I was a little stressed about it last night but in the end I got 790 out of 900 (about 88%) so it was not as bad as I was fearing. There were several things I knew I was kind of weak on, but I felt confident on enough of the rest that I would be OK.
So the question now is what do I do next? I am going to sit down with my boss and his boss next week to see what direction they think I should go in but I welcome any and all ideas. Within the realm of IT, or course.
I am kind of interested in learning some developing/web programming as a change of pace. It seems like a lot of people go from A+ to N+ to Microsoft certs and MCSE/MCSA but I’m not sure I’m reading to go down the M$ route just yet (I do have my A+ also).
As for what’s next, that’s probably going to depend on what your employer wants as much as anything else. If you don’t want to head into the Microsoft certs, there’s always Cisco.
Where do you want to go from here? Do you see yourself specializing in the care and feeding of Windows servers or an Exchange system? That’s probably the time to delve into the MS certs. Or tending to routers, switches and all those cables? You’d probably want to work on something from Cisco. Security’s always in demand as well. A Security+ cert wouldn’t hurt, and you need a strong foundation in networking for it anyway - a Network+ is a good (and commonly recommended) first step before going for Security+.
DudleyGarrett, the exam was multiple choice and there were some questions on protocols, ports, Netware and UNIX/LINUX, lots of wireless questions, but not much on subnetting (thankfully) and not as many situational questions as I was expecting.
gotpasswords, I am thinking of looking into Security+. That is something that interests me, security and hacking in general. I am also interested in some basic web programming like Javascript, php, more backend website building but some webpage designing, too. That might be something to just do besides whatever cert I am working on.
It feels great to be moving through some certs now. I have been in the industry for several years and just have not been motivated enough to study, but now I am finding that I actually enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when I finish the cert and that is a good motivator for me.
