What IT Certifications are best suited for me?

Most people, even some of those in IT, get confused and/or overwhelmed by the whole Certification process. Well, I am here to sort it out for you. First, you have to assess your situation- i.e. current documentable work experience, products/applications you work with, educational background, your particular job market and what kind of connections you have already in IT positions. Notice I said current documentable work experience, if you have been away from IT for more than 6 months you need to be realistic with yourself. A lot of changes occur in 6 months (you get duller and rounder and IT gets sharper and more streamlined). Here is a question to consider: Are the products and applications you are familiar with mainstream? Microsoft, UNIX, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe or are they Industry specific applications? What kind of education do you have? Have you been exposed to particular technologies? Do you have a good understanding of Networking, Scripting, or Querying? How are your people skills? In your job search, what skill sets have you found companies are looking for? What are the requirements? Experience level? Do they require Certifications?




Once you know where you are in the big scheme of things, you need to decide what fits your current situation. If you are a green IT person looking for work, do not waste your time or the companies’ time by applying to a Network Security Administrator position for which you are not qualified. That is a good lofty goal, but grab the low hanging fruit first - everyone has to start somewhere. Aim for the entry level PC Tech, IT Support, Bench Tech, or Help Desk positions to get your feet wet.



Research jobs to find out if you meet requirements and can perform listed job duties. The majority of entry-level positions require an A+ Certification. Even if they do not require an A+, it is still an excellent way to get noticed ahead of your competition. CompTIA A+ certification validates one’s skills and abilities to perform PC/Laptop upgrades, hardware/software installation and troubleshooting. Microsoft uses A+ and Network+ as prerequisites for other, more technical certifications. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician Certification (MCDST) is also a relevant path to pursue. The MCDST will teach a beginning IT Professional how to manage users running Windows desktops and applications, which could be close to 100% of the end-users in your market.



Are you a new college grad with an A.S. or B.S. in Computer Networking Systems? Or Information Technology Security? Are you ready to tackle something new and to work in your chosen field? Do you want to have more than an expensive piece of paper hanging on the wall? The best way to get yourself noticed is to earn a Certification because it will make you stand out among all other applicants. While the A+ is always the initial Certification for most, IT professionals pass it up. This is not an practice I would recommend.



One can look into obtaining the CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+, Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), or Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP); these will take a little bit more effort. Network+ teaches skills enabling you to set up a network for a small to medium business. It covers topics such as: OSI model, TCP/IP Protocols, troubleshooting, fault tolerance, remote and wide area network (WAN) connectivity. Security+ will provide understanding into the field of network security and how it relates to other areas of information technology by covering topics such as: Intrusion detection, Cryptography, Security baselines and Computer Forensics. You should earn an A+ and Net+, or at least the equivalent knowledge of the content covered in A+ and Net+ before taking the Security+. Security+ lays the foundation leading to specialized security certifications. CCNA is a highly respected, sought after certification; Cisco maintains about an 80% market share in the routers and switches arena and plans to add 1.7 million CCNA’s by 2010. The CCNA validates the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-size routed and switched networks, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN. The Microsoft Certified Professional or MCP certification is designed to help the future Network/System Administrator get familiar with the Windows Server environment and explains how to manage and maintain Windows Server 2003.



If you are a seasoned IT Professional with a lot of chops, but still feel you want more knowledge, need to update your skill sets, or better position yourself in future negotiations regarding promotions and salary increases, you can look beyond some of the entry-level certifications I mentioned above. Ask yourself the questions and assess where you are currently and what career goals are you looking to accomplish? What does your current job entail? What are your job duties and responsibilities? If you are looking for advancement the best way to validate your abilities and knowledge is to earn a certification in your particular discipline. Certifications validate your knowledge of best practices, skills, and your familiarity with the tools to make your network and IT department run at its optimum level. The payback for your and your employer is higher morale, less stress, a pleasant work environment, and higher wages.

What Certification do I need to get a job?

Most people, even some of those in IT, get confused and/or overwhelmed by the whole Certification process. Well, I am here to sort it out for you. First, you have to assess your situation- i.e. current documentable work experience, products/applications you work with, educational background, your particular job market and what kind of connections you have already in IT positions. Notice I said current documentable work experience, if you have been away from IT for more than 6 months you need to be realistic with yourself. A lot of changes occur in 6 months (you get duller and rounder and IT gets sharper and more streamlined). Here is a question to consider: Are the products and applications you are familiar with mainstream? Microsoft, UNIX, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe or are they Industry specific applications? What kind of education do you have? Have you been exposed to particular technologies? Do you have a good understanding of Networking, Scripting, or Querying? How are your people skills? In your job search, what skill sets have you found companies are looking for? What are the requirements? Experience level? Do they require Certifications?

