Transcription
I've taken the following seven IT searchs. Hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars. That's insane. And in this video, I'm going to discuss real ROI. What's actually going to land you a job and what not to waste your time with.
Before I start yapping too much, my name is Jake. I'm a system administrator at an MSP. I've been in IT for just over a year now. I've been kind of speedr runninging the tears and I started prepping to get into it one year before I was actually in. Let's get this rolling.
Okay, so for each I'm going to discuss what it taught me, career impact, was it actually worth it? and then would I recommend it and to whom. I'm also going to discuss these Cts in order that I took them.
So, first up is the Google Corsera IT Support Professional. This taught me the absolute basics of IT and I started with this because I had no idea what I was doing. It taught me about computer hardware, computer software, uh the OSI model, some networking, IP addressing, how things actually fit in together, the troubleshooting method. Honestly, this was super useful for someone who had no prior experience in IT. Did it actually land me a job? Absolutely not. Don't put it on your resume. Nobody really respects it, but it's going to teach you a lot of important things and can work as a substitute for the A+ ROI. In terms of getting a job, non-existent. Again, it's not going to help you get a job, but in the long term, I think it really helped me a lot because it was relatively cheap. I did it in one month, so it was $60 on Corsera. And it taught me so so much about the basics again of it. Some caveats, you got to actually do it and actually pay attention. Don't just click the arrows. Clicking the arrows is not going to learn you the knowledge. take notes and really try and learn everything in the course and do it fast so you can do it in one month. So it's only $60 because Corsera is a monthly subscription, $60 a month. Overall, I'm going to give this C a 75 out of 100.
Next up, I took the CompTIA A+, which is actually two tests. This C taught me how to take Compia tests. I'm just kidding. It had a lot of useful information, but really it was all the same information from that Google course. And it's two tests and they're really long. and Compia asks really ambiguous questions where two answers could be the same answer or could both be correct. It's kind of annoying. Is it worth it considering these two exams combined cost $500 plus? I'm going to go ahead and say no. I've actually changed on this. Um I used to think that this was worth it and it used to be 5 years ago that this would have recruiters calling you. Now not at all. It's just a completely basic C. Honestly, I think it's way too expensive for what it's actually worth. So ROI is relatively low because the I investment is so high in terms of time and money. Again, would I recommend this? I've actually changed on this. In the last year since joining it, I'm going to go ahead and not recommend thisert unless you have a lot of time and a lot of money. If you're serious about this, I recommend you do that Google IT support professional. Take it seriously, learn as much as you possibly can, and then go straight to the network plus, which we'll discuss next. And at the end of the video, I'll discuss the exact path that I would take to go from zero to IT hero or at least getting a job in, let's say, 6 to9 months.
Okay, so onto that nextert, the CompTIA network plus. This is a basic vendor neutral networkingert that's going to teach you all about networking. You learn about network devices, routing, switching, the layers of the OSI model, even more how network topology works, and how everything kind of fits in together. A bunch of different network protocols. In terms of career advancement, I'm going to give this shirt like a seven out of 10 because it actually really leveled me up as a tech. Helped me learn a lot about the important stuff of it that everyone hates. Networking, subnetting, stuff like that. But at my company, it's actually a requirement to go from level one to level two. I'd say ROI on this is C is pretty dang high. It's only one test. I think it's $300ish. And again, it's a great skip the A+ and get this C type C. Also, if you're considering doing a cert like the CCNA, which I'll discuss later, I would recommend getting this C first if you have the time and the money. It's again, it's going to teach you those basics before you go to CCNA, which gets deep. You could totally skip it if you're planning to get CCNA either way and save yourself those $300. I got it and I liked it. I would recommend the Network Plus to everyone, 100% who is planning on going to any area of it. You have to learn subnetting. You have to learn general routing and switching. It's going to be super crucial to your job. And again, it's going to take you from a low-level tech to at least a medium level tech.
Okay. After my A+ and my network plus, I took the Google cyber security course on Corsera. This course taught me a ton of stuff that is not applicable at all to my job. I learned about Python, SQL, CIA, AAA, all of that important stuff, you know, threat hunting, incident response, cyber security documentation, all that stuff. It was really cool. But for me going into it, I think my career impact for this was like zero. If you really are dead set on going straight to cyber security and you know you want to do that, okay, this could be super useful. You learn a lot of super useful uh cyber security stuff. Sims, surika, wire sharkark, all that cool stuff. But when I was like halfway through this and I was doing like SQL joins and you know, Python functions and stuff like that, I was kind of just regretting ever taking it again. It's on Corsera. It only took me one month and it was $60. But this is one that if I could go get that time back, I probably would.
