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Dandywalken posted:so Im currently enrolled at local community college for a Net+ course, then a CCNA one next semester. Im considering dropping the CCNA plan tho and going for an entry level AWS cert on my own. Is that advisable? I imagine the CCNA and Net+ kind of overlap for entry level positions CCNA is a more of a deep dive on a lot of the concepts. The basic networking/subnetting/protocol stuff that Net+ covers is covered really early on, and then it dips heavily into routing and configurations. To give an example, my CCNA work this past week has been doing configurations on virtual routers to get them fully configured and pinging across subnets. If you enjoy networking and want to go into it above entry level definitely go for the CCNA. That said, AWS is a really really hot field right now, and you wouldn't be wrong for wanting to switch focus if networking doesn't sound like your bag.
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Sep 21, 2021 18:55
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Network+ is surprisingly good for a CompTIA certification. CCNA is much harder and more involved, though. (At least, it was. I'm not sure what the new CCNA is like since it just changed.) I think foundational networking knowledge is helpful to everybody and would still recommend taking it or at least learning the material. (Though if you're learning the material, you might as well get the paper.)
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Sep 21, 2021 19:07
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Famethrowa posted:Caveat that I am still working on my CCNA, and have not yet gotten into the field. This is based on all the reading and talking to folks I've done over the past 3 years. cloud networking is a very underrated skill - you can and should combine them!
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Sep 21, 2021 19:25
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Cat Army 
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Dandywalken posted:so Im currently enrolled at local community college for a Net+ course, then a CCNA one next semester. Im considering dropping the CCNA plan tho and going for an entry level AWS cert on my own. Is that advisable? I imagine the CCNA and Net+ kind of overlap for entry level positions CCNA is a way more usefull cert than Net+. It’ll get you an entry level network admin job whereas Net+ might get you a helldesk position. Getting an AWS cert over CCNA depends on what your goals are.
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Sep 21, 2021 21:24
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The Iron Rose posted:cloud networking is a very underrated skill - you can and should combine them! thanks to this thread, I plan too! I now believe cloud is the future.
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Sep 22, 2021 15:16
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so AWS networking cert plus CCNA would allow for possibly skipping helpdesk roles, while the same but with Net+ instead would mean helpdesk time is still almost certain?
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Sep 22, 2021 18:26
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Dandywalken posted:so AWS networking cert plus CCNA would allow for possibly skipping helpdesk roles, while the same but with Net+ instead would mean helpdesk time is still almost certain? I haven't taken it, but that AWS networking cert might be a little much to bite off if you don't have much networking and/or AWS experience.
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Sep 22, 2021 18:47
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It is not impossible to skip helpdesk, but it is not super likely no matter what you do, and I definitely do not recommend thinking about certifications as guaranteed paths to literally anything. I also personally think it's important for people to work helpdesk at least a little bit to understand what things are like on the ground.
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Sep 22, 2021 18:48
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Fair enough, I will stay the course then and get Net+, CCNA, then try an AWS cert. Thanks!
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Sep 22, 2021 19:23
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Take it from someone who worked their way up from helpdesk and advanced with certs along the way. No one gives a poo poo about your certs unless you can match it with relevant experience. It gets you past some HR filters, and boss's who insist on a certain cert, but you absolutely need experience along the way. If you can work a helpdesk gig that doesnt just make you stick to a script in a call center, that throws a bunch of random poo poo and tech at you, AND you learn to deal with end users, managers, etc you'll be far better off then just getting a CCNA and sitting at a tier 1 NOC position, IMO.
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Sep 22, 2021 22:20
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That makes sense. I will have to ask about the manner of helpdesk work when I apply. I hope the non-reading from script type stuff is still remote friendly.
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Sep 23, 2021 02:56
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Microsoft Ignite is coming up soon so be on the lookout for free Azure cert vouchers in the next few weeks. I got both my AZ-900 and AZ-103 this way. Will do another one this year as well.