Once you know where you are in the big scheme of things, you need to decide what fits your current situation. If you are a green IT person looking for work, do not waste your time or the companies’ time by applying to a Network Security Administrator position for which you are not qualified. That is a good lofty goal, but grab the low hanging fruit first - everyone has to start somewhere. Aim for the entry level PC Tech, IT Support, Bench Tech, or Help Desk positions to get your feet wet.

Research jobs to find out if you meet requirements and can perform listed job duties. The majority of entry-level positions require an A+ Certification. Even if they do not require an A+, it is still an excellent way to get noticed ahead of your competition. CompTIA A+ certification validates one’s skills and abilities to perform PC/Laptop upgrades, hardware/software installation and troubleshooting. Microsoft uses A+ and Network+ as prerequisites for other, more technical certifications. Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician Certification (MCDST) is also a relevant path to pursue. The MCDST will teach a beginning IT Professional how to manage users running Windows desktops and applications, which could be close to 100% of the end-users in your market.

Are you a new college grad with an A.S. or B.S. in Computer Networking Systems? Or Information Technology Security? Are you ready to tackle something new and to work in your chosen field? Do you want to have more than an expensive piece of paper hanging on the wall? The best way to get yourself noticed is to earn a Certification because it will make you stand out among all other applicants. While the A+ is always the initial Certification for most, IT professionals pass it up. This is not an practice I would recommend.

One can look into obtaining the CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+, Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), or Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP); these will take a little bit more effort. Network+ teaches skills enabling you to set up a network for a small to medium business. It covers topics such as: OSI model, TCP/IP Protocols, troubleshooting, fault tolerance, remote and wide area network (WAN) connectivity. Security+ will provide understanding into the field of network security and how it relates to other areas of information technology by covering topics such as: Intrusion detection, Cryptography, Security baselines and Computer Forensics. You should earn an A+ and Net+, or at least the equivalent knowledge of the content covered in A+ and Net+ before taking the Security+. Security+ lays the foundation leading to specialized security certifications. CCNA is a highly respected, sought after certification; Cisco maintains about an 80% market share in the routers and switches arena and plans to add 1.7 million CCNA’s by 2010. The CCNA validates the ability to install, configure, operate, and troubleshoot medium-size routed and switched networks, including implementation and verification of connections to remote sites in a WAN. The Microsoft Certified Professional or MCP certification is designed to help the future Network/System Administrator get familiar with the Windows Server environment and explains how to manage and maintain Windows Server 2003.

If you are a seasoned IT Professional with a lot of chops, but still feel you want more knowledge, need to update your skill sets, or better position yourself in future negotiations regarding promotions and salary increases, you can look beyond some of the entry-level certifications I mentioned above. Ask yourself the questions and assess where you are currently and what career goals are you looking to accomplish? What does your current job entail? What are your job duties and responsibilities? If you are looking for advancement the best way to validate your abilities and knowledge is to earn a certification in your particular discipline. Certifications validate your knowledge of best practices, skills, and your familiarity with the tools to make your network and IT department run at its optimum level. The payback for your and your employer is higher morale, less stress, a pleasant work environment, and higher wages.

IT Certification Practice Exams Could Kill Your Career

The IT certification study guides found on websites such as TestKing and Pass4Sure are offered illegally, and certification agencies such as Microsoft and CompTIA are cracking down on individuals who knowingly or unknowingly use those sites to prepare for exams.

By Linda Musthaler

August 28, 2008 — Network World — Would you compromise your personal integrity for $80? How about risk your IT career for $200? Of course not, you say. But you already have—if you've ever used certification-examination "study materials" from TestKing, Pass4Sure or hundreds of test-preparation Web sites just like them.

Anyone who has ever prepared to take an IT certification test has come across these so-called "study aides" posted online. These sites advertise high-quality practice questions and answers that prepare you to take the real test. The problem is that more often than not, the "practice" materials are the real deal—the actual questions and answers for tests offered by Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, HP, CompTIA and dozens of other certifying agencies.

Given that these agencies never provide such detailed preparatory materials online or otherwise, we know these materials are offered for sale or use illegally. In other words, they are stolen goods. And now that the companies that create and own the tests have a virtually foolproof way to know whether you've used illegal materials when you take an exam, getting caught cheating could wreck your career.

