CompTIA A Plus Retraining Compared

Four separate areas of study make up a full CompTIA A+; you’re qualified as competent at A+ when you’ve passed the test for two of the four areas. Because of this, the majority of training establishments only have two of the courses on their syllabus. You’ll find that it’s necessary to have the teaching in all areas as many jobs will demand knowledge and skills of all four areas. Don’t feel pressured to complete all 4 certifications, but it seems common sense that you at least have a working knowledge of every area.

Once you start your A+ computer training course you’ll be taught how to build and repair PC’s and operate in antistatic conditions. You’ll also cover fault-finding and diagnostic techniques, both remotely and via direct access.

Should you want to work towards looking after computer networks, you should add Network+ to the CompTIA A+ training you’re doing. This will prepare you to assist you greatly in the job market. Other ones that might be interesting to you are the Microsoft networking qualifications (MCP, MCSA and MCSE).

Ensure all your accreditations are what employers want – forget programs which provide certificates that are worthless because they’re ‘in-house’.

From the viewpoint of an employer, only the top companies such as Microsoft, CompTIA, Cisco or Adobe (as an example) will get you into the interview seat. Nothing else hits the mark.

The perhaps intimidating chore of finding your first role in IT is often made easier by training colleges, through a Job Placement Assistance programme. It can happen though that people are too impressed with this facility, for it is actually not that hard for well qualified and focused men and women to secure work in the IT industry – because companies everywhere are seeking skilled employees.

Having said that, it’s important to have help and assistance with preparing a CV and getting interviews though; and we’d recommend all students to update their CV the day they start training – don’t wait until you’ve graduated or passed any exams.

Getting your CV considered is more than not being known. A decent number of junior jobs are got by students (sometimes when they’ve only just got going.)

If it’s important to you to find work near your home, then you’ll probably find that a specialist independent regional recruitment consultant or service can generally be more appropriate than the trainer’s recruitment division, as they’re far more likely to be familiar with local employment needs.

Certainly ensure you don’t conscientiously work through your course materials, just to give up and leave it up to everyone else to secure your first position. Stand up for yourself and get out there. Put the same resource into getting your first job as you did to gain the skills.

One area often overlooked by potential students weighing up a particular programme is the concept of ‘training segmentation’. This basically means the method used to break up the program for drop-shipping to you, which completely controls the point you end up at.

Individual deliveries for each training module stage by stage, as you pass each exam is how things will normally arrive. This sounds sensible, but you must understand the following:

Often, the staged breakdown prescribed by the provider doesn’t suit you. You may find it a stretch to finalise all the elements inside of their particular timetable?

The very best situation would see you getting all your study materials couriered to you right at the start; the whole caboodle! This way, nothing can happen down the line which could affect your capacity to get everything done.

One of the most important things to insist on has to be full 24×7 support through expert mentors and instructors. Too many companies only seem to want to help while they’re in the office (9am till 6pm, Monday till Friday usually) and nothing at the weekends.

Email support is too slow, and phone support is often to a call-centre which will chat nicely with you for 5 minutes to ask what the issue is and then simply send an email to an instructor – who will then call back sometime over the next 24hrs, at a time suitable for them. This is all next to useless if you’re stuck with a particular problem and can only study at specific times.

World-class organisations utilise an internet-based 24 hours-a-day service involving many support centres from around the world. You get a single, easy-to-use environment which seamlessly accesses whichever office is appropriate no matter what time of day it is: Support on demand.

Don’t accept second best when it comes to your support. Most would-be IT professionals who can’t get going properly, just need the right support system.

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