what doors will a Microsoft certification exam open? HELP!!!?
Which really all sounds great but I know little of the It education industry and whether or not these certs. are really that valuable or make a job as attainable as what they made it seem. I realize that usually if it seems to good to be true it usually is! I would really appreciate all of your input. Thank YOu !! 🙂
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Furthering your education is good, so please do not think that I am being negative when I give you my answer.
My husband has his A+ certification. He got it over 4 years ago. Before then he went to a training program (Tek-Skills) paid over $12,000 (all in loans) but was not successful in the program because he was new to I.T and couldn’t get the full gist of everything going on.
They told him he would be able to start out with $45,000 with a A+ cert alone and even more if he got his MCSE. Well my husband ended up dropping out of the program because he felt like the instructors weren’t willing to help him, with the hands on attention they promised.
Okay so fast forward about a year. He is still interested in I.T. and still wants to pursue it. He ends up going to this 4 month program at a very small unknown trade school (Memphis Works – the program no longer exists now). He get his A+ cert but now no one will hire him for the amount he thought he would get because he still had no actual I.T. experience.
He had to start off making 8.00 per hour (4 years ago) and since then he has made job changes and found a good I.T recruiting service to work for.
They started him at 11.00 per hour and after two years and multiple assignments, his pay got raised to 15.00 an hour.
Finally, one company liked him enough to hire him on permanent and now he makes around 21.50 an hour.
Well my point is to encuorage you to take your I.T. educational process, on step at a time. I would not give those salemen $25,000 cause in the end, you will still have to have experience and the right connections to make it successfully in I.T.
If I were you, I would take one cert at a time, for instance go to New Horrizons Learning Center (google it) talk to the salesperson. Tell them you are not affiliated with any company (this makes you an independant student). Being an individual student makes your price go way down.
The A+ cert may cost $2500 to $3000, but if you are an individual, then it may only cost you $1200 to $1500 (loans are available if you need them) (even payment plan – if you get a nice salesmen).
Their classes are only 2 weeks and you can repeat it as many times as you want. Go take and pass the test, find a job, then go back to new horrizons again and take the next cert your interested in (like network +) or MCP and build on I.T. career like that.
Now my husband has maxed out on the amount he can make as a desktop support analyst and now needs to go back for his network + cert for further pay advancement.
I hope I didn’t confuse you with all the details… bottom line -don’t go to that school (per they are all for making the money). Go somewhere you have the power and control to steer your own educational process.
I go to new Horrizons Learning Center and have heard of people spending thousands of dollars on a program only to find out, they don’t like that area of I.T. – they may decide to do databases or graphic design instead of desktop support.
Once you give them your loan money for a particular program, you won’t be able to get your money back. So take it one class at a time (unless your salesmen offers a really good deal on a multiple class package). Example – one class cost 1500.00 and 3 classes cost 2000.00.
Hope this experience helps you…
God Bless…
p.s. – please don’t think i’m saying don’t get the cert cause I’m not – you need a cert to break into the industry more often than not.
