Professional IT Quals

[hellarda]

Hi Guys,

Due to the current situation basically destroying my industry overnight for the foreseeable future (I'm a freelance Sound Engineer and Project Manager in the Live Events Industry), combined with other factors I may look to switch careers into IT.

Its the other industry that has always interested me, and through a lot of messing about at home (basic servers etc. including some basic virtualisation), and through configuring quite complex networks on festival sites for sound and other distribution, I have a relatively good understanding of network principles etc. I have an MEng in Electronic and Computer Engineering, graduated in 2017.

I've been looking around online and would quite like to use the current sitting-at-home-doing-nothing time usefully, and would like to look at doing a CompTia A+ and further qualifications.

What I'm struggling with is to find reliable online resources to study towards these. Does anyone have any recommendations for resources? I study better with a mix of reading and online simulation/practice questions etc.

Any advice very much appreciated

Many Thanks

 

[dlockers]

CBTnuggets - CCNA. Such a cornerstone of GOOD IT knowledge. Couple it with a MS Server qualification and you'll be very well armed.

Did you work for Spindlewood?

 

[hellarda]

Cheers - I think I watched some CBT youtube videos years ago. Presumably their online resources are highly regarded for the cost?

I did not - I've always been freelance, and specifically done networks for sound systems and VLAN'ing for lighting/video/comms networks etc. I've not been involved in specific event wifi etc.

 

[Zefan]

I don't mean to be *that guy* but my biggest piece of advice would be to get your independent research game on point, there's really quite a lot of information out there about IT certs/training. You need to be able to Google your way out of trouble a lot in IT! As for CompTIA:

A+ I used a combination Professor messer (free YouTube videos, very good and in the exam objectives order) and Pluralsight.

Network+ I exclusively used used Mike Meyers, different style of instructing and not in the exam objectives order (can make studying a little more complex than it needs to be) but it did the job.

Security+ I returned to Professor Messer, but I already had CCNA Cyber Ops by that point so it wasn't quite as necessary. I did quite a bit of googling around on topics he didn't cover in too much depth.

If your main goal is networks, but you already know general hardware/principles enough that the A+ objectives look simple I'd go straight for the new CCNA. It's been downgraded in a way from what it has been in years past. In comparison to Network+ it was less about overall concepts and the Network Engineer role and more focused on "pure" networking in terms of routing, switching, network services and exactly how one configures Cisco devices. Now, it's been made more wide and less deep, now including wireless, security, voice and automation, which used to be entirely different CCNA paths or just didn't exist at all. The more in depth "pure" networking knowledge has now been moved up to CCNP. With that in mind, it now has more in common with Network+, while maintaining a more practical chops focus and having more weight to the name.

If you fancy yourself a Microsoft/systems guy, bear in mind that one of most important certs in IT - the MCSA - is being retired in January. From what I can tell (spent two days at their UK HQ last month on training/careers day) it seems that they're extremely keen to move customers away from on-premises use of their products and in to cloud services. They're focusing a lot on these certifications (they call them "Role Based" as opposed to "technology based") and have stated outright that no certification will be released for server following MCSA's retirement. It might sound like the MCSA would be a waste of time, however job ads are still listing certs that retired a decade ago, so this one isn't going to leave any IT hiring manager's mindshare for a long time. They were going to retire it in July, however they've now pushed it back to January, which gives anyone enough time, especially with lockdown.

:edit: for practice questions, use Crucialexams and Examcompass. They're definitely nowhere near as fluffy and scenario based as the real exams, but they are a really good aid.

 

[Ev0]

Further to the above and the comments on moving away from traditional 'on prem' systems, take a look at the education that AWS and Azure offer as there's free courses available out there to get you going.

 

[hellarda]

I don't mean to be *that guy* but my biggest piece of advice would be to get your independent research game on point, there's really quite a lot of information out there about IT certs/training. You need to be able to Google your way out of trouble a lot in IT! As for CompTIA:

A+ I used a combination Professor messer (free YouTube videos, very good and in the exam objectives order) and Pluralsight.

Network+ I exclusively used used Mike Meyers, different style of instructing and not in the exam objectives order (can make studying a little more complex than it needs to be) but it did the job.

Security+ I returned to Professor Messer, but I already had CCNA Cyber Ops by that point so it wasn't quite as necessary. I did quite a bit of googling around on topics he didn't cover in too much depth.

If your main goal is networks, but you already know general hardware/principles enough that the A+ objectives look simple I'd go straight for the new CCNA. It's been downgraded in a way from what it has been in years past. In comparison to Network+ it was less about overall concepts and the Network Engineer role and more focused on "pure" networking in terms of routing, switching, network services and exactly how one configures Cisco devices. Now, it's been made more wide and less deep, now including wireless, security, voice and automation, which used to be entirely different CCNA paths or just didn't exist at all. The more in depth "pure" networking knowledge has now been moved up to CCNP. With that in mind, it now has more in common with Network+, while maintaining a more practical chops focus and having more weight to the name.

If you fancy yourself a Microsoft/systems guy, bear in mind that one of most important certs in IT - the MCSA - is being retired in January. From what I can tell (spent two days at their UK HQ last month on training/careers day) it seems that they're extremely keen to move customers away from on-premises use of their products and in to cloud services. They're focusing a lot on these certifications (they call them "Role Based" as opposed to "technology based") and have stated outright that no certification will be released for server following MCSA's retirement. It might sound like the MCSA would be a waste of time, however job ads are still listing certs that retired a decade ago, so this one isn't going to leave any IT hiring manager's mindshare for a long time. They were going to retire it in July, however they've now pushed it back to January, which gives anyone enough time, especially with lockdown.

:edit: for practice questions, use Crucialexams and Examcompass. They're definitely nowhere near as fluffy and scenario based as the real exams, but they are a really good aid.

No no thank you for the detailed response - I've done a bit of looking around but as the most sound and sincere advice imo comes from here - I thought I'd ask!

I've had a look through the A+ course objectives and I'd say apart from a few gaps (specific terms/acronyms etc.) about 75% of the material.

I've looked into the CCNA before, but the refreshed course does look interesting.

I'm not really sure which route I want to go down - your point about the MCSA makes sense, and seems like it would be sensible to do before it becomes impossible. I'd presumably need to get a virtualisation environment to practice for these? Not being part of an institution I assume the student support/lab trials etc would be unavailable to me? Plural sight looks good - I've signed up to the free week to have a play around with it.

I probably need to put some more thought into the direction I'd want to head in - just want to use my time in lockdown to further and develop some new skills and get some qualifications under my belt

 

[Hellsmk2]

A good starting place for Azure is the AZ900 Fundamentals course.

Ms have a boat load of free content for it already out there, and the exam isn't too taxing. MS also run monthly events you can sign up for free training days, with exams often thrown in FOC at the end.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/events/training-days/

I don't think you need to work for a partner for the training days. They're well worth it, especially if the corresponding exam is thrown in.

If you go down the azure route, you can sign up for a free account so you have an environment to play with.

 

[hellarda]

I've signed up for the CBT Nuggets free week and worked through a few of the MCSA videos with the virtual labs, and really enjoying it so may aim to get most of one exam content completed at least in the next few weeks.

Will check out the azure stuff and training bits too!

Really enjoying the CBT way of teaching some stuff - although I think it'd probably help getting my head around PowerShell a bit