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Sep 23, 2021 03:02
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FCKGW posted:Microsoft Ignite is coming up soon so be on the lookout for free Azure cert vouchers in the next few weeks. I got both my AZ-900 and AZ-103 this way. Will do another one this year as well. I passed my AWS Cloud Practitioner a few weeks ago, and just noticed I received a "50% next AWS" coupon on my Certification dashboard. It might be worth checking to see if you have one, if anyone has taken at least one cert and wants to take another.
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Sep 23, 2021 03:08
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heads-up all, looks like Azure Ignite is here: https://slickdeals.net/f/15292204-f...s?src=frontpage
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Sep 23, 2021 18:24
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Otis Reddit posted:heads-up all, looks like Azure Ignite is here: Which one leads to az-900?
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Sep 23, 2021 19:28
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wargames posted:Which one leads to az-900?
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Sep 23, 2021 19:35
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Blargh, Fundamentals EST full already  Thanks for sharing tho!
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Sep 24, 2021 00:50
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Thanks to my governor and working in a hospital through the pandemic, I get a free associate's degree. To do so, I need to take 12 credits a year. I took 6 in winter and took summer off to adapt to a new job at an MSP. I've picked up my remaining 6 credits this semester to keep the scholarship, focusing more on the security end with a touch of networking as, while I have the CCNA, I never used it before landing the MSP job. I had a sit-down with management today where they informed me that I've been kicking rear end and I will be getting the full quarterly bonus and the yearly raise a month early (in March), but they also said the raise could be more than what's in the contract if I get more Watchguard certifications. I'm already struggling to balance work, school, and studying for the first Watchguard cert, when even that is mostly CCNA review. What does the internet without further contextual information think?
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Sep 24, 2021 22:54
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Oyster posted:Thanks to my governor and working in a hospital through the pandemic, I get a free associate's degree. To do so, I need to take 12 credits a year. I took 6 in winter and took summer off to adapt to a new job at an MSP. I've picked up my remaining 6 credits this semester to keep the scholarship, focusing more on the security end with a touch of networking as, while I have the CCNA, I never used it before landing the MSP job. Don’t burn out. If you’re struggling now don’t take on more responsibilities. MSPs ride employees as hard and as long as they can (in general). Don’t let them push you to a point you’re not comfortable with. Make a plan on where you spend time on and when and see how everything fits in. If you think you can pull of an extra watchdog cert go for it. If not, it’s just your bonus. Don’t let a minor bonus increase impact your (mental) health. It sounds like this is your first IT job and if so, your current bonus will be dwarfed by the compensation increase you’ll see when you switch jobs in a year or 2.
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Sep 25, 2021 11:03
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Oyster posted:Thanks to my governor and working in a hospital through the pandemic, I get a free associate's degree. To do so, I need to take 12 credits a year. I took 6 in winter and took summer off to adapt to a new job at an MSP. I've picked up my remaining 6 credits this semester to keep the scholarship, focusing more on the security end with a touch of networking as, while I have the CCNA, I never used it before landing the MSP job. Assuming you learn Watchgard as essentially another 3 credit class... I did 15 credit hours of school per semester and 40-50 hours of work for a few years. It is doable but I really don't recommend. The lack of free time is not worth it. I dropped down to 12 and it's still rough but I'm much healthier right now
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Sep 25, 2021 15:08
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LochNessMonster posted:Don’t burn out. If you’re struggling now don’t take on more responsibilities. First real IT job, yeah. Was retail IT at Staples for 2 years ("Easytech Expert", I did most of the consumer fixing), then a tier-2 printer contractor at a hospital for 7, mostly dealing with hardware, got to do some network/AD stuff (ldap configurations mostly). Got the A+, Net+, Sec+, and CCNA, got the job at the MSP. I was thinking maybe finishing the degree wouldn't be worth it since I already have the certs they end with and the Watchguard certs would directly impact my next raise. Still, I'd like to get back into the hospital I left as a full employee as opposed to a contractor, and the degree would help with that. I'm hearing that the degree would be worth more than the raise the extra certs would likely give me. Much to ponder.
