Starting a Career in IT - what qualifications to get?

[NoelCollings]

I have finally managed to get my foot in the door with IT by getting level customer service role within an IT hel center.

i really want to move forward but am unsure about what qualifications to work towards?

I have a fund of £2000 from my last employer (part of the redundancy package i got) that i can use for training.

I was thinking of doign the CompTia A+ but several colleagues here have said it is pointless and i shodul go straight to the MCDST.

I have no experience in PC support or repair, although i am learning a bit as i go in my current role.

I woudl appreciate any and all advice on what course to go for and which companies woudl be best as well. As i work full tiem i think it will have to be distance learning rather than a college course.

Thanks in advance!

[CleeIB]

Hi Noel,

As this is a general career advice board, and I don't have IT-specific experience, I can't advise you specifically.

However, there are resources on the Internet that should be able to help you. Just Googling things like "forum MCDST CompTIA" should help. Here are some sample search results:

http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/m...echnician.html
http://forum.micromart.co.uk/Topic416575.aspx
http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/c...cation-forums/
http://certcollection.org/forum/

Good luck!

[Apex]

Hi Noel,

Going for certification really depends on your long term goals. If you are just getting started with your IT career the desktop support technician exams aren't that difficult and a good start. Comptia exams can be good for beginners if you note that they are on a level where you start from 0. If you do end up starting with Comptia I would advize you to do the A+, Network+ and security+. Just a single one of those is nice, but all 3 are added value... Have a look through the list below on microsoft exams:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en...citp.aspx#tab2

[Zenzenmotto]

I will preface my suggestion with this fact, I don't have any certs yet, I only an AS in computers. From my research from what companies are looking for, A+ is the most basically certification that I see almost everyone ask for. I believe this because A+ is kind of the starting point to the IT field. From there, you can move on to anything with-in the field. MCDST focuses more on specific software troubleshooting more then hardware and how to be a DST (I have the MCDST book myself and have read through most of it to try for that cert.) A+ works on everything, hardware, basic networking software, board range of software.

I would recommend both.