Next up, we go to the Security Plus. finishing the CompTIA trifecta as many people call it. What does the Security Plus teach you? Lots of acronyms. I think it should be called the acronym plus. Uh it teaches you not to plug in random USBs. Teaches you about public key infrastructure, which is actually super important that I didn't realize at the time. Hashes, cryptography. Honestly, I found it pretty fun. I used Andrew Ramayal to study for the Security Plus. Career impact is a 9 out of 10 because even though I think theert is mostly useless, every employer asks for Security Plus. The DoD respects the Security Plus. I don't know what Comp Tia did to make everyone love this C so much. So theert C itself is very useless but you have to have it to check a lot of these HR check boxes and to be honest with you theert was really really easy. I thought it was the easiest of all of the competitors. The A+ is the hardest because it's two massive tests. Then network plus and then security plus being the easiest. So would I recommend getting it? Yes, you need to get it in order to get those government jobs and check the HR box.
After this when I was in IT for well when I had just started I already had A+ network plus security plus. I decided to get CCNA. CCNA is the Cisco certified networking administrator. And this is going to give you a deep dive into networking. You're actually going to be labbing in networking devices. You're actually going to be looking at real protocols and troubleshooting real network devices using this software called Packet Tracer. This is the first that I took that I thought, man, this is actually pretty hard. Like, it's really broad and it's pretty deep, too. I learned a ton while doing these labs about routing protocols, just general networking, again, network topology, how things fit together, IP addressing. You learn an insane amount about IP addressing with the CCNA and that's super useful in your real life job. In my opinion, this is the most useful search I've ever taken in IT and it's absolutely crucial if you want to be really good at it. Do you need it if you're planning to go security someday? Probably not. But again, it's really useful. Like the ROI on this was huge. So I would recommend this to anyone who wants to succeed in IT. However, keep in mind this in comparison to those other CompTIAs is more of an upper level. I think CCNA probably took me as much mental brain power as all the three competierts combined. So, it's maybe not as beginner friendly. And this is why I said earlier if you like networking, you can take Network Plus and CCNA. It's a little bit more money. You could skip Network Plus, but I think having Network Plus also helped me prepare for the CCNA because it made understanding the concept so much easier. Also, networking is really difficult for a lot of people. People hate subnetting. People hate learning about networking. Understand this concept. It holds true in every aspect of your life. That which you most need is always to be found where you least want to look. That's why learning networking is going to level you up. It's going to make you a better tech. It's going to make your life easier in the future. Highly, highly, highly recommend.
And then lastly, while I was in it for a while, I was already a system administrator. I got the A104, Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate. I actually thought this was super fun. What does it teach you? It teaches you all about Azure resources and managing them. Network security groups, V-Nets, RBAC, storage accounts, monitoring. It really gave me a good feel for Azure and Cloud Infra. Even though I had already used it a little bit, I hadn't used it to that extent. If you're planning to go to be a cloud administrator someday, which I might do, it's probably going to be like an eight out of 10 because again, it was really useful. It taught me a lot about the cloud. Also, it should be noted this is only $165, which is awesome. All those others are super expensive. The CCNA is like $400. Those comperts feel like they're a million dollars for what they're worth. This one's relatively cheap. You do have to renew it every year. And I will also say this was exceptionally difficult. I probably severely underestimated it. I already had A+ net plus SE plus CCNA year of experience and I studied for like 3 weeks for thisert. I studied pretty hard for 3 weeks but I still wildly underestimated it. Here's why it's so difficult. Microsoft gives you a test that's 50 questions but every question has a sub question and then there's these lab questions as well and it's like this is not 50 questions. This feels like 100 to 150 total questions because you have all these little sub questions. So the C was very difficult. Would I recommend? Uh probably after you have some experience and you find out you like the cloud then I would recommend it. It is a pretty fun though because you get to lab a lot and you get to actually do stuff to practice for the Cert.
Okay, here's the overview. Which had the best ROI? CCNA by far. Which is overrated? The Security Plus, but you still got to get it because HR asks for it. Also the A+ way overrated. You could totally skip that and just get Network Plus and then you've already leveled up. If I could take them all again starting from zero, I would do Google IT support professional, then Network Plus, then Security Plus. I would spend probably a month on Google, a month on Network Plus, maybe two months on Network Plus, two to three weeks on Security Plus. It's actually a pretty easy test. Then I would take CCNA in the way that I did it. I got my job and then in the first four months of getting my IT job, I took CCNA. And if you don't have infinite money like some people and you're willing to really get to the grind, honestly, Security Plus and CCNA alone, it's the cheapest combination are going to get you a lot of ROI. And it is 100% possible. You could go from zero to Security Plus in 2 months if you really wanted to.
I hope this video has been useful for you guys. This is my honest opinion on all of these searchs. This is the way that I did them and this is the way that I would recommend doing them if I was going back in time. Appreciate you guys who stuck along this long. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. Have a good day. Be safe. Be smart and make some good decisions.