Questions pertaining to IT certifications

BlueRoyaL

United States2493 Posts

July 30 2012 01:29 GMT

Hello TL,

I know there's a huge number of people on here that work in the IT field. I just graduated from UW as an English major. I'm really not planning on going into teaching and have fairly recently set my mind on entering into the IT field. I've already been working for three years at the business school as an IT helpdesk consultant but this is just barely scraping the surface of the field.

I'm almost done studying for the compTIA A+ certification and will probably be looking to working an entry level position, hopefully for a bigger company like starbucks (i live really close to starbucks corporate :D)

So basically what I know is that the A+ is the most basic certification, pretty much a necessity to open doors to whatever path you want to take in IT. I'm looking to get a BS in networking/security after working a bit and saving some money. I talked with an old friend and he told me about this online university that offers great IT programs. It's called Western Governor's University and after perusing it for a bit it seems ideal for me due to its flexibility and great pricing.

What I'm really curious about is the certifications I would get upon completing the degree. I'm planning on doing the security (http://www.wgu.edu/online_it_degrees/information_technology_degree_security) and these are the certifications you get:

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA®)
Cisco Certified Network Associate Security (CCNA® Security)
Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician (CCENT)
CIW Web Design Specialist
CIW JavaScript Specialist
CIW Database Design Specialist
CIW Web Foundations Associate
CompTIA A+
CompTIA Project+
CompTIA Security+
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Windows 7, Configuration
Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Windows OS Fundamentals
Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Web Development Fundamentals
Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Software Development Fundamentals
Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) Database Administration Fundamentals

I've done some research online but I couldn't find any real good discussion about these certifications, so I was wondering if anybody here could give me some insight. Would having all these help me dramatically in finding a good job?

I almost wish I didn't go to university and just went through this program right after highschool. Although I consider many of the skills I learned as an English major to be invaluable in many aspects of life, i'm just not really sure if going into a lot of loan-debt was worth it :p

I'm not really sure if anybody here has heard of WGU, but I am really planning on trying it out. I will definitely write something about it upon completion. Hoping it's legit!

obesechicken13

United States10467 Posts

July 30 2012 01:50 GMT

That's really cool that you did an English major and are applying for IT. I know some jobs look for people to do documentation who have majors in English. No advice though.

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

July 30 2012 03:24 GMT

Are you sure that actually get those certifications and they don't just prepare you for them?

CCNA is quite widely recognized and covers your basics/fundamentals

CCNAS is also good and similar to CCNA, but focuses more on security such as port-level security, in-depth ACLs, policy based routing, authentication and authorization, packet inspection, securing internal network communications, VLANs, etc.

Don't know too much about the others in particular, but it sounds more promising than my education. I work at a datacenter now and work with scripting, databases, web development, and many other services, even though my education was like 90% Cisco-based networking + security. I kind of wish I had more education in the above things you mentioned as well though. It looks like it's pretty well rounded.

If you want to get in to heavy networking/security it looks like it would be a pretty nice start. After your CCNA/CCNAS you can work your way up into more specialized areas as shown in the below chart:

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As you can see, the CCNAS follows up the CCNA with a heavier dose of security. CCNP is heavier routing and switching, I.E. more networking, while CCNAS focuses more on everything else (although some material is mirrored from CCNA and CCNP still).

Hope that helps, good luck

BlueRoyaL

United States2493 Posts

July 30 2012 15:10 GMT

grobyc: wow that was really informative, thanks a bunch

would you happen to know of the two, networking or security, has more demand in the field? At this point, security sounds more interesting to me but if it's much easier to find a job with specialization in networking I think I may have to opt for that

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

July 30 2012 23:42 GMT

I find my they go hand in hand mostly.

It's hard to find a job that includes just security unless it's a position at a very large company and has specialists in each division, but those are typically senior positions that require extensive experience, and to get that experience your previous job would have included a balance between networking and security.

In summary, for entry level positions, I would say it's easier to get a position with a heavier focus in the networking, although there will likely be network security work included as well.

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