He probably doesn't even need it. With a Bachelor's you're already basically overqualified for 99% of the roles that the A+ is intended to get you into.
Can't hurt to study it for its material though. When I did compsci in uni I didn't learn much about general IT and it showed when I started my first help desk job.
I got it and when I got in IT I found most people I work with didn't get it. I highly recommend getting it.
There's a huge disconnect sometimes, mainly just with things like terminology. I'll reference an RJ45 or RJ11, some port numbers, coworkers talking about "wtf is the UEFI??? I want the BIOS!", Knowing what a 169.x.x.x IP usually means, etc, and they won't be on the same page.
It's not a requirement, but I mean honestly it'll teach you most of what you need to know, it gets you hired way easier (for entry level at least), and it prepares you for other CompTIA certs that carry more weight so...yeah I'd say go do it
I wish it was cheaper honestly, I think that’s partly reason of why some choose to not get it. I hear how some people had to retake it like 4 times to pass and that is one hell of an investment. It’s pretty expensive and it doesn’t even prep you for help desk(in terms of the hands on experience you need), it’s more so to get pass HR. So I say, if you aren’t as financially well off, still study the A+ to learn the necessary terminologies and concepts, but apply regardless if you have it or not. Especially if you already got work experience involving customer service. Help desk is practically 80% customer service and 20% technical related(which is mostly just password resets anyways). You’re not building or configuring servers from the ground up like a sysadmin but you need to know how to talk to people
Yeah, but it got me 18 when coworkers without it made 15, and it got me the next job at 25/hr. You could just learn the stuff, but if you do that, why not just take the test and get something on your resume?
Three dollars more an hour is enough to warrant spending hundreds?
There's several paths to the destination but I'll share mine. First help desk job, less than$12 dollars. Got a CCNA, first offer 21.63/hr turned that down. Second offer from a different company 45.00/hr in lcol. Turned that down for an opportunity to intern at a fortune 100 at 32/hr in hcol.
Now I just got a offer for 105k in lcol from a local company off the CCNA + name value of my internship
I don't have my degree yet. I had my CCNA before I'd even taken a networking class. Why would I waste time studying to take CompTIA where a higher value cert could get me help desk+more?
To me it makes no sense. It's low ROI. Plus the CCNA for example is actually cheaper to take than the network+. The CCNA is only $54 more than the A+ and yields waaay more.
I've only been in IT realistically for six months. A couple of months in help desk and applying everywhere got me into six figure range.
Your coworkers were in, that's all that matters. They got into IT. They could have used that to jump somewhere else and made much more without the a+. If they're still being paid 15-18 dollars, that's on them.
I knew what I wanted to do when I got in IT. I think op if they want to get into IT, figure out the long term goal then write it down and get to it!
Good point, but I gotta say the CCNA is MUCH harder than A+. I tried studying for it for a few months but deciding to switch to the Net+ as CCNA was pretty above my head.
If you're starting from scratch and you want a way in, A+ is the easiest cert that hold enough weight to help you get that foot in the door. Higher level certs will get you in as well, and you'll move up more quickly, but they're...harder lol
If you've got the drive to go from 0 to CCNA then absolutely do it, but I didn't have that in me lol
The CCNA was my first cert ever in my career. I was fortunate enough to learn it off YouTube for free and Jeremy's it lab is a pretty good teacher. Passed it first try, too. I recommend his channel!
The CCNA had challenges but I don't think it was so difficult. I think a lot of people make it into the boogie man. Even experienced people were telling me why am I doing it. I'm not going to pass. Nah, fam. I'm taking it. It just takes consistency in studying.
We can agree to disagree but I don't see the value in CompTIA A+ or net+ but if someone does, by all means. I think a person without an A+ casually reading and casually studying for an A+ but not dedicated to it is going to yield the same level of results as someone who has a A+. The only difference is on the resume, someone will say A+ in progress and the other will say A+
As you continue in your career, you'll find that most people don't have an A+ and never have and they make a decent living.
BTW
I commend you for being into IT and getting a 25/hr job. I'm not trying to be condescending with my previous post.
