field as experience does.

The money makers are people that can code with Linux, C++, Java and have certs in cisco and know virtual machines inside out backwards and upside down.

Sbeeze is absolutely 100% correct.

I would also add that when a potential employer is considering you their order of importance appears to be: 1. experience, 2. formal education (college diploma or equivalent) 3. certifications (only those relevant to the position).

A+ isn't bad to have. It's just to be used as something in addition to everything else.

funny thing is I was offered a job from a buddy in the states if I had my A+ i'd be makin bank but without it I make nothing lol.

So yeah I guess it does mean Something maybe not here but i'm not looking to make work here I want to work Anywhere not just here. lol

You guys mostly have the jump where as you already have diff certs I have to start somewhere & figured this was good a place as anywhere to start lol.

I actually don't have any certifications and I'm in an application development team. Just a university degree and a handful of courses I've taken that my various employers have sent me on.

Some of the people here on another team are getting the Sun Certified Java Professional certification but since we're moving away from Sun to the IBM stack I figured when I need the training I'll look for something more tailored to the IBM stuff instead but as of right now I don't really work in Java on my team anyway.

Flama.

How's your HTML? and CSS?

I need someone for some work.

Pretty solid. I do web work for my uncle and have worked summers at several places doing various sites. Let me know what you're thinking and I might be able to help.

JOSH (SBEEZE) WE FOUND A TEAMSTER!!!

I agree with sbreeze on the certs. You will always find employers who absolutely want their staff to have them but most of the time it isn't really a major factor. However it can help you once you get into the more specialized areas (Cisco, VMware, etc.) and they can give you that extra edge over someone else when applying for a job.

And there is one that wasn't mentioned yet that I think is getting more attention and that is ITIL. I have heard from recruiting companies that I have worked with in the past that it is not seen a whole lot and does carry some weight, especially in larger organizations and the government.

We had a meeting about ITIL last year but not much really came of it for us. There's a technical services team that works on implementing it more in the company but I don't hear from them much.