How much real value do certifications have?

[TheDiceman]

So here I am, looking into getting an A+ certification (at least half of which looks like a real breeze when I go through the study guide), but part of me has to wonder how much is the certification really worth? My formal education is in a completely unrelated field of study, but I have both a personal interest in the subject matter and work the service/repair side of things for a living right now (for miserable pay mind you). Do employers really look at these sort of certifications as meaningful skills?

The A+ definitely looks like the best place to start and follow it up with a ACMT certification (I am not the biggest fan of Apple, but my currently employ has given me a lot of experience with their hardware and I figure a cert would not hurt any).

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

A cert will not hurt. I know that i have gotten plenty of calls just because i have A+ and Net+ on my resume. If you dont have college or your field of study was not in the same field this is the next best thing.

My field of study was in Accounting and Business Law. I know have several PC related certs and they have done me well.

cheers,
Mak

 

[Lexluethar]

Depends on the certification, but i feel the A+ is well worth the while. I too have a degree, but it is in H/R so certifications show employers that I do know about computers. If you have a college degree in computers then some of the less known certifications won't do you as good, but you still should get some of the more popular ones.

Certifications show an employer that you know truely know the feild of study you SAY you know. In short... yes they are worth while. You just have to take into account where you want to go in your life, if you want a decent pay servicing computers then the more certifications you get the more technical of a position your company will put you into.

 

[TheDiceman]

That is nice to hear. My formal education is in English, which if I wanted to do technical writing for a living I would be **** well qualified for. Standing experience puts me with over 2 years as a repair tech (mainly laptops) with some supervisory and instruction skills and a fair bit of customer service experience among other more specialized responsibilities such as being a liaison between my company and the law firm of a major manufacturer.

I would love to add a tech school degree to my resume, but with neither the time nor money certifications are my only option at the moment.

 

[Lexluethar]

Which is fine. So this is more for hobby then anything? Since you said the goal is to make a living in writing. I only ask because it would really depend on which certification to take. See i wouldn't suggest an MCSE if you were just doing this for fun since all the exams and books along with study time would be extremely expensive.

If this is just for the thrill of learning new things, i would stick with the CompTIA exams, A+ and network+ would be good starters.

 

[veedubfreak]

From what most employers have told me, A+ is roughly equivalent to 6 months experience. Network+ and CCNA are where the money is. I'm going to have to start trudging through CCNA soon

 

[TheDiceman]

No, I do NOT want to do technical writing, I just said that it is something I could do quite well.

 

[Mobius]

To me i think a certification is very hopeful for fresh grads looking for a job with little to no experience. I have Sun Certified Java Programmer certification and during my second job's interview (i got the cert during my first job), they hardly asked me any technical questions on java. Where as, my friend who also got the same position, same company, she was alot quite alot until she couldn't answer, maybe is because of different tech leads interviewing us, but i still think it had something to do with the cert