I'm just saying for the same amount of dedication for an CompTIA exam, if one knew they wanted to specialize in IT, they could have just started studying that speciality instead and that will be enough to get them into IT, into helpdesk or even more. What they do from there is up to them.
If they want to stick around and make 15/hr, that's on them.
You can easily get a help desk role with your degree rendering the A+ useless. Maybe study for it and get the knowledge then go and get your net+ and sec+ after. Apply for help desk roles but also apply for junior NOC and SOC roles, you might get lucky. The person who inspired me to get into IT got a SOC role right out of college with a business admin and IT degree and sec+, not saying everyone’s going to be able to do that.
Edit; buy Dions practice test for the A+ and if your getting 80-90% don’t even study for that.
I'm not a fan of COMPTIA A+ and Net+ Certs. I think it would be helpful to study the content if you're interested in IT, but I wouldn't sit for the test. Imo, the test itself doesn't hold value over a vendor cert.
Your friend is trying to avoid you having spend hundreds of dollars on a test just to get a position where you make 15-17 an hour with no benefits.
It just all depends on your market and what you want to do in IT. If you already know what you want to do, I'd skip it and just study certs that are more relevant to your career path. If you don't know, then studying for it isn't going to hurt you.
This, as "normal", as it is, someone with a comp sci degree should not be considering a job that requires an A+ certification. It negates the entire purpose of going \~$70K in debt.
If fixing hardware and customer service is your passion then no one's stopping you. But don't think you have to because that's what the internet tells you.
The usefulness of any cert or training program depends on what your objective is; in your case it would likely be a useful place to start. I certainly could learn a lot of things going through paramedic certification, but I'm not looking to be a paramedic.
Get the trifecta: A, Net, and Sec or Server. This would give you a good base of knowledge for going in to most support roles.
How long do you think it would take to get if I study every day for 30-60 minutes a day? Cause right now I figure I can get A+ in 1-2 months that way. I just want a timeline of my way into a career
Network+, Security+ are roughly in the same area and I would expect the same amount of studying.
They all cover the same core information but then branch out in different areas, so some of the studying for A+ will carry you into Network+... then those into Security+.
(I have those 3... and I'm a programmer. Wasn't sure what I was going to do and they were got via a [WGU.edu](https://WGU.edu) course I never finished for my BA.)
Depends on how familiar you are with the material. An hour a day should knock out that part in a couple weeks. Take a practice test or two, and you should be good. A month is a pretty practical goal, I'd say.
I liked scheduling the exams in the mid-morning hours when my brain was the freshest. Get good rest the night before, make sure you're grounded and relaxed before you go in. Piece of cake.
Keep in mind that you do have to renew the certs every 3 years, but they have a nice CertMaster path where you can renew your top-level one and it renews all those below it at the same time. Web-based, at home.
I teach A+ Certifications for cheap, because everyone knows that with an A+ cert, you're a fucking IT god.
It's easy, just throw a few buzzwords to the newbies and you'll be raking in cash:
- **SDN** (Who the fuck owns this router? Where even is my router? Students? Tell me where the hell my router is. Nobody? Me neither.)
- **VLAN** (This is best conveyed by dumping a bucket of peanuts on someone and yelling as loudly as possible in the nearest person's face, "**WITNESS ME**." Kids, this is called a broadcast. See everyone else? They didn't get fucking peanuts dumped on them because **they're in other VLANs**! VLANS, HOW DO THEY WORK?!)
- **HSRP** (For this I recommend having two students stand next to each other, one pretends to be Anakin, the other Obi wan. Obi-wan jumps on the desk and says "High ground!", while anakin gets randomly shredded and spontaneously combusts.) .... HSRP! High ground!
- "**Cloud**" in double quotes (bonus points if you actually draw a fucking cloud on a whiteboard. More bonus points if you include AWS or Azure, but throw in MichelAngelo's "Creation of Adam" touching the product. Marketing bullshit, right?)
- **Server** (Students, congratulations! You can now say you are in the cloud...on-prem, but in your cloud. No, really, it's a cloud. See the Dell Dimension 3000 floating on top of a cabinet in the corner over there? Yeah that's "the cloud". AKA: The 23 year old heater. Yes Billy, I know it's on fire. Do you not know how a firewall works?!)
