Fellow nerds....CompTia A+,Net+ etc

Gamble

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May 23, 2015
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What are everyones thoughts on these?

I always wanted to get the A+ and Net+ for nothing more than my own goals. I took the a+ class and was surprised and how in depth it really is. All I keep hearing from everyone is how easy it is, but I feel like 10years ago it was a walk in the park. It's about network ports, IP address, TCP/IP, UDP, Public/Private IP address ranges, which cat cable can travel X distance at X speed and fucking laser printers. The damn laser printer questions fuck me every time. Whoever invented the 90230943 steps to laser printing paper is an asshole.

In the class they also claim the 'average' salary for someone with a A+ is $72k/year. lol wtf...no

The A+ is broken up into 2 tests. 901 and 902. 901 being all hardware and 902 being all OS. The class was 4 days of 901 stuff and 1 day of 902. I have to score an 80% on the practice test before I am allowed to take the actual test. So still working on that.

What do you guys think of these? Have they gotten harder over the years? Think they are even worth it? Any other ones worth looking into? I don't get paid any more for certs but I want to learn more and these are just personal goals.
 

muskie

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May 26, 2011
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They are worthless IMO. You'd be better off setting up a lab at home to learn by doing with the cost of materials and taking the test.

If work is paying for it I guess it would be fine but don't think it will help you get a job these days. No one cares about them, at least from my experience, and your time could be much better spent elsewhere learning a scripting language, taking the CCNA, or something like VMware or Storage concepts.
 

Eagle

Nemo me impune lacessit
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Weeelllll, it depends. A+ and other Comptia tests have definitely gotten more difficult over the years and still hold value in certain cases/jobs. However, I think the number of cases they matter to are quickly disappearing in the IT market.

Best IT skills to sharpen are development, cloud transformation/migration/admin, and database. Even VMware is going to be in low demand as more and more systems move up to the cloud. There are fewer and fewer reasons to deploy and manage server systems onsite anymore. Any new company will almost certainly be cloud native and host everything with cloud services rather than stand up all their own systems because that takes capital!

Pick a cloud vendor and take their classes. I'd probably suggest GCP or Azure for starters.
 

dberz94

Professional Slacker
Feb 14, 2015
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Depends on the field, but I also have a A+ cert. I know a lot more about general IT work because of it too. Teling people you are certified in it, in a non-technology based field, is a way to get a little more $ but nothing special. Also, you have to renew it every 2 or 3 years in order to maintain accreditation. Helps in some facets of a non-IT related field but it won't impress anyone in the actual technology fields.
I feel like the $72k is fabricated by the CompTIA people because most people with the certification have a pre-existing background in technology whether it is a degree or previous experience.
 

Gamble

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May 23, 2015
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I do plan on doing some cloud classes, linux class and whatever else seem interesting to me and pertains to the job. I work in the cloud ;)

I don't know if I even plan on redoing it every 2 or 3 years. It's just personal goals and then move up to other things. Work is paying for the classes so may as well learn all I can. But I want to start from the bottom and go up. no sense in doing a ccna if I can't even do an a+
 

cap42

Restoration Hell
Mar 22, 2005
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10 years ago A+ was a joke to get, now it actually is applicable to someone in the help desk/infrastructure field as a starting point.

I have engineers on my staff that make about 72k a year with only a A+ cert, but they are also capable of having a MSCA/E or CCNA. Plus many have 5+ years of infrastructure experience. If I were to hire someone with no experience and just the A+ cert they would be around 40-45k.

As to your question on other certs to get, it all depends on what specialty or subset in IT you want to focus on. Cloud is the hot ticket, but any windows/cisco cert is good too. There are just too many to throw out there, so the real question is what do you want out of the IT field and then it could be narrowed down.
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
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seems maybe applicable for someone trying to get in their foot in the door somewhere rather than somewhere more seasoned. i dunno how many people are... troubleshooting laser printers, but it's good to have a grasp on some of the other fundamental things that may come up, like the networking stuff.

ie.
person 1: the database backup seems slow
person 2: the database backup is x/sec
person 3: the database backup is x/sec, but the write device is capable of y/sec which we see another database doing, and our real world bandwith is z/sec and neither are limiting the write
person 4: the database backup is x/sec because it appears our backup done over nfs is only able to open a single tcp socket and this is what it saturates at. our parallel backup streams are still only traveling over this single tcp connection on 1 physical path in our bonded interface. the storage device has only 1 IP and best practices dictate to use mutliple IPs so multiple tcp connections are established when using nfs protocol. depending on the bonding methodology this also provides the chance for streams to be on separate physical channels as well.

this is a real world example and poor configuration i have seen now at multiple fortune 500 and above companies, done by people easily making 6 figures a year.

i don't put a lot of stock in certs, but i don't put a lot of stock in years of experience either, because i often see 5 years of experience actually meaning learning 1 year of not so great technique and then practicing it over and over for 4 years.
 

MuffHugger

Formerly GTP Mike
Jun 16, 2008
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My job paid for me to take the Certified Ethical Hacker, and EC-Council Certified Security Analyst exams. I have my Bachelor's in Computer Information Systems, but having that background is a plus, especially Network+. After I get my CEH and ECSA, I'm going to go back and take the network one and skip A+.

I think holding both would be beneficial to you though. Just another thing to put on your resume if you are looking for a job.
 

Gamble

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May 23, 2015
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I still have to take the second test for a+ but wanted to sign up for another class. However it states that you need a+ to do all the other classes. Does that a+ need to be current or you just have had to of had it at one point or another? I read that it expires every 3 years.
So say I want to take security+, it requires a+ & net+ (IIRC) and if I wait too long do I have to retake those before going to security+?
Just curious how this plays out

So since I didn't finish this one yet and it seems way harder than I expected I think I want to try the ccent next. I did want to try linux+ but it says requirements are 9 months working as an admin. So sounds like you have to know your way around pretty well and I don't know squat about it yet. So any pointers on where to start learning with that would be helpful.




Congrats! I take the CEH next Saturday.

How did you do?
 

MuffHugger

Formerly GTP Mike
Jun 16, 2008
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I still have to take the second test for a+ but wanted to sign up for another class. However it states that you need a+ to do all the other classes. Does that a+ need to be current or you just have had to of had it at one point or another? I read that it expires every 3 years.
So say I want to take security+, it requires a+ & net+ (IIRC) and if I wait too long do I have to retake those before going to security+?
Just curious how this plays out

So since I didn't finish this one yet and it seems way harder than I expected I think I want to try the ccent next. I did want to try linux+ but it says requirements are 9 months working as an admin. So sounds like you have to know your way around pretty well and I don't know squat about it yet. So any pointers on where to start learning with that would be helpful.






How did you do?

Didn't pass. Need to go reevaluate and study better.
 

Fish

From the quiet street
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I do plan on doing some cloud classes, linux class and whatever else seem interesting to me and pertains to the job. I work in the cloud ;)

I saw an argument on facebook about a joke sticker regarding the cloud. Basically all it said was how the cloud was just someone else's computer, and people got all up in arms about it was trying to argue that was not the case.

However, if people are abandoning self created and maintained servers and going with cloud based servers, that means you are basically renting someone else's machines. :rofl: It was kinda funny to read.
 
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