IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[DaRealness]

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[Silky Johnson]

Anybody got tips on passing the AZ-900? This'll be my first cert. I bought a book nd and was reading thru/documenting everything in a notebook but it was taking forever. Switched over to Coursera and blitzing thru the material, doubling back/referencing the book on pain points

You should've led with that

Why would you start with this? How much rw experience do you already have with Azure?

 

[Buddy]

Why would you start with this? How much rw experience do you already have with Azure?

my job is migrating into the cloud so soon enough, i'll be dealing with it daily

 

[Silky Johnson]

my job is migrating into the cloud so soon enough, i'll be dealing with it daily

Oh aight. I read your post & thought you were breaking into the field with this cert.

Best advice I can give from my experience is to use it at work for a while before sitting for the exam.

I'm working on my Az-104 personally.

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Oh aight. I read your post & thought you were breaking into the field with this cert.

Best advice I can give from my experience is to use it at work for a while before sitting for the exam.

I'm working on my Az-104 personally.

AZ-900 felt like a marketing cert - can you remember their lingo. You can get that one without being hands on.

 

[Silky Johnson]

AZ-900 felt like a marketing cert - can you remember their lingo. You can get that one without being hands on.

I feel you

It was more like an overview for me. Ater actually using AZ at work for a while, I didn't see the point in sitting for that one so just started focusing on the 104. Even with that one, I find myself "studying" less of the stuff I'm seeing in the prep and spending more time learning the CLI when I actually need to get things done in my prod environment

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

I feel you

It was more like an overview for me. Ater actually using AZ at work for a while, I didn't see the point in sitting for that one so just started focusing on the 104. Even with that one, I find myself "studying" less of the stuff I'm seeing in the prep and spending more time learning the CLI when I actually need to get things done in my prod environment

I did 900 probably right when we were just dipping our toe in Azure, and it was supposedly an internal requirement to get it. I did the leader led training for 203 and 204 but never was motivated enough to sit for the tests. Our architecture was more or less mandated and eventually they had a separate team to set everything up in Azure for us, so I applied very little of the knowledge. Now we've been pushed into other shyt so I'm losing what little I had

 

[JayStarwind]

I'm taking this Google Cybersecurity cert and it's going well so far. Trying to knock out at least 1-2 hours every day and actually understand the concepts as opposed to memorization, which I have a bad habit of doing. On to Course 2

 

[thaKEAF]

I'm taking this Google Cybersecurity cert and it's going well so far. Trying to knock out at least 1-2 hours every day and actually understand the concepts as opposed to memorization, which I have a bad habit of doing. On to Course 2

Was it free? I started the regular one years ago but never finished.

 

[JayStarwind]

Was it free? I started the regular one years ago but never finished.

$49 a month. You can apply for financial aid thru Coursera and it'll be free. I figured that out after I made the first payment smh.

 

[thaKEAF]

$49 a month. You can apply for financial aid thru Coursera and it'll be free. I figured that out after I made the first payment smh.

Thanks gonna sign up for it. My comptia certs expired and I’ve been wanting to do something besides those to refresh my knowledge and continue learning.

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

For brehs just starting out

you may hear things on places like Reddit etc about CompTIA certs being trash or not worth it. Do not listen to that bullshyt

I have come across over 100 jobs (Tier 1, 2 and 3 )in the last month paying $57k - $90k that ask for CompTIA certs ( Mainly A+,Net+, Sec+) --All Remote too.

I bring this up because alot of you seem pressured to go after the higher level certs thinking it will shortcut you to 6 figures

Make sure your certs match the level you're at in your career

CompTIA certs are foundational, but some take the term 'foundational' to mean 'useless, beginner certs'. Nah. That logic implies that the information you attained can be quickly discarded the moment you get a job or get 6-18 months experience. 'Foundational' means the information you attain will give you the core knowledge on which all subsequent, advanced knowledge will be built on and. Meaning the shyt aint going nowhere; The material on the CompTIA' trifecta certs will serve you well beyond just breaking into IT. but even mid-career. There are plenty of excellent paying jobs asking for these certs and they hold value because:

1. They are still the most recognized, damn near ubiquitous certs in the industry
2. They show that you care enough to learn and maintain the core concepts and not just someone chasing high-level vendor certs feeling entitled to a 6 figure salary because of what some Youtube influencer told them.
3. They can be renewed by earning either other CompTIA certs or non-comptia certs that count as CEUs (Continuing Education Units). Most vendor-specific certs only allow you to renew their certs only under them.
4. Hiring managers are less likely to grill you in an interview Vs. having a bunch of high-level top 10 lists certs on your resume with little to no experience to justify it and the hiring team makes it a point to expose you for their own amusement.