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Sep 25, 2021 18:50
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Oyster posted:First real IT job, yeah. Was retail IT at Staples for 2 years ("Easytech Expert", I did most of the consumer fixing), then a tier-2 printer contractor at a hospital for 7, mostly dealing with hardware, got to do some network/AD stuff (ldap configurations mostly). Got the A+, Net+, Sec+, and CCNA, got the job at the MSP. Get the degree because if you don't you'll regret it for a long time
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Sep 25, 2021 19:44
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While anecdotal, I got a LOT more hits on my resume when I put that I was currently in school (WGU). The certs definitely helped but I feel like I'm at a ceiling until I get my BS. Maybe even an MS after since that's only like 25 more credits.
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Sep 25, 2021 19:54
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^^^^^^^^ Those two were what I needed to hear. I did 7 years of college with no degree to show for it and that has kinda tarnished my perspective, but I'm in a *much* better position to succeed now - funny how an autism and ADD diagnosis can change that. My initial plan was to get some gen eds out of the way at my local CC (the pandemic scholarship only covers an associate's) and then transfer to WGU, but getting the job at the MSP changed a lot of plans simply due to how demanding the job is. Management encouraged me to use days off to help balance school if needed - I really do feel that I work with humans below the boomer C-levels - so I think after the first Watchguard cert school's gonna be my focus. Still deciding on whether transferring to WGU before or after the associate's is worth it, but I can decide that after I take a math class for the first time in....poo poo, 17 years.
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Sep 25, 2021 20:12
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I was in the same boat. A fun field tech job after high school with no real aspirations for college until I was like 24. It wasn't until my 30s that I finally completed an actual semester without failing a class. Now I'm like a few terms before getting a BS for cloud and want to try the cybersecurity masters right after. I'd love to make more than $60k.
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Sep 25, 2021 20:33
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I did my degree at WGU as well. Got my Associates first and transferred in, knocked off half the units (all the gen Ed stuff)
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Sep 26, 2021 03:24
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How easy are the Fortinet certs?
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Sep 26, 2021 04:21
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Bob Morales posted:How easy are the Fortinet certs? I did NSE1-4, NSE1-3 are worthless marketing bullshit, NSE4 I would say was equivalent to CCNA, but mostly assumed you knew theory and quizzed on optimal/ correct ways to implement things, which thing to configure to do X, how to configure X, etc. I passed it after managing them for 1-2 years, having studied for the ccna, and then like a week of spending 2-4 hours a day reviewing. Didn't do past that but 4 would be your start anyway, that will be the "I can configure fortigate firewalls", the higher level ones were for FAZ, FMG, I think 8 was architect, forget what the other was, they might have more than 8 now.
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Sep 26, 2021 08:51
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MF_James posted:I did NSE1-4, NSE1-3 are worthless marketing bullshit, NSE4 I would say was equivalent to CCNA, but mostly assumed you knew theory and quizzed on optimal/ correct ways to implement things, which thing to configure to do X, how to configure X, etc. I passed it after managing them for 1-2 years, having studied for the ccna, and then like a week of spending 2-4 hours a day reviewing. I have been using them for a while so I figured it wouldn't hurt, plus when we get our new guy he can do them too.
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Sep 26, 2021 13:11
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Has anyone recently passed the Security+ cert? In general, how difficult would an average IT person with no security-specific knowledge find it?
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Sep 27, 2021 02:00
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I haven't lately since once you get it you should never not do CE but I actively follow the WGU subreddit and I typically see 3-5 weeks on average among people who come across as "average IT people" who are also working full time.
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Sep 27, 2021 02:40
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Hughmoris posted:Has anyone recently passed the Security+ cert? In general, how difficult would an average IT person with no security-specific knowledge find it? I passed mine last year to speed up being approved for my CISSP. I think if you have common sense security awareness and can memorize some ciphers you'll do just fine.
