Lusion

See I worry that I will still be unable to find a job after I get my certs because of lack of experience. I don't know how employers expect one to get experience if no one is willing to hire them to gain that experience. My friend who is a network admin for a company has offered to take me in on Fridays and teach me the ropes because as he said "CCNA will get you in the door but what will you do once your there?". That is very much true, all the certs in the world wont teach me what to do in a split second when something happens. I will look in to the A+ cert, I may even look in to the Net+ just to cover my bases. I personally think I am trying to go faster then I should. I am just anxious to leave my current job and move on to my career.

So you guys think it would be worth while to get the A+. I guess I could schedule an exam for it an get a A+ book to study prior to the exam. Volunteering at a school is a great idea, I never though about that.

Thank you both for the responses. I already have knowledge in the hardware portion of computers. I can build and diagnose hardware failures so going for A+ is rather fruitless. Here in the states I rarely see anyone requiring the A+ cert. I have decided to take a class for CCNA. A community college near me has broken the course in to 4 sections and charges $128 dollars for each section which is still rather affordable. I have opted to skip the first section since it primarily speaks on the different types of networks and terminology. I will see if this is more to my liking and if it is then I will complete the class and go for my CCNA cert. I am just really wanting to break in to the IT field and feel like I have wasted so much time doing other things. If my degree is unrelated to the IT field and now I feel like I wasted 4 years of college for nothing. Thanks again and keep the ideas coming

Hello - I just joined this forum because I am mentally stuck on which option I should take and the route I should take to get there. I am currently employed by an insurance company as a claim manager. It has no ties what so ever to the IT field but computers are my passion and everything about them I enjoy. I am interested in all fields but networking and SAN has peaked my interest. I was considering taking classes for CCNA but I have heard and read mixed reviews about getting that cert. It is Cisco based and trains you on Cisco equipment which I don't feel is right for me because thats like backing you up in to a wall. Also from looking at monster, hotjobs and careerbuilder there doesnt seem to be a high demand for those with CCNA. I honestly don't know which path to take and for some reason all the IT people I know are kind of hush hush on what they do. It's almost as though they feel that by showing me the ropes and allowing to gain some experience by shadowing them for free that it will add more competition. That's how I see it and I could be all the way wrong. Either way I am stuck, I am 27 and in a job that I hate. I don't know which school to go to because they are all costly with no guarantee that what I learn will be enough for me to pass an exam. I was considering Kaplan but they are strictly an online school. I'm more of a hands on person and learn from doing, enrolling in Kaplan is like me buying a book and doing it myself. Well if you guys can give me some feed back I would appreciate it or if you know someone in the Dallas area that can spare some time on Fridays or weekends to show an old dog some new tricks I would appreciate that as well. /rant