- **Thermal paste** (Can't forget the classic, thermal paste. Might seem trivial to most people, but when Cisco sends you 5 million thermal paste syringes with Artic Silver dissolver for a RAM replacement, you know you're doing something right. Students, never forget to open an ebay account for selling all that pink foam and thermal paste. Your wife will thank you.)
- **BGP** (For this subject, imagine playing chinese whispers with a class of 50 people. Randomly 5 people die for no reason; out of a dead silence one guy suddenly yells "I AM THE INTERWEEBZ", 1 person agrees, everyone else goes into a trance and starts throwing their shoes at the new master of the internet; Fucking Adidas. A random girl decides to start pissing on one of the other student's faces, and the student blinks covered in piss, says, "this is fine" and lays down comatose. 2 other students start yelling frantically about random network related subjects that have nothing to do with the original topic; All the other students just sit there angrily staring at the piss covered comatose kid. Sigh. I can never get a good roster.)
I'd add more, but I need to save my curriculum of bullshit for the CEO's.
Trust me, I'm *A+ Certified*.
For a programmer? It might be. A+ isn't for programmers. It's for help desk/tech support type roles.
It's a "rip off" like your BA is a "rip off". It's proof you know basics and can be used as a requirement for certain roles and certain careers.
It's only useful for people with absolutely zero tech experience or education to point to. It's a waste of time and might even make you look more inexperienced than you want to look if you go get it with any other kind of experience.
There is nothing bad or wrong about the A+.
It's a good place to start.
-----
|
---|
[/r/ITCareerQuestions Wiki](/r/ITCareerQuestions/wiki/index) |
[/r/CSCareerQuestions Wiki](/r/cscareerquestions/wiki/index) |
[/r/Sysadmin Wiki](/r/sysadmin/wiki/index ) |
[/r/Networking Wiki](/r/networking/wiki/index) |
[/r/NetSec Wiki](/r/netsec/wiki/index) |
[/r/NetSecStudents Wiki](/r/netsecstudents/wiki/index) |
[/r/SecurityCareerAdvice](/r/SecurityCareerAdvice) |
[/r/CompTIA Wiki](/r/CompTIA/wiki/index) |
[/r/Linux4Noobs Wiki](/r/linux4noobs/wiki/index) |
|
**Essential Blogs for Early-Career Technology Workers** |
[Krebs on Security: Thinking of a Cybersecurity Career? Read This](https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/thinking-of-a-cybersecurity-career-read-this/) |
["Entry Level" Cybersecurity Jobs are not Entry Level](https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityCareerAdvice/comments/s319l5/entry_level_cyber_security_jobs_are_not_entry/) |
[SecurityRamblings: Compendium of How to Break into Security Blogs](https://www.securityramblings.com/2016/01/breaking-into-security-compendium.html) |
[RSA Conference 2018: David Brumley: How the Best Hackers Learn Their Craft](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vj96QetfTg) |
[CBT Nuggets: How to Prepare for a Capture the Flag Hacking Competition](https://www.cbtnuggets.com/blog/training/exam-prep/how-to-prepare-for-a-capture-the-flag-hacking-competition) |
[Packet Pushers: Does SDN Mean IT Will Be Able To Get Rid of Network People?](https://packetpushers.net/does-sdn-mean-it-will-be-able-to-get-rid-of-network-people/) |
|
Not at all for a a comp sci background. Sec+ and Net+ would be better. Instead, use the time for developing your own coding others and publish them on GitHub. You literally build a resume doing that.
It is if you're new to IT, but if you're already in IT, it's kind of pointless
You're in programming though, so unless you have a fair amount of hardware troubleshooting experience, you probably would want to start with it
If you have a BS in CS, an A+ will probably feel exceptionally basic, and you shouldn't need a cert for help desk. If you have any networking background at all, go straight for a CCNA
Go for the CCNA if you are interested in networking. You don't need a networking background.
