IT certifications

[karl101 10]

I think your better off looking at the type of courses that give a wider overview, such as ITIL for IT problem solving or Prince2 for project management.

 

The problem with all these foundation level courses is that they're designed to be hard to fail. So the value of them when looking for job is quite low, another problem, especially the Microsoft based ones, is that they also become out of date very quickly.

 

K.

[neeeeeeeeeek 10]

MCDST expires in June but loads of places will still be requesting it for a long time yet. It's replaced with the MCITP which I have got and I can't say people have been fighting over me since I was awarded it!

[A Southwell 10]

We are currently looking for IT trained staff to do desk based research; we work on behalf of a number of IT companies across the country so need people who know what the difference between hosting and cloud is and can talk fluently about virtualisation for instance. We are offering training in Cisco, VMWare and MS to people who fit the bill. I've just posted the ad on SF jobs section.

[GrinderBloke 10]

I think your better off looking at the type of courses that give a wider overview, such as ITIL for IT problem solving or Prince2 for project management.

 

The problem with all these foundation level courses is that they're designed to be hard to fail. So the value of them when looking for job is quite low, another problem, especially the Microsoft based ones, is that they also become out of date very quickly.

 

K.

 

ITIL & Prince2 tend to be used in larger organisations, such as local & regional government and currently they are not recruiting.

[liam1412 14]

Besides ITIL and prince2 are not really related to the field I am looking at getting into. I had a brief stint in change management and was bored stiff :-)

[fnkysknky 10]

If you're after going in to networking then it makes sense to do the CCNA based course. With regard to if it's worth anything without any certs below it then I'd say yes it is although actually there's not much below it (in Cisco speak there's the CCENT but that's bordering on pointless). If you really want to get in to the networking industry then I'd suggest getting yourself a support role in a networking based company and work your way up from there, in the past I've hired based on experience rather than certs and still would/will as you learn a hell of a lot more doing something than reading about it.

 

Realistically if you want to get in to the networking field you'll have to accept that you'll probably have to start in support and it won't pay amazingly well as there's plenty of people capable of doing the job who really want to (there's some exceptions but they're few and far between). If you're really good there's nothing saying you can't progress quickly in both responsibility and salary and you may not need those certs (depending on employer). What I would say is that it only go in to this line of work if you have a real interest in the field, if you're just looking at doing the CCNA to get a decent paid job then don't as you'll be found out early on.

 

If you are interested in a 1st Line role at a local ISP then we're actually looking for new members of our 1st Line team at present, see http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=760622 and if you'd prefer to look elsewhere then CW Jobs is usually reasonable for IT recruitment, see http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/. If you are interested in networking I'd say go for it, it can be a really enjoyable career if you have a passion for it however if you don't you're likely to be bored to tears very quickly!