When someone new to IT or interested in an IT career asks advice for getting their foot in the door, invariably lots of people are going to tell them that they need to get the CompTIA A+ certification. But the A+ is not an IT certification at all, but a bench certification and the knowledge in it is either so basic that anyone interested in an IT career should either already have it (and never need to certify on it as it is so basic) or it doesn't really apply to them (because it is a bench skill.)
The A+ also suffers from being horrendously out of date, testing skills that would have been applicable often a decade prior. In entry level bench work, this is sometimes (but not often) useful, in IT is essentially never is. Bench work in entry level shops often involves local computers stores and consumers attempting to keep ancient hardware limping along that is not financially viable. Businesses, driven by financial decisions, are far less likely to do this and those that do, turn to consumer bench services for support.
Making the mistake of lumping bench work in with IT work leads to a feeling that the A+ will be beneficial to an IT career. But deep questioning of people who feel that they benefited from the A+ often expose that those that feel it helped them or that it was requires went into and often are still in bench careers, rather than IT ones (or jobs that are primarily bench.) If your interest in a career in IT, the A+ should be seen as both non-applicable as well as overly rudimentary, not to bench antiquated. Starter IT certs are more advanced and there is no reason not to jump straight into them instead. Having a higher level cert, meant for IT professionals, that is up to date will do dramatically more for your personal growth, your own education and your ability to get your foot into the door of a real IT position.
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