CompTIA and other certs in the UK

[Taylor7500]

Looking to get started in a career in IT, and the usual no experience means no job and no job means no experience loop is being a bit rough. I figure if I can get some certs to my name that could help my odds and really prove to employers that I know my stuff rather than them having to take my word for it (degree in a hard STEM subject with some focus on computing, but not computer science).

My question is this, are the CompTIA core certs of A+, Network+, and Security+ in any kind of demand in the UK market? From what I can tell they're more in demand in the US but I still see one or two people saying they're important here, and a few of those training schemes seem to focus on getting the CompTIA certs covered before they try farm you out to one of their clients.

If I'd be better off pursuing other certs, then I'd much appreciate it if you could tell me which ones are in demand or which ones are worth looking at to help get my foot in the door.

 

[Taylor7500]

Fair enough, much appreciated. Just figured I'd ask since getting the three core ones will cost the best part of £1000 and in my position that's no small amount to lose if I'd be better off getting a Microsoft or Cisco one etc.

 

[Taylor7500]

It's not that I'm not willing, but it's literally months of my income to be able afford the full set so I'd rather be sure to get the right ones than spend so much on one set and have them be worthless.

 

[Taylor7500]

Yes, and in my current (and admittedly not great) job, after costs to keep on going, I don't have a lot of cash left over to spend on myself.

In any event, it's not chump change to buy the four exam papers to get the three core subjects covered so I just figured I'd ask in case people were going to tell me that CompTIA is trash and people are looking for MS certs, or something like that.

 

[Taylor7500]

Apologies I didn't spot you were talking all 3. As I said - start with 1, get yourself a first line gig. Things may get worse before they get better but your trajectory will be fairly unconstrained providing you have the knack.

No worries, I appreciate the advice either way. Yeah I figure it's worth looking at the A+ first and going from there. Pretty sure I know my stuff but definitely worth going over the course content properly to make sure there's not something I've skipped over. After that I guess it's just, like you say, getting a starter job in the industry and go from there.

I suppose the big question is that if I wanted to develop from something like IT support to something more involved like programming a few years down the line is that a viable transition? Or is it a no-go?

 

[Taylor7500]

Fair enough, thanks for the information. I did learn some basic programming for my degree but it was definitely taught in the scope of making a simulation to do science with it rather than for IT industry standard, so even though I can apply it to make things work and complete the basic programming challenges that certain job apps will send you before the interview, I have blind spots all over for things which were outside the scope of my degree.

Still, for now as you say I suppose the important thing is getting a foot in the door and getting onto the ladder, and worrying about what comes next from there.

 

[Taylor7500]

Appreicate it - I did try those and did reasonably well, but unfortunately just fell short. I remember one company I was in the top ten but they were only hiring eight and I just missed it.

Still, no point wallowing - I'll keep on looking around for those as well. Thanks.

 

[Taylor7500]

is there a particular reason why you're being vague though - what STEM subject and what focus on computing?

Apologies - just general internet caution. My degree subject was physics. There was a second year programming module about making an N body simulation of the solar system under gravity, in java. That was fairly basic and was more about whether we could translate physics equations into code. The third year course was to simulate a particle accelerator and was all about inheritance and the basics around that, as well as polymorphism etc. My masters project was also a simulation of an ongoing experiment at fermilab - unfortunately I didn't write the simulation myself (time constraints of a masters vs a PhD or actual job) so it was more about putting in the data, understanding how it worked, and going from there. I was unfortunately scuppered when the author of the simulation left his job and the country before he was able to send me the source code. Also did an internship with some basic C++ stuff - more simulations and data analysis.

As far as I can tell, I know the basics and I understand the logic of it all which is a good base to build on, but as I say this was always taught in the scope of a physics application so I have blind spots all over - for instance at an interview I was doing well until I was asked about deadlocking and I just didn't know the first thing about it, which was never a pleasant position to be in.

Application support type roles would be a bit different - you don't really need comptia stuff for these, more useful is stuff like say a good knowledge of SQL and Unix in order to query the relevant application database, look at what processes are running and search logs etc...

Yeah, I've been learning some SQL just from online resources, and have asked my boss at my current job to see if I can access our DB with SQL rather than the web interface - that's in the works, but on the CV as far as I can tell just saying I've done an online course in SQL is unlikely to mean anything so if there's a cert or some kind of recognised thing I can go for then I'll definitely look into it.