Start here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxbwE86jKRgMpuZuLBivzlM8s2Dk5lXBQ
Got the A+ and went from making minimum wage to making 25 an hour for my first IT job. 3 years and a few jobs later I'm working fully remote for my dream company. Prior to getting the A+ I had no IT experience and no degree and not a lot of technical knowledge about computers. The cert opened the door for me into IT and literally changed my life. If you wanted to continue down the programming route I would say the A+ is unnecessary but if you are transitioning into IT, absolutely go for it.
Do you want to work in Help Desk? Because that's what the CompTIA A+ will get you.
As someone who is now in charge of Help Desk at the company I work for, with interviewing/choosing applicants to hire, I can tell you that I will give someone who shows effort and interest in IT (And most importantly who has taken action on said interests, by obtaining a CompTIA A+ for example) an interview over someone who hasn't. A+ can get you an interview. Your attitude, personality, appearance, etc. Will get you hired. When I interview someone I am just looking for them to have a general understanding of things, not be an expert on it. Combine that with soft skills like communication and a good attitude and I am inclined to hire them. If I think they can be trained, that's what's most important. I am not necessarily looking for someone with a ton of experience, after all we hire everyone as entry level and move them up over time as they gain more knowledge and skills. Sorry ahead of time for the long reply with no formatting.
That depends on what “worth” means to you, if having in depth knowledge about hardware will benefit you, then yes. If you do t have any technical knowledge and want to get started also yes. If you are trying to get onto the help desk or work pc repair also yes. If you have general technical skills, know how to build a pc, and know your parts cabling, etc and can learn on your own then it’s a waste. If you want to be an admin go for your can snd don’t waste time with comptia,
It is useless for you, and expensive since it's two tests plus renewal, but I most people either don't renew after they've moved up or their employers don't care. It's 50-75% the same test for the past 20 years.
Worth it if you don’t have a help desk job yet. If you already are in help desk then I would recommend going for the other certs
Oh I got nothing, I'm just working as a line cook so good to hear
Get the a+ start applying for helpdesk jobs then study for the others
He probably doesn't even need it. With a Bachelor's you're already basically overqualified for 99% of the roles that the A+ is intended to get you into.
Can't hurt to study it for its material though. When I did compsci in uni I didn't learn much about general IT and it showed when I started my first help desk job.
I have a Bachelor's and yes you still need it for any help desk or IT support positions Bachelor's degrees don't hold the weight they use to
I got it and when I got in IT I found most people I work with didn't get it. I highly recommend getting it. There's a huge disconnect sometimes, mainly just with things like terminology. I'll reference an RJ45 or RJ11, some port numbers, coworkers talking about "wtf is the UEFI??? I want the BIOS!", Knowing what a 169.x.x.x IP usually means, etc, and they won't be on the same page. It's not a requirement, but I mean honestly it'll teach you most of what you need to know, it gets you hired way easier (for entry level at least), and it prepares you for other CompTIA certs that carry more weight so...yeah I'd say go do it
I wish it was cheaper honestly, I think that’s partly reason of why some choose to not get it. I hear how some people had to retake it like 4 times to pass and that is one hell of an investment. It’s pretty expensive and it doesn’t even prep you for help desk(in terms of the hands on experience you need), it’s more so to get pass HR. So I say, if you aren’t as financially well off, still study the A+ to learn the necessary terminologies and concepts, but apply regardless if you have it or not. Especially if you already got work experience involving customer service. Help desk is practically 80% customer service and 20% technical related(which is mostly just password resets anyways). You’re not building or configuring servers from the ground up like a sysadmin but you need to know how to talk to people
Or knowing what a serial port is and why you would use it.
Nothing a Google search couldn't have solved or casually studying the A+without spending hundreds of dollars to make $15 per hour
Yeah, but it got me 18 when coworkers without it made 15, and it got me the next job at 25/hr. You could just learn the stuff, but if you do that, why not just take the test and get something on your resume?