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Sep 27, 2021 14:12
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It took me two tries but I've got no security background so it was pretty difficult. Had a bit of overlap with the Net+ and the usual CompTIA wording fuckery but going through the Professor Messer and Pluralsight material was a huge help. Used that for the Net+ and A+ as well.
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Sep 27, 2021 15:01
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So I've completed my WGU degree and am in the process of job hunting. I received a CCSP voucher as an optional certification from WGU that expires in a year. Since I have no actual professional IT experience yet, passing the exam nets me an Associate of ISC2 rather than CCSP. Does anyone have thoughts on the value of that vs one of the associate level AWS certs in the hunt for my first IT job? I've already got the A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, and Pentest+ as part of school.
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Sep 27, 2021 17:31
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TastyLemonDrops posted:So I've completed my WGU degree and am in the process of job hunting. I received a CCSP voucher as an optional certification from WGU that expires in a year. Since I have no actual professional IT experience yet, passing the exam nets me an Associate of ISC2 rather than CCSP. Does anyone have thoughts on the value of that vs one of the associate level AWS certs in the hunt for my first IT job? I've already got the A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, and Pentest+ as part of school. That's a dangerous amount of certs for not having any work experience
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Sep 27, 2021 18:02
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Bob Morales posted:That's a dangerous amount of certs for not having any work experience Yeah, I totally get it. Being able to understand the theory of things doesn't necessarily equate to being able to do things in practice. The certs were a requirement for WGU though. I've been leaving off the CySA+ and Pentest+ for applications to help desk positions, though I'm also applying to SOC and Jr. security analyst roles.
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Sep 27, 2021 18:56
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TastyLemonDrops posted:So I've completed my WGU degree and am in the process of job hunting. I received a CCSP voucher as an optional certification from WGU that expires in a year. Since I have no actual professional IT experience yet, passing the exam nets me an Associate of ISC2 rather than CCSP. Does anyone have thoughts on the value of that vs one of the associate level AWS certs in the hunt for my first IT job? I've already got the A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+, and Pentest+ as part of school. Honestly, the CCSP is probably a few months of pretty serious study, while the AWS CCP is maybe two weeks of the same. So, you can do both, but it's probably better to start with the AWS CCP to have something to show for your effort sooner rather than later. But also that CCSP voucher is probably worth like $750 or so right? I wouldn't sleep on that one and let it expire. Coincidentally I did the CISSP early this year, then followed it with the intro cert for all three major public clouds, and after finishing the first of those (GCP ACE), the other two were just learning new names for services plus a couple minor gotchas.
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Sep 27, 2021 23:30
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unbutthurtable posted:Honestly, the CCSP is probably a few months of pretty serious study, while the AWS CCP is maybe two weeks of the same. Looks like it's $600. I'm definitely not gonna let it expire. I was just wondering the immediate value of having Associate of ISC2 on a resume vs something else. I actually also already have the AWS CCP. I was looking at Solutions Architect or SysOps Admin. TastyLemonDrops fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Sep 28, 2021 |
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Sep 28, 2021 00:10
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I've generally heard this is the difficulty progression for the AWS associate certs from low to high: SA, developer, sysops
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Sep 28, 2021 00:18
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TastyLemonDrops posted:Looks like it's $600. I'm definitely not gonna let it expire. I was just wondering the immediate value of having Associate of ISC2 on a resume vs something else. I actually also already have the AWS CCP. I was looking at Solutions Architect or SysOps Admin.  Hey CCP buddy. I picked up the CCP a few weeks ago after a few days of straight memorizing terms. I'm now studying for the AWS SysOps Administrator and its definitely a different beast. I picked a video course for $40 over at learn.cantrill.io and can recommend it so far. Its roughly 55 hours of video I believe. Little to no fluff, lots of demos and illustrations. Also, the SysOps is the only one of the 3 associate-level certifications that has a lab component to the exam.
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Sep 28, 2021 00:56
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