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Ask HN: Do people hire for A+ certification

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Re: Ask HN: Do people hire for A+ certification

#21

Post by CodeGlitch »

euph0ria wrote: post #19

Are there an certifications that are valuable from an employment perspective for software engineers?

I'm looking to get Network+, not sure about employment perspective but it has filled in a few gaps in my knowledge that I didn't have working as a software engineer. For example how global internet routing works.

Re: Ask HN: Do people hire for A+ certification

#22

Post by exdsq »

mikecarlton wrote: post #20

I have no exposure to the A+ program, so apologies if this is obvious. A friend's kid right out of high school is going through the Google IT certification program ( https://grow.google/programs/it-support/ ). Do the programs overlap at all? Is the Google program as useful as the A+? Being newer, is the Google program more relevant to the industry now?

You're probably right, this program looks great and reflects how the industry has changed since A+ towards cloud-based systems. Shame though - people tend to come to IT because they like playing with their computer and A+ was a natural stepping strong from that to administrating a computer. It was like the Hobby->JuniorProfessional stepping stone.

Re: Ask HN: Do people hire for A+ certification

#23

Post by qorrect »

tryitnow wrote: post #10
underseacables wrote: post #5

I got my A, Net, and Security + right after high school and i REALLY helped me to earn a living. Lots of technicians work, cabling, labor setting up servers etc It was a spring board that helped me get into a financial position to go to university where I studied IT. If I hadn’t gone the college route I wanted to do CCNA, and CISP. Certs are absolutely worth it and a pathway forward into a career

This path makes a lot of sense to me - I'm curious though - why do you think more people don't pursue these certs early on in life?

I also did it right after high school, it's good knowledge to have if nothing else.

Re: Ask HN: Do people hire for A+ certification

#24

Post by ShakataGaNai »

While A+ is considered a very very basic certification, it will help get you in the door the first time around. If you've got absolutely no experience to your name in the IT field, it will be helpful. It shows you studied and have learned some things about IT, you aren't totally useless. There is a big difference between "No IT experience" and "Doesn't know USB from HDMI". A+ will help push you over that level of scary lack of knowledge.

Once you're in the field and have some experience, then it's not terribly helpful. Same is true of any basic end certificate. Though some companies do require such things for insurance or compliance reasons.

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