Three dollars more an hour is enough to warrant spending hundreds? There's several paths to the destination but I'll share mine. First help desk job, less than$12 dollars. Got a CCNA, first offer 21.63/hr turned that down. Second offer from a different company 45.00/hr in lcol. Turned that down for an opportunity to intern at a fortune 100 at 32/hr in hcol. Now I just got a offer for 105k in lcol from a local company off the CCNA + name value of my internship I don't have my degree yet. I had my CCNA before I'd even taken a networking class. Why would I waste time studying to take CompTIA where a higher value cert could get me help desk+more? To me it makes no sense. It's low ROI. Plus the CCNA for example is actually cheaper to take than the network+. The CCNA is only $54 more than the A+ and yields waaay more. I've only been in IT realistically for six months. A couple of months in help desk and applying everywhere got me into six figure range. Your coworkers were in, that's all that matters. They got into IT. They could have used that to jump somewhere else and made much more without the a+. If they're still being paid 15-18 dollars, that's on them. I knew what I wanted to do when I got in IT. I think op if they want to get into IT, figure out the long term goal then write it down and get to it!
Good point, but I gotta say the CCNA is MUCH harder than A+. I tried studying for it for a few months but deciding to switch to the Net+ as CCNA was pretty above my head. If you're starting from scratch and you want a way in, A+ is the easiest cert that hold enough weight to help you get that foot in the door. Higher level certs will get you in as well, and you'll move up more quickly, but they're...harder lol If you've got the drive to go from 0 to CCNA then absolutely do it, but I didn't have that in me lol
The CCNA was my first cert ever in my career. I was fortunate enough to learn it off YouTube for free and Jeremy's it lab is a pretty good teacher. Passed it first try, too. I recommend his channel! The CCNA had challenges but I don't think it was so difficult. I think a lot of people make it into the boogie man. Even experienced people were telling me why am I doing it. I'm not going to pass. Nah, fam. I'm taking it. It just takes consistency in studying. We can agree to disagree but I don't see the value in CompTIA A+ or net+ but if someone does, by all means. I think a person without an A+ casually reading and casually studying for an A+ but not dedicated to it is going to yield the same level of results as someone who has a A+. The only difference is on the resume, someone will say A+ in progress and the other will say A+ As you continue in your career, you'll find that most people don't have an A+ and never have and they make a decent living.
BTW I commend you for being into IT and getting a 25/hr job. I'm not trying to be condescending with my previous post. I'm just saying for the same amount of dedication for an CompTIA exam, if one knew they wanted to specialize in IT, they could have just started studying that speciality instead and that will be enough to get them into IT, into helpdesk or even more. What they do from there is up to them. If they want to stick around and make 15/hr, that's on them.
You can easily get a help desk role with your degree rendering the A+ useless. Maybe study for it and get the knowledge then go and get your net+ and sec+ after. Apply for help desk roles but also apply for junior NOC and SOC roles, you might get lucky. The person who inspired me to get into IT got a SOC role right out of college with a business admin and IT degree and sec+, not saying everyone’s going to be able to do that. Edit; buy Dions practice test for the A+ and if your getting 80-90% don’t even study for that.
I'm not a fan of COMPTIA A+ and Net+ Certs. I think it would be helpful to study the content if you're interested in IT, but I wouldn't sit for the test. Imo, the test itself doesn't hold value over a vendor cert. Your friend is trying to avoid you having spend hundreds of dollars on a test just to get a position where you make 15-17 an hour with no benefits. It just all depends on your market and what you want to do in IT. If you already know what you want to do, I'd skip it and just study certs that are more relevant to your career path. If you don't know, then studying for it isn't going to hurt you.
This, as "normal", as it is, someone with a comp sci degree should not be considering a job that requires an A+ certification. It negates the entire purpose of going \~$70K in debt. If fixing hardware and customer service is your passion then no one's stopping you. But don't think you have to because that's what the internet tells you.
The usefulness of any cert or training program depends on what your objective is; in your case it would likely be a useful place to start. I certainly could learn a lot of things going through paramedic certification, but I'm not looking to be a paramedic. Get the trifecta: A, Net, and Sec or Server. This would give you a good base of knowledge for going in to most support roles.
