IT Courses

Danzal

Danzal

Danzal

Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2012
Posts
45
Im thinnking of a change of career and was looking at a comptia A+ distantance learning course. This is though the learning people. Has anybody had any experience with them and is that a good course to go for?

Cheers :)
 
In my experience, you get what you pay for. The cheap courses are cheap for a reason. comptia A+ is useful but it's rarely a "required" qualification unless there's a long list of other required skills.

Also, only do distance learning if you know that you have the willpower to do the study on your own. I don't therefore I always go for residential courses preferably with exams at the end.
 
A+ is a an okay grounding but plan ahead to where you want to be and then pick the qualification path you need to get there.

If you're anyway decent with computers at the moment you'd probably waltz the A+ so may be worth trying a sample test or something first.
 
Im thinking of maybe the repair/maintenance side of things. I enjoy trying to figure out whats wrong with a comp (hardware or software) and fixing it.
So that what im aiming at doing. Im not bad with a computer at the moment, ive just had no formal training.
 
I am in the same boat. I have been looking at comptia network+. But because of family issues I find the distance learning will be almost impossible. For me I looked at the networking diagrams here. There are two paths . One appears to be microsoft and one cisco. Seems to me that cisco is the way to go. I could always get microsoft later on.

http://www.nitlc.com/it-courses/options/

My mate in Ireland who is a toral stoner got his comptia network+ and started getting decent paid contract work after that. It was him that turned me onto it. I like tech and would like to work in tech induatry. I thought i wanted to program but got some city guilds in 99 c++, prolog, visual basic but nwver used it. Then did a degree course in 2005 but left in year two. The course was too broad. But networking does interest me and my current job though well paid is pretty tedious and not much op for moving on. At least with networking you can keep climbing the ladder and the skills are transmittable to any company.
 
Most certs you can self study for. The A+ included. Buy the textbook from Amazon and then you can study in your own time and then just pay to take the test. Its far cheaper than doing a course.
 
I'm working towards my A+ at the moment, it's not difficult stuff and if you're into tetchy stuff then most of it should come to you pretty naturally. At the risk of sounding like a nerd I love learning about the older 286's etc and how they developed as this was the time I started getting into computing and most of it is like "oh yeah I remember that!"

Planning on doing my Network+ afterwards. The good thing about the COMPtia qualifications is that they are non vendor specific and won't tie you down to a specific route just yet.

Let us know how you get on, good luck.
 
Wouldn't really bother with those Certs for just supporting or networking jerbs. Try doing some ms exams which are cheap and can put them on your cv however i would think of a different area in IT other than support.
 
Thanks for all the advice, think ill do as you say and get the books and study myself. I looking into price and i would be saving loads.
 
swillsy said:
Wouldn't really bother with those Certs for just supporting or networking jerbs. Try doing some ms exams which are cheap and can put them on your cv however i would think of a different area in IT other than support.
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Do you have any suggestions of what other areas would be good to look at. I really am looking at something where i can keep progressing .
:)
 
You generally start at the bottom in some form of support role which is were you start to gain your experience/skills. Its good to have a target area but often this will change as you progress in your career.
 
its difficult tbh as it all depends what you COULD learn to be good at. Its good just looking at the itjobboard for example and seeing all the different job roles then looking at the cv required for those roles and what you can do to get the same experience.

I cannot program in C++ so I tend to learn more T-SQL / vba stuff as well as attempting to carry on java in my spare time. Although the role i'm in at the moment isn't very technical so more project/release management.
 
Im thinking that the lack of experience could be my downfall. Im very keen to learn and will do all the courses that i can but will companies stiil look at me with no work experience?
 
catch 22, you need experience for a job but no one will give you a job to get experience.

you need to make yourself stand out from the rest. many employers now look more for the right person rather than them having loads of certs.
 
You can always jump onto a service desk job to start off in IT as they are hiring all the time. You can get a good idea of how IT works in big companies and may help you decide a long term plan. Don't stay too long doing it though!
 
Service desk is almost always the only way in for uncertified/inexperienced people, you can increase your chances of landing these jobs by showing desire to learn and self studying certs. comptia A+, N+ and Microsoft client MCPs such as Windows 7, 8 and Office would help.

MW
 
Cheers for all your advice peps, its really helped a lot!!!
one last thing, working on a service desk what is the average wage for the position?
 
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