Try again. I know for certain they are absolutely desperate.

Thank you, I'll take a look.

 

[Taylor7500]

Apologies if i've missed it but how long ago did you graduate?

A physics degree is way more valuable than any entry level CompTIA cert, especially if you want to get into programming (I did those entry level certs because I didn't finish my degree!). There should be plenty of junior programming/development roles and grad schemes desperate for graduates like yourself, try not to worry too much about what you don't know, the whole point of junior roles is to fill in those gaps, just go for it.

No, I didn't mention it. Unfortunately it's been a while now - graduated in 2018. So I'm not entirely sure if it's too late or not. I have been applying to a fair few entry level jobs and schemes where I could find them, but ultimately got a few interviews but no related job there. Current job sounds good on the CV and as I say I'm trying to wrangle some SQL on there too but it's also not a career move.

 

[Taylor7500]

Yuck, they made you do that in java??? That would be horrible for any numerical stuff, they were torturing you!

I'll be honest, I actually quite liked Java. I know that's not a popular opinion, and I was in literally the last year to do it (everyone after me did it in Python instead), but I like that Java is much more explicit in a lot of places than Python, if that makes sense. I have toyed with Python and C# and a few other bits but that was mostly for interviews so I'd know what I was talking about.

I want to make projects but I don't really know how to turn a few java class files (or files from other languages) into a fully fledged thing that doesn't require you to manually run it through the command line and process all the data there. One of my blind spots - I expect it's doable and as an absolute beginner I'd be surprised if there weren't pre-made libraries and packages to toy with to get things up and running.

I mean if you're employed already and can do a bit of SQL (maybe some data analysis etc..?) in your current role do not go and get some random IT support job if your goal is actually to become a developer or something along those lines, I honestly can't see any benefit in doing that.

The job I have is data QA for a financial services software startup. I can market that on the CV of course but the actual day-to-day is just finding entries which are broken, and fixing them, part-time. Currently done on a web interface but like I say I'm trying to get SQL set up so I can work on that (and have SQL in a professional capacity on the CV), but the boss is on holiday and we've had issues with credentials so it's on hold for now.

So if I had to pick a language to learn and try make projects with, would you say that Python is the way to go? Or would C++ be it, or...? I'm certainly all for developing skills and trying to learn what I need, but I don't know what I don't know, so if there's a recommended route to get the fundamentals and fill in blind spots that I may have even for entry level positions, then I'd be very interested in hearing it. Similarly if I'd be better off finding certs in a particular programming language rather than bothering with CompTIA then I'd be interested in knowing if there are any in demand.

In any event, I very much appreciate your advice on this - it's been very helpful.

 

[Taylor7500]

Fair enough. Yeah I quite understand you weren't criticising Java but it's things like why it's not recommended for data processing which is where I have blind spots. Mind you it was root (a C++ based analysis framework) and Mathematica I actually used for hard data analysis so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I suppose I'm best off finding a fundamentals course and just dealing with the 80% of it I know so that I can get the 20% I don't.


Thanks for the pointer. I can see that Udacity does cost some money indeed - not impossibly expensive but as per the original thread it's not something where I can afford to choose the wrong course. Out of interest, do any other online courses in this sort of thing (everything from EdX to everything else) count for anything at all on the CV or are they about on par with just saying I'm good at something and hoping they'll believe me?

I've done little bits and bobs in my free time from (free) online courses in various programming languages to writing a 200 page wiki for a mod to a game I like but I always discount that sort of thing as airy nonsense. But if I'm wrong and every little helps then that's worth knowing.

 

[Taylor7500]

Just make sure to make it clear they are MOOC certificates don't just stick "Stanford university" down on your CV and make it look like you actually enrolled in some credit-bearing short course.

Yeah while I know the CV is all about marketing myself I do try my best to stay firmly no ******** with it. Best for everyone that way.

Though why would you need to "hope" they believe you though if you say you're good at something? We're talking about programming so you could always just stick stuff on GitHub so they can see for themselves.

Fair point. I suppose I'm long overdue actually putting things onto a GitHub account to prove my stuff. Well, I've been meaning to rewrite the N body simulator I made in Java as part of my degree in C++ so I guess I'll start with that.