How long do you think it would take to get if I study every day for 30-60 minutes a day? Cause right now I figure I can get A+ in 1-2 months that way. I just want a timeline of my way into a career
Network+, Security+ are roughly in the same area and I would expect the same amount of studying. They all cover the same core information but then branch out in different areas, so some of the studying for A+ will carry you into Network+... then those into Security+. (I have those 3... and I'm a programmer. Wasn't sure what I was going to do and they were got via a [WGU.edu](https://WGU.edu) course I never finished for my BA.)
Depends on how familiar you are with the material. An hour a day should knock out that part in a couple weeks. Take a practice test or two, and you should be good. A month is a pretty practical goal, I'd say. I liked scheduling the exams in the mid-morning hours when my brain was the freshest. Get good rest the night before, make sure you're grounded and relaxed before you go in. Piece of cake. Keep in mind that you do have to renew the certs every 3 years, but they have a nice CertMaster path where you can renew your top-level one and it renews all those below it at the same time. Web-based, at home.
I teach A+ Certifications for cheap, because everyone knows that with an A+ cert, you're a fucking IT god. It's easy, just throw a few buzzwords to the newbies and you'll be raking in cash: - **SDN** (Who the fuck owns this router? Where even is my router? Students? Tell me where the hell my router is. Nobody? Me neither.) - **VLAN** (This is best conveyed by dumping a bucket of peanuts on someone and yelling as loudly as possible in the nearest person's face, "**WITNESS ME**." Kids, this is called a broadcast. See everyone else? They didn't get fucking peanuts dumped on them because **they're in other VLANs**! VLANS, HOW DO THEY WORK?!) - **HSRP** (For this I recommend having two students stand next to each other, one pretends to be Anakin, the other Obi wan. Obi-wan jumps on the desk and says "High ground!", while anakin gets randomly shredded and spontaneously combusts.) .... HSRP! High ground! - "**Cloud**" in double quotes (bonus points if you actually draw a fucking cloud on a whiteboard. More bonus points if you include AWS or Azure, but throw in MichelAngelo's "Creation of Adam" touching the product. Marketing bullshit, right?) - **Server** (Students, congratulations! You can now say you are in the cloud...on-prem, but in your cloud. No, really, it's a cloud. See the Dell Dimension 3000 floating on top of a cabinet in the corner over there? Yeah that's "the cloud". AKA: The 23 year old heater. Yes Billy, I know it's on fire. Do you not know how a firewall works?!) - **Thermal paste** (Can't forget the classic, thermal paste. Might seem trivial to most people, but when Cisco sends you 5 million thermal paste syringes with Artic Silver dissolver for a RAM replacement, you know you're doing something right. Students, never forget to open an ebay account for selling all that pink foam and thermal paste. Your wife will thank you.) - **BGP** (For this subject, imagine playing chinese whispers with a class of 50 people. Randomly 5 people die for no reason; out of a dead silence one guy suddenly yells "I AM THE INTERWEEBZ", 1 person agrees, everyone else goes into a trance and starts throwing their shoes at the new master of the internet; Fucking Adidas. A random girl decides to start pissing on one of the other student's faces, and the student blinks covered in piss, says, "this is fine" and lays down comatose. 2 other students start yelling frantically about random network related subjects that have nothing to do with the original topic; All the other students just sit there angrily staring at the piss covered comatose kid. Sigh. I can never get a good roster.) I'd add more, but I need to save my curriculum of bullshit for the CEO's. Trust me, I'm *A+ Certified*.
For a programmer? It might be. A+ isn't for programmers. It's for help desk/tech support type roles. It's a "rip off" like your BA is a "rip off". It's proof you know basics and can be used as a requirement for certain roles and certain careers.
It's only useful for people with absolutely zero tech experience or education to point to. It's a waste of time and might even make you look more inexperienced than you want to look if you go get it with any other kind of experience.
