I will be going back to school in 2014 to get a master’s in computer science. Back when I was in the industry (DOS 3.3 kicks ass!), A+ certification was a nice thing to put on a resume. I plan on specializing in information security and I always thought, A+ certification just covered the most rudimentary skill. How helpful would it be over the next year to get my A+ certification or would an MSCS (or just being a student in a master’s programme) trump that?
Only people I know who have A+ certifications are the PC support guys- I kind of think that it’s a pre-requisite for those kinds of jobs along with the first Microsoft cert or two.
In my experience, having a pertinent degree tends to put you right in the developer, analyst or managerial type roles right out of the gate. I haven’t really known any people with MS degrees in computer science who actually dicked around with PCs or Macs on a daily basis. Most were doing something a little more high level.
I think you’d be better off working on CCNA/CCNP Security.
An MS in CS is prepping you for a job in programming.
No programming job description I’ve read in the last decade, and I’ve read hundreds, calls for an A+.
If you are in the job market for a job that needs a masters degree, no one is going to care about certifications.
I have my MSCS, and in my experience, it flat out trumps an A+; I’d say a BS would trump it too. Personally, even if I had an A+, I wouldn’t put it on my resume because it’d come across as fluff, along the lines of “proficient in Microsoft Office” or that sort of thing.
However, IT is a field where it’s important to have your knowledge up to date, and if it’s been THAT long since you’ve been in the field, if your BS is also old, and you won’t even start working on your MS until next year and finish presumably at least 1.5-2 years after, it is probably worth persuming a cert, depending on the types of jobs you’re looking at or to show you’re making an effort to catch up on newer technology.
Realistically, though, if you’re going to look at certs, there’s definitely better options than an A+ for you. Since you’re persuing your MSCS, perhaps a developers cert like an MCPD would be a good idea, or since you want to focus on security, there’s plenty of security options as well, but I’m less familiar with those. Personally, I think most or all of those certs are trumped by relevant course work in an MS degree, but different employers look at it differently.
At the same time, though, all depending on where your recent experience and knowledge is, it may be worth getting some lower certs to get some knowledge and get into a job with the upward mobility then you can always take stuff off your resume once it’s trumped by other stuff.
I should have also have pointed out that if you have worked on computers in the past, should anyone at all tell you that they or their client need you to have an A+, you’re a $50 book and two days of study away from being able to pass the test.
It is NOT hard.
If you follow Blaster Master’s fine advice above, I’d submit that perhaps you should STUDY the material for various low-level certs (and the attendant technologies) but not bother testing for them until you’re ready to graduate. Some of those tests expire (or become obsolete) and it’d be a shame to waste money on something you’ll have to re-cert on 6 months after graduation.
I own a computer shop, and have none of them. One of my guys has an A+/network+ because it was part of his tech school curriculum.
If your sights are set on something at a master’s level in security, you probably want to be thinking about a CISSP-level certification.
An A+ or even a Security+ with a master’s degree would be like a cardiac surgeon getting a certificate in treating boo-boos.
A lot (all?) of our solution center and tech support guys have A+, but mostly because like you said, it’s part of a lot of tech school and community college curricula, not because it’s really necessary for the job or even required.
I just meant that it’s a prerequisite in the sense of if you’re actually applying for one of those jobs (and don’t have a MS), and you don’t have one, people may wonder why.
If you’re looking for jobs that actually require a master’s level education in CS, putting an A+ certification on your resume would be a disadvantage. It would be like somebody with a fresh JD bullet-pointing a tech-school paralegal certificate.
A+ has a few different specification types, but it’s primarily a basic hardware knowledge certification. It’s not rocket science, but if you don’t know your stuff, you will fail. The test is adaptive. Meaning, if you didn’t study at all about laser printer problems and you miss a question, you get hammered with laser printer questions until you get one right. I was surprised to see a few of my classmates fail out. They seemed to know their stuff. That kid you know that “knows computers” is not really that likely to pass. The test is specific, and requires specific answers, not general knowledge.
If you’re going to apply for an admin job, don’t bother. Even a CCNA can be obtained by a kid who hasn’t had to shave yet.
A+ is more user oriented. Doing break/fix work on and end user’s system. It can also be very helpful in a help desk environment.
Having an MCSE or MCSA does not mean you know everything, or even have basic knowledge of internet connectivity. I wish that I kept a list of all the irate “IT people” that called when I was a lowly tech, and had easily solvable problems. Everything from them not broadcasting the SSID for security reasons, then being puzzled they couldn’t see the network, to having the radio switch on their laptop set to off. I have actually heard shame over the phone!
If your customer is the company you work for, forget A+. If your customer is the newb in front of the PC, by all means get it.