Certifications
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@ryanblahnik said:
I've seen a consensus here that Network+ and maybe Security+ offer some value as a base, and afterward certifications quickly start to depend on the direction you want to be taking.
I sort of agree here, but would like to clarify how I view them.
The Network+ I definitely agree is an excellent base and should, IMHO, be the "starter cert" for anyone in IT. I would love to see all staff have this cert. It is easy, standard, agnostic and useful for everyone from a home user to a seasoned IT pro. I like it a lot and believe it is both good to see on a resume and good for ensuring that basic networking knowledge has been covered.
The Security+ is a good cert but not one that I consider a "base" in any way. I consider it an "icing" cert. It is useless on its own and only works when applied to other certs and experience. For example, if you have the Security+ and nothing else, I see you as essentially uncertified. But if you get the MCSE and add on the Security+ on top, I see that as a bonus or enhancement to the MCSE.
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I'm looking into getting certs atm, I'm going for the A+ first as a true "base" solution, and then MTA/MCP/MCSA and Network+ - the Security+ looks a bit specialised for my role currently - we have an in house Security person who has all the top stuff for that...
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@NattNatt said:
I'm looking into getting certs atm, I'm going for the A+ first as a true "base" solution, and then MTA/MCP/MCSA and Network+ - the Security+ looks a bit specialised for my role currently - we have an in house Security person who has all the top stuff for that...
I highly recommend against the A+ and MTA unless you have a very specific reason for needing them. The A+ is not an IT certification at all but is a bench cert for people who do hardware maintenance (think GeekSquad type roles.) Nothing wrong with the A+, but it doesn't apply to normal IT pros. Skip it and move on to the Network+ immediately. The A+ will typically just waste time and money that could be far better spent elsewhere.
The MTA is a high school certification (I'm not being obnoxious, that is actually what it is for.) Microsoft made the MTA for high school students or extremely rudimentary college freshmen to demonstrate interest and enough experience to qualify for classes or unpaid internships. It's not a professional cert, it's a "pre-professional educational assessment." If you have ever been paid for IT work or ever gotten into a college class or ever been an IT intern, you are past the usefulness of the MTA certs. The MCP is the entry point professional IT cert from MS and always has been.
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I don't like the MTA even for high school students, if a student is going to take the time to do any cert, I want to see the Network+ and moving on to an MCP the same as for anyone else.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@NattNatt said:
I'm looking into getting certs atm, I'm going for the A+ first as a true "base" solution, and then MTA/MCP/MCSA and Network+ - the Security+ looks a bit specialised for my role currently - we have an in house Security person who has all the top stuff for that...
I highly recommend against the A+ and MTA unless you have a very specific reason for needing them. The A+ is not an IT certification at all but is a bench cert for people who do hardware maintenance (think GeekSquad type roles.) Nothing wrong with the A+, but it doesn't apply to normal IT pros. Skip it and move on to the Network+ immediately. The A+ will typically just waste time and money that could be far better spent elsewhere.
The MTA is a high school certification (I'm not being obnoxious, that is actually what it is for.) Microsoft made the MTA for high school students or extremely rudimentary college freshmen to demonstrate interest and enough experience to qualify for classes or unpaid internships. It's not a professional cert, it's a "pre-professional educational assessment." If you have ever been paid for IT work or ever gotten into a college class or ever been an IT intern, you are past the usefulness of the MTA certs. The MCP is the entry point professional IT cert from MS and always has been.
Its all paid for by work, and every cert gives us a bonus, I've been looking through the stuff and I'm pretty confident I can beast it without much time to study etc as it's the basis of what I've been doing for the last few years - Working as internal support, so doing hardware stuff as well as everything else, plus gets me back in the mindset for exams (not done any for 5/6 years)
But then I'll look towards doing Network+ and MCP/MCSA by the end of the year too - would that be a good combination? -
@NattNatt said:
Its all paid for by work, and every cert gives us a bonus, I've been looking through the stuff and I'm pretty confident I can beast it without much time to study etc as it's the basis of what I've been doing for the last few years - Working as internal support, so doing hardware stuff as well as everything else, plus gets me back in the mindset for exams (not done any for 5/6 years)
But then I'll look towards doing Network+ and MCP/MCSA by the end of the year too - would that be a good combination?If they are paying for everything, and they provide benefits for doing it, okay. Boy that is weird to pay extra for A+ and MTA.