The Certs I see requested the most are:

• A+ and Network+ -- For most * ____ Support Specialist job
• Security+ (For SOC analyst or as a hard requirement for public sector/Government IT roles.) DoD Approved Baseline Certifications
• SC-900 -- I see plenty of tier 1 and 2 security analyst roles ask for this - Doesn't expire either
• MD-100/MD-101 Now just one exam --> MD-102
• AZ-900 - Despite Az-104 being the sexier, hyped up Azure cert. I have seen plenty of listings where all they requires is reasonable amount of exp and Azure fundamentals cert. I mainly see this for entry level cloud admin / jr Cloud Admin postings. Also doesn't expire.
• VCP --VMware Certifications. This plus a year of working in a VDI role is what took me from $28 Hourly to $85,000 annually. I sort of fell into the virtualization side of things. Again, VCP certs dont expire.

You can earn as high as a $100k with these certs (+ experience) if that's what you're chasing.

shyt like the CISSP, CCNP etc can wait unless there's like some sound pressing justification for why you need it right away. like a pending promotion (That's in writing of course) that hinges on you getting them

 

[Rhyme n Tekniq]

Resume Tip

Unless you have a depth of experience in a given technology, Omit any semblance of a "Skills" section from your resume. everything you list under that is more than likely going to be used against you in an interview; They're going to build a question pool around all the listed "skills" in your resume so that can grill you with obscure situational questions only someone who specializes would know. This happened to me 2 years ago when I listed SCCM i the skills section of my resume. bytch ass cac was mad agressive about it too, in fact he came into the interview on some snarky, "I dont believe you" bullshyt. He was acting like he caught me on some stolen valor shyt.

If you want to hit your keywords, just sprinkle them throughout the job duties section where you detail the exact capacity in which you used whatevr skill or tech.


Avoid putting a target on your back, Dont overbloat your resume with unnecessary information or window dressing like Objectives, Achievements, etc

• Name, Email, Phone
• Certifications
• Work Experience
• Try to fit it on one page especially if you you dont have a lot of experience.

That's it. You're trying to get a job with as little pushback as possible. Keep things simple and dont oversell and under deliver.

Once you've gotten enough experience and you're confident enough to talk your shyt, then you can get cute with your resume lol

 

[thaKEAF]

Resume Tip

Unless you have a depth of experience in a given technology, Omit any semblance of a "Skills" section from your resume. everything you list under that is more than likely going to be used against you in an interview; They're going to build a question pool around all the listed "skills" in your resume so that can grill you with obscure situational questions only someone who specializes would know. This happened to me 2 years ago when I listed SCCM i the skills section of my resume. bytch ass cac was mad agressive about it too, in fact he came into the interview on some snarky, "I dont believe you" bullshyt. He was acting like he caught me on some stolen valor shyt.

If you want to hit your keywords, just sprinkle them throughout the job duties section where you detail the exact capacity in which you used whatevr skill or tech.


Avoid putting a target on your back, Dont overbloat your resume with unnecessary information or window dressing like Objectives, Achievements, etc

• Name, Email, Phone
• Certifications
• Work Experience
• Try to fit it on one page especially if you you dont have a lot of experience.

That's it. You're trying to get a job with as little pushback as possible. Keep things simple and dont oversell and under deliver.

Once you've gotten enough experience and you're confident enough to talk your shyt, then you can get cute with your resume lol

This definitely happened to me before. The dude was cool and still offered me the job later..he wasn’t on no hoe shyt. But I listed reimagining under skills and he pulled my card on it lol. Even though I knew the concept of it I hadn’t actually been going through and doing it step by step.

 

[Redguard]

I'm working on getting the CCNA certification.

Do you have any recommendations for training resources to use (Books or Online training courses)?

I was going to use Cisco Packet Tracer but I have heard its not the best for simulations/training.

I may be able to get a hold of some old Cisco switches from work to setup a lab for training. I will find out this week if I can get access to the switches.