IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

JT-Money

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What I.T. sector has the best options in your opinion?
Plenty of jobs in IT that don't actually do technical work. Who get paid just as much money. But without the added stress or continous ups killing. These positions normally support IT Departments. If you look up a company on LinkedIn you'll see a tons of made of job titles in the technology. These people mainly organize meetings or meet with vendors all day.
 

semicko82

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Plenty of jobs in IT that don't actually do technical work. Who get paid just as much money. But without the added stress or continous ups killing. These positions normally support IT Departments. If you look up a company on LinkedIn you'll see a tons of made of job titles in the technology. These people mainly organize meetings or meet with vendors all day.
Dap and rep
You just dropped a gem
 

Data-Hawk

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I failed my CompTia A+ core 1 exam :why:
I was so confident compared to my Core 2 which I passed by the way.

hmm. I took my A+ back in like 2005 :old: .

What helped me the most was putting together a Gaming PC from scratch.

But as others have said. I would skip the A+. Start with network+.
 

Akae Beka

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In the process of going to school for a IT degree, I start on the 28th. I need a career change down the line(sooner than later) and although what I do makes me right a 6 figures, It's not something I want to do the rest of my life. I know a lot of professional and black professional in the IT field with government contract gigs and as I age closer to 40(36), I need the kind of flexibility (in regards to my work in grouphomes/healthcare). A lot of people were telling me to just get certs instead of going back to school but I know not having a degree and prohibit you from gaining as much ground as you could, at least that's what I've read in regards to HR management and beyond

With that being said, is getting (and learning for) a comtia A+ a good starting point? Or should I start with a CCNA? I'm sort of a newbie but not quite and I know I'll need experience. I can finish this degree in under 3 years but I want to pick up cert while at it. It can at least count towards credits for my degree.
 

HovaNas

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In the process of going to school for a IT degree, I start on the 28th. I need a career change down the line(sooner than later) and although what I do makes me right a 6 figures, It's not something I want to do the rest of my life. I know a lot of professional and black professional in the IT field with government contract gigs and as I age closer to 40(36), I need the kind of flexibility (in regards to my work in grouphomes/healthcare). A lot of people were telling me to just get certs instead of going back to school but I know not having a degree and prohibit you from gaining as much ground as you could, at least that's what I've read in regards to HR management and beyond

With that being said, is getting (and learning for) a comtia A+ a good starting point? Or should I start with a CCNA? I'm sort of a newbie but not quite and I know I'll need experience. I can finish this degree in under 3 years but I want to pick up cert while at it. It can at least count towards credits for my degree.

Those people were right. Get security+ and Linux essentials with some small projects in your own webpage portfolio. You’d be set.
Get experience on the keyboard while you study for those certs. That’s what’s going to help you.
A+ is not worth it.
 

Akae Beka

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Those people were right. Get security+ and Linux essentials with some small projects in your own webpage portfolio. You’d be set.
Get experience on the keyboard while you study for those certs. That’s what’s going to help you.
A+ is not worth it.
SO it's pointless to get an IT bachelor's degree, is that what you're saying?

Would those 2 certs alongside small projects be enough to land me a decent gig in the next few years?
 

HovaNas

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SO it's pointless to get an IT bachelor's degree, is that what you're saying?

Would those 2 certs alongside small projects be enough to land me a decent gig in the next few years?
Im just saying that a bachelors degree shouldn’t be the first thing you turn to if you’re trying to make a career change towards IT. The reason certifications were created was to combat that way of thinking. It’s a way to show what you’re certified in and then you should be able to demonstrate those skills when a keyboard is in front of you. My coworkers are really good within AWS services but they don’t have the solutions architect cert. I’m very confident that they could land another job without it and have the company pay them to test for it.
You can cover a lot more ground targeting certain certs but we’re all different people with different IT paths.

As for me, 6+ cert gang :salute:

Finished my associates in 2017. Didn’t get many calls and if I did they would always ask about certs. Got security+ that same year and that’s when the traveling IT offers started coming in. Bachelors degree started in 2019 and I’m getting done with it this November.
I’ve gone from help desk to system admin to AWS cloud engineering.
 

Mirin4rmfar

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Is it possible to break into this industry at 23 with minimal knowledge?

I don’t care about being no six figure breh, just a decent salary eventually

Bro, you are at the perfect age to get on your grind. Best do it now then in your 30's. Not sure what your background is but get some good entry level certs and apply.
Agism is a thing so now is the perfect time.
 

Mirin4rmfar

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In the process of going to school for a IT degree, I start on the 28th. I need a career change down the line(sooner than later) and although what I do makes me right a 6 figures, It's not something I want to do the rest of my life. I know a lot of professional and black professional in the IT field with government contract gigs and as I age closer to 40(36), I need the kind of flexibility (in regards to my work in grouphomes/healthcare). A lot of people were telling me to just get certs instead of going back to school but I know not having a degree and prohibit you from gaining as much ground as you could, at least that's what I've read in regards to HR management and beyond

With that being said, is getting (and learning for) a comtia A+ a good starting point? Or should I start with a CCNA? I'm sort of a newbie but not quite and I know I'll need experience. I can finish this degree in under 3 years but I want to pick up cert while at it. It can at least count towards credits for my degree.

I would focus on the certs honestly. Your degree does not have to be in I.T. I work in cyber security and do not have a cyber security degree and I dropped out of top grad school program for computer science during week 1 lol. I also applied for a grad program in cyber security and never went after getting accepted.

The certs ended up working for me...I went from security support engineer(endpoints, firewalls, ids/ips, cloud sec platform) to now doing security audits. With that sad all of our paths are different. Some did help desk, some the degree route, some got in after connections. It's tons of different paths.
 
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