Training for your CompTIA A+ covers four specialised areas – you’ll need exam certification in just two sectors to reach the level of A+ competent. For this reason, most training providers simply provide 2 of the training options. Our opinion is this is selling you short – of course you can gain accreditation, but knowing about the others will set you apart in the workplace, where you’ll need to know about all of them. So that’s why you require information in all four areas.
CompTIA A+ training programs cover fault-finding and diagnostics – via hands on and remote access, as well as learning to build, repair and fix and having knowledge of antistatic conditions.
If your ambition is being responsible for networks of computers, add the very comprehensive CompTIA Network+ to your A+ course. This qualification will mean you can apply for more interesting jobs. Other ones that might be interesting to you are the route to networking via Microsoft, in the form of MCP’s, MCSA or the full MCSE.
You’ll come across courses which guarantee examination passes – this always means exams have to be paid for upfront, at the start of your training. However, prior to embracing this so-called guarantee, look at the following:
Patently it’s not free – you’re still paying for it – the cost has just been rolled into the whole training package.
Should you seriously need to qualify first ‘go’, you must pay for each exam as you go, prioritise it appropriately and be ready for the task.
Do your exams at a local pro-metric testing centre and find the best deal for you at the time.
Is there a good reason to pay interest on a bigger loan than is necessary because you’ve paid early for examinations when you didn’t need to? A great deal of money is made by companies charging upfront for all their exams – and then cashing in when they’re not all taken.
Most companies will require you to do mock exams and not allow you to re-take an exam until you’ve demonstrated an excellent ability to pass – which makes an ‘Exam Guarantee’ frankly useless.
Exams taken at VUE and Prometric centres are approximately 112 pounds in Britain at the time of writing. Why spend so much more on ‘Exam Guarantee’ costs (usually wrapped up in the course package price) – when good quality study materials, the proper support and commitment, effort and practice with quality exam preparation systems are the factors that really get you through.
A question; why might we choose commercial certification instead of traditional academic qualifications obtained from schools, colleges or universities?
Corporate based study (as it’s known in the industry) is far more specialised and product-specific. The IT sector has become aware that specialisation is necessary to handle an increasingly more technical world. Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA are the key players in this arena.
Patently, a necessary degree of associated knowledge needs to be learned, but essential specialised knowledge in the exact job role gives a commercially trained student a distinct advantage.
Just as the old advertisement said: ‘It does what it says on the tin’. All an employer has to do is know what areas need to be serviced, and then match up the appropriate exam numbers as a requirement. That way they can be sure they’re interviewing applicants who can do the job.
Some training providers offer a Job Placement Assistance program, designed to steer you into your first job. Often, this feature is bigged up too much, as it’s really not that difficult for a well trained and motivated person to secure a job in the IT industry – as employers are keen to find appropriately qualified personnel.
However, don’t leave it until you’ve completed your exams before polishing up your CV. As soon as your training commences, enter details of your study programme and place it on jobsites!
Quite frequently, you will get your first role whilst still on the course (even when you’ve just left first base). If you haven’t updated your CV to say what you’re studying (and it hasn’t been posted on jobsites) then you aren’t even in the running!
You can usually expect better results from an independent and specialised local recruitment consultancy than you will through a training company’s recruitment division, as they’ll know the local area and commercial needs better.
Just be sure that you don’t spend hundreds of hours on your training and studies, only to stop and expect somebody else to secure your first position. Get off your backside and get out there. Invest as much resource into securing your first job as it took to pass the exams.
At times individuals don’t understand what IT is doing for all of us. It’s stimulating, innovative, and means you’re working on technology affecting everyones lives in the 21st century.
We’re barely beginning to comprehend what this change will mean to us. How we communicate and interact with everyone around us will be inordinately affected by technology and the web.
Should receiving a good salary be high on your goal sheet, then you’ll welcome the news that the regular income for IT employees in general is noticeably more than salaries in the rest of the economy.
With the IT marketplace emerging at an unprecedented rate, it’s likely that demand for certified IT specialists will flourish for a good while yet.
Copyright 2009 Scott Edwards. Hop over to HERE or www.acertification.co.uk.