Yes, for general learning and career foundation, Net+ and MCSA is excellent. I would push for a full MCSE, even if you don't want to work in the Windows world, it is a great cert to have. If someone is paying for it, go for it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@NattNatt said:
Its all paid for by work, and every cert gives us a bonus, I've been looking through the stuff and I'm pretty confident I can beast it without much time to study etc as it's the basis of what I've been doing for the last few years - Working as internal support, so doing hardware stuff as well as everything else, plus gets me back in the mindset for exams (not done any for 5/6 years)
But then I'll look towards doing Network+ and MCP/MCSA by the end of the year too - would that be a good combination?If they are paying for everything, and they provide benefits for doing it, okay. Boy that is weird to pay extra for A+ and MTA.
Yes, for general learning and career foundation, Net+ and MCSA is excellent. I would push for a full MCSE, even if you don't want to work in the Windows world, it is a great cert to have. If someone is paying for it, go for it.
Hah yeah, the business is all about growth etc. so we have several trainers on site to help with stuff, plus a certified exam centre on site too
would I need MCP before MCSA? Or should I go straight for MCSA?
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@NattNatt said:
would I need MCP before MCSA? Or should I go straight for MCSA?
Depends on your definition of "need." You don't need to do anything specific before attempting the MCSA. But the MCSA is just a cert given after you have a certain collection of MCPs. It's not a cert test on its own.
So you don't "need" an MCP to get the MCSA, but by starting down the path of the MCSA, you will get several MCPs.
After you get the MCSA, you still just go after a few more MCPs to move up to the MCSE.
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I did mine long ago when the MCSA did not exist yet and there was a cert above the MCSE called the MCSE+I, but it was deemed too hard and retired. I've only known two people, ever, to have the cert. Here are how the certs were in the NT4 era.
MCP: Requires one cert.
MCP+I: Was a specific set of four MCPs together. Roughly the MCSA of its time.
MCSE: A looser set of six MCP exams.
MCSE + I: A very specific set of nine MCP exams.You could get four MCPs, but not manage to get an MCP + I. You could get six MCPs and not manage to get the MCSE. You could get the MCSE but have not managed to get the MCP + I. And you could have nine exams, the MCSE and the MCP+I but not manage to get the MCSE+I.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@NattNatt said:
would I need MCP before MCSA? Or should I go straight for MCSA?
Depends on your definition of "need." You don't need to do anything specific before attempting the MCSA. But the MCSA is just a cert given after you have a certain collection of MCPs. It's not a cert test on its own.
So you don't "need" an MCP to get the MCSA, but by starting down the path of the MCSA, you will get several MCPs.
After you get the MCSA, you still just go after a few more MCPs to move up to the MCSE.
Awesome, didn't realise that! Cheers for the help as always - will start looking towards what I want to do
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If a lot of these seem to have more value from the material studied than from the cert itself, are there any others that stand out as covering important ground?
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@ryanblahnik said:
If a lot of these seem to have more value from the material studied than from the cert itself, are there any others that stand out as covering important ground?
I found the process of getting my certs to be incredibly valuable. Probably on par with any of my top learning for my career. It was the late 1990s and I did every CompTIA exam at the time and the hardest, longest Microsoft track and a huge number of Brainbench certs all over just like two or three years. I never once attended a class, I bought loads of books, got an ancient Pentium server (yes the original 586 single proc box!) and about five old desktops mostly 486, one Pentium and two PPros and built everything from scratch and did every lab and tested every configuration. No virtualization back then. And MS trials were 90 days, not 180. And an NT4 install could take two days!! And 33Kb/s dial up Internet access at best.
Reading the books, cover to cover, doing every example as I went forced me to learn the material including the concepts. Doing the actual certs forced me to not skip over details that seemed unimportant. It made me work to completeness and many of the concepts that I would have ignored when I was young turned out to be very important and the people writing the books had a good idea of what I needed to know
