MS Certification

[invidia]

I was just curious how valuable these certificates are. I could see how they are quite useful for those without a 4-year college degree, but has anyone without a college education gotten far into the IT/computer industry just by starting out being certified?

It doesn't have to be just M$, could be cisco, red hat, etc.

 

[jinduy]

A+ certified alone knocks up ur salary 10k

 

[Cruisin1]

A+... pulease stop.

You want to make money then get Cisco or Red Hat certs. They are much more valuable and if you get those its assumed you can put a fricken PC together (A+ BS). You could get a MS certs, but red hat cert or any other linux cert along with a cisco cert will get you to more desirable job... and a more fun might I add.

 

[BigJ]

Above everything else, they value experience.

College degrees and certs look good on paper, but actually knowing what you're doing is going to get you much farther. Degrees and certs get your foot in the door, that's about it.

 

[dmcgough]

If you want to make decent money and don't want grey hair at 28, don't even get into IT in the first place.

 

[Cruisin1]

Originally posted by: dmcgough
If you want to make decent money and don't want grey hair at 28, don't even get into IT in the first place.

I'm 25 and I'd say I'm making more than decent money in IT, but I am a consultant.

 

[Flyback]

I have friends with only certs (no college) who got far in IT because they had connections to get them into places. If you are well connected and have a good network of friends and contacts then you could do it, but it is likely better to get a degree if you can afford it. Transitioning between organizations will be much easier (a lot of them have set requirements) so if you ever leave the place you got in at, you won't have a hard time finding work (which you might find without a degree, regardless of experience).

 

[Journer]

i got my A+ back when i was in high school...it netted me an extra $2 /hr when i started at BB...considering i was there for 2 years it paid itself off...

 

[invidia]

It seems that the college scene isn't working out for me. The whole thing where you have to spend your first 2 years on subjects completely unrelated to your major is terrible. Plus there is a major lack of actually hands-on experience besides internships. Which most internships I seen or tried to get required you to have experience, which is incredibly ironic and stupid. But you'll have to take those non-related courses to meet the graduate requirements. So basically a certification is just proof that you KNOW your area of study, just like a 4-year degree?

 

[SampSon]

I have about 12-15 certifications from MS to cisco (depending on how you count them).
At the time I received a minimum of $1,500 per year per cert on my salary.
Most of them had very little to do with advancing my skills and more with just sitting through bs classes to get a piece of paper (much like college)

I am no longer in the IT/systems profession.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: invidia
It seems that the college scene isn't working out for me. The whole thing where you have to spend your first 2 years on subjects completely unrelated to your major is terrible. Plus there is a major lack of actually hands-on experience besides internships. Which most internships I seen or tried to get required you to have experience, which is incredibly ironic and stupid. But you'll have to take those non-related courses to meet the graduate requirements. So basically a certification is just proof that you KNOW your area of study, just like a 4-year degree?

certifications are a great way to validate what you know. don't hesitate to go after some if you want. Start with A+, Network+, etc. because they are easier to tackle and they do help polish up your resume. Once you get a feel for it and get a baseline of them, go after the harder MS ones until you are sick of it, then move onto the more prestigious certs like ccna, etc..

If you don't want to go to college, then go get certs, because its the only way to validate experience.

Also, EXPERIENCE is an important part of the job finding process. If you have 100 certs but no real world experience, you aren't going to get anything.