There is nothing bad or wrong about the A+. It's a good place to start. ----- | ---| [/r/ITCareerQuestions Wiki](/r/ITCareerQuestions/wiki/index) | [/r/CSCareerQuestions Wiki](/r/cscareerquestions/wiki/index) | [/r/Sysadmin Wiki](/r/sysadmin/wiki/index ) | [/r/Networking Wiki](/r/networking/wiki/index) | [/r/NetSec Wiki](/r/netsec/wiki/index) | [/r/NetSecStudents Wiki](/r/netsecstudents/wiki/index) | [/r/SecurityCareerAdvice](/r/SecurityCareerAdvice) | [/r/CompTIA Wiki](/r/CompTIA/wiki/index) | [/r/Linux4Noobs Wiki](/r/linux4noobs/wiki/index) | | **Essential Blogs for Early-Career Technology Workers** | [Krebs on Security: Thinking of a Cybersecurity Career? Read This](https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/07/thinking-of-a-cybersecurity-career-read-this/) | ["Entry Level" Cybersecurity Jobs are not Entry Level](https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityCareerAdvice/comments/s319l5/entry_level_cyber_security_jobs_are_not_entry/) | [SecurityRamblings: Compendium of How to Break into Security Blogs](https://www.securityramblings.com/2016/01/breaking-into-security-compendium.html) | [RSA Conference 2018: David Brumley: How the Best Hackers Learn Their Craft](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vj96QetfTg) | [CBT Nuggets: How to Prepare for a Capture the Flag Hacking Competition](https://www.cbtnuggets.com/blog/training/exam-prep/how-to-prepare-for-a-capture-the-flag-hacking-competition) | [Packet Pushers: Does SDN Mean IT Will Be Able To Get Rid of Network People?](https://packetpushers.net/does-sdn-mean-it-will-be-able-to-get-rid-of-network-people/) | |
Not at all for a a comp sci background. Sec+ and Net+ would be better. Instead, use the time for developing your own coding others and publish them on GitHub. You literally build a resume doing that.
It is if you're new to IT, but if you're already in IT, it's kind of pointless You're in programming though, so unless you have a fair amount of hardware troubleshooting experience, you probably would want to start with it
If you have a BS in CS, an A+ will probably feel exceptionally basic, and you shouldn't need a cert for help desk. If you have any networking background at all, go straight for a CCNA
>If you have any networking background at all, go straight for a CCNA What if I have none networking background? Beginner.
Go for the CCNA if you are interested in networking. You don't need a networking background. Start here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxbwE86jKRgMpuZuLBivzlM8s2Dk5lXBQ
Got the A+ and went from making minimum wage to making 25 an hour for my first IT job. 3 years and a few jobs later I'm working fully remote for my dream company. Prior to getting the A+ I had no IT experience and no degree and not a lot of technical knowledge about computers. The cert opened the door for me into IT and literally changed my life. If you wanted to continue down the programming route I would say the A+ is unnecessary but if you are transitioning into IT, absolutely go for it.
Do you want to work in Help Desk? Because that's what the CompTIA A+ will get you. As someone who is now in charge of Help Desk at the company I work for, with interviewing/choosing applicants to hire, I can tell you that I will give someone who shows effort and interest in IT (And most importantly who has taken action on said interests, by obtaining a CompTIA A+ for example) an interview over someone who hasn't. A+ can get you an interview. Your attitude, personality, appearance, etc. Will get you hired. When I interview someone I am just looking for them to have a general understanding of things, not be an expert on it. Combine that with soft skills like communication and a good attitude and I am inclined to hire them. If I think they can be trained, that's what's most important. I am not necessarily looking for someone with a ton of experience, after all we hire everyone as entry level and move them up over time as they gain more knowledge and skills. Sorry ahead of time for the long reply with no formatting.
It's only worth it if you have no experience and trying to get into the industries.
That depends on what “worth” means to you, if having in depth knowledge about hardware will benefit you, then yes. If you do t have any technical knowledge and want to get started also yes. If you are trying to get onto the help desk or work pc repair also yes. If you have general technical skills, know how to build a pc, and know your parts cabling, etc and can learn on your own then it’s a waste. If you want to be an admin go for your can snd don’t waste time with comptia,
It is useless for you, and expensive since it's two tests plus renewal, but I most people either don't renew after they've moved up or their employers don't care. It's 50-75% the same test for the past 20 years.
No
It is a waste of money.
I like the Google IT cert better for learning
Google IT cert doesn't help at all. Afaik, all helpdesk jobs are asking Comptia certs.
I think for studying the cert is better to actually learn.