The vendors and third-party agencies that offer IT certifications are cracking down on cheaters to preserve the value in certification. They have to. Technical credentials are still a valuable measure of the knowledge and skills that individuals possess. If rampant cheating on certification exams went unchecked, employers would doubt the validity of the credentials listed on résumés and employment applications. Salaries would drop, and the IT profession as a whole would suffer.

Comparing certification-test cheating to the illegal drug trade, one IT vendor with a certification program told me it's almost impossible to shut down the purveyors of the illegal exam materials because they are mostly in countries that don't respect U.S. copyright laws for intellectual property. TestKing, for instance, is thought to be rooted in Pakistan. Because they can't eliminate the sources of the illegal materials (the "pushers"), the certifying agencies will try to eliminate the demand (the "users").

Every time an individual takes a certification exam online, there are digital "fingerprints" that identify how long that person took to answer each question, whether he went back and changed any answers, and so on. Using data-forensics techniques, this digital evidence is analyzed for every exam taken. With incredible accuracy, the forensics reveal patterns that identify cheaters. Even inadvertent cheaters—those who didn't know they used illegal preparatory materials—can be caught, but they are not distinguished from people who cheat intentionally. As a representative from Microsoft Learning recently said, cheating is cheating across the board.
Policies on exam security vary from one certifying agency to the next, but many vendors and third-party agencies are stiffening the penalties for policy violations. For instance, Microsoft recently announced it would impose a lifetime ban from its certification program for anyone caught cheating—even if it was unintentional. So, buying and using a "study guide" from TestKing, taking an exam, and having the forensics identify you as a cheater could get you stripped of all your Microsoft certifications. If you work for a Microsoft reseller that is required to employ certified professionals to be an authorized Microsoft partner, your employer could choose to replace you.

The ramifications get even broader. The IT Certification Council wants to create a certification clearinghouse where all certifying agencies would report which credentials an individual holds. Current or prospective employers could verify a person's credentials through the clearinghouse, just as they can check a college transcript. Conceivably it could be possible for employers to see the revocation of certification because of a cheating incident—and who wants to hire a known cheater?

The lesson in all of this is to prepare for certification exams legitimately. Use the study materials recommended by the owner of the exam. Never buy or use sample questions and answers from unauthorized sources including user forums or blogs frequented by other technical professionals.
If you do find questionable test materials posted online, let the certifying agency know. Microsoft has a tip line to report certification fraud: tctips@microsoft.com. For other agencies, write to or call the certification program or learning group. It's important to all of us that certification maintains its value. We all have a responsibility to stop fraud.

© 2007 Network World Inc.

Knoxville's IT Professionals

This post is for those who are deciding what Certifications to get. I have recently done some research on the most popular Certification test taken at our Testing Facility. You may not know, or maybe you do, but we are the only Pearson VUE testing site in the Knoxville area; we also administer test through Prometric, 1 of 2 testing centers. The research I conducted includes how many test we have administered since January 2007, and a break down of which exams or certification test were taken. I have ranked them by volume of tests taken and the numbers are as follows:

Exam__________Total
CompTIA A+____________________250
CCNA_________________________ 80
CompTIA Network+_______________59
MS 70-270 _____________________57
MS 70-291_____________________ 40
MS 70-290_____________________ 38
MS 70-272_____________________ 25
MS 70-292_____________________ 21
CCENT________________________20
Security+ ______________________18

I am a little surprised at the number or lack there of Certified IT Professionals we have here in our quickly evolving and demanding market. Cisco has plans to add 1.7 million new CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) by the end of 2010.

I look at the information I gathered during my research and can conclude one thing; we do not have enough Certified IT Professionals with certain skills. Knoxville, TN has a MSA population of 704,431 and according to Manta.com, the leading authority on company profiles, we have 20,306 companies. Of those 20k + companies 524 are in the Technology & Communications category with 85 of those being specifically IT Companies.

Someone has to manage and maintain all of those networks, fix and upgrade all of those computers, and secure all of the company’s employee and client information. Network security is becoming more and more of an in demand skill. The government is tightening restrictions on the access to the publics’ private personal information and nowhere is it more evident than in the Healthcare Industry with HIPAA and the Financial Market with Sarbanes Oxley, I will not go into it here but you can do some research if you are not familiar with either.

There is ample opportunity for those with the skills to break into the IT market with an entry level position. Also for an existing IT Professional to position themselves for advancement, which means more money, with a little commitment to obtain a much respected Certification.