Information technology is a highly
dynamic and ever-changing field. As the industry evolves, new types or
sets of certifications continue to crop up. Because of the sheer number of certifications,
certification paths, specializations and providers out there, it is easy for
someone new to IT to be confused about where to start. Even people who
are certified might be unsure of the next steps.
Let VELOXITECHS walk you through the
basics of certification, including how to carve out your own certification path
and a few tips on how to ace certification exams.
In this easy-to-follow guide, you
will get the answers to these often-asked questions:
- Why should I get certified?
- What are my certification options? What is the difference between them?
- Which certification should I start with?
- Which exams should I take first among the various certification paths?
- How do I prepare for a test?
Why
should I get certified?
There are numerous reasons why you
should seek out certification in a number of IT-related programs, software or
skills, but three reasons are key:
- Credibility
- Marketability
- Personal and Professional Development
Credibility
IT certifications are testaments to
your skills and proficiency in a certain area. For example, becoming a Windows
Server Certified Professional tells hiring managers, companies and clients that
you have the experience and skills needed to effectively create, design, manage
and maintain a cloud environment.
This is the biggest reason why IT
professionals pursue IT certifications. It helps validate your skills and
expertise in your current job.
Marketability
There are certain certifications
that are appropriate for wherever you are at in your career. For example,
it may help new graduates land entry-level positions if they pursue basic
certifications such as CompTIA A+, Microsoft Certified Professional, Certified
Internet Webmaster Associate, Sun Certified Java Programmer and Cisco’s CCNA.
These certifications validate the
skills they learned in school and can help make up for not having the
right work experience for the job. In fact, no matter where you are in
your IT career, certifications will almost always give you an edge over
non-certified IT professionals.
Certifications do more than just
validate your skills and experience. It also shows potential employers
that you are committed to the IT field by spending the money and time to obtain
your certifications.
IT certifications also make career
advancement more likely. The plain truth is that, in general, IT
certifications can help you get a pay raise or a promotion.
According to Rich Hein at CIO.com, the right certifications could mean anywhere from an 8 to
16 percent increase in your pay, so certifications are very important when it
comes to compensation.
Lastly, certifications are a must in
certain sectors within IT. Consultants and people who are self-employed
would be wise to obtain certifications so more clients will trust them.
Additionally, most government IT positions requires certain certifications for
you to be eligible for hiring.
Personal
and Professional Development
IT is a very dynamic field and new
technologies are introduced every single day. Certifications are
important to ensure that you are on top of these developments and that your
skills are updated. Certification training can help you
cover new areas while also reinforcing the skills you already have. Think
of it as a refresher course that can help you identify and overcome your
problem areas.
Certification can also help you to
network with other IT professionals. Your next job, project or
endorsement could very well come from someone you met at a study group or
technical conference related to a certain certification exam. Certification
can help you meet IT professionals who have similar interests and specialties
as you.
Heading down a certification path
will also give you access to resources that would not be available
otherwise. This includes access to online forums, training materials and
other learning resources that are provided by certification providers such as
Microsoft and Cisco.
There’s also something to be said
about the personal satisfaction that comes with acing an exam that validates
your expertise. Go ahead, put your certificate on your wall or add those
letters after your name!
What
are my certification options? What are the differences among them?
There are a lot of answers to these
questions, really. It would all depend on what you need for your job,
what your career goals are, and what you are interested in. What it comes down to is that your
certification path should reflect your career path. There are two things
that you should know about certifications. The first is that hiring
managers will be able to weed out applicants who have obtained certifications
but don’t have the appropriate job experience. A certification alone will
not help you land a job nor will it make you ready to perform a certain
function.
The second thing is that you really
need hands-on, real-world experience with the technology, devices and software
involved in the certification you are seeking. It will make passing the
exams easier, which is something we will discuss later. Choosing your certification path
depends on two things: Where you are now and where you want to go in your IT
career, and what functions and work-related experience you have in your
profession.
Knowing these will help you wade
through the numerous certification providers that offer different paths. You
will also have to decide whether to go for vendor-neutral certifications or
vendor-specific ones.
In recent years, another group of
certifications have cropped up: those related to the cloud, specifically,
virtualization.
What
certification should I start with?
If you work with technologies,
devices and software from a particular vendor, you might want to start with
that. For instance, Microsoft has certifications for their products in network administration, Windows
administration, programming and databases, among others. With Microsoft,
the Microsoft Technology Associate credential is the most basic and
people with some experience or education in the field may start with a Microsoft
Certified Technical Specialist, or MCTS, certification.
If you are up for a little
challenge, you might want to try for the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA). The CCNA is regarded as one
of the most difficult entry-level certifications. Cisco also offers the Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician
(CCENT), which
is the starting point for all advanced associate, professional and expert
certifications from Cisco. If you do not want to be locked into
just one vendor, go for CompTIA,
which is vendor neutral and focuses on general technologies and concepts rather
than specific hardware from a single manufacturer. With CompTIA, most people start with
the CompTIA A+ and then take the CompTIA Network+ exam.
Which
exams should I take first among the various certification paths?
Once you have determined the right
certification path for you, you will need to research about the various certifications
available for that particular path and select the ones that you probably would
not need in the long run. For example, if you are just
starting out your IT career, you would want to start off with an entry-level
certification such as CompTIA A+, CCENT or CCNA, among others.
Once you have your niche, then you
should have a clearer picture of which certifications to pursue. For
example, an IT security professional will want to get CCNA Security, MCITP,
MCSE, Security+ and/or Network+ before moving on to Wireshark
Certified Network Analyst, Certified Ethical Hacker, Certified
Professional Penetration Tester andOffensive Security Certified Professional.
If you are aiming for a particular
higher-level certification, your certification choices become a lot
easier. For example, if you want to be a CompTIA Advanced Security
Practitioner, then you should get CompTIA Security+ first. It
is recommended that you should also have a CompTIA Network+
certification under your belt when aiming for Security+. Conversely, if
you are aiming for a Microsoft Certified Master level of certification,
it would help to first obtain a Microsoft Certified Technology and then
Professional level certification first.
More
Popular Certifications
Project Management Professional is a highly sought-after certification for IT
professionals. It will validate your skills as a project manager and is
admittedly one of the most difficult certification exams to pass. The
requirements are quite stringent. You would need thousands of hours of general
leadership experience and months of project management experience. You
would also need 35 hours of formal project management education before you can
take the exam. The PMP Exam has 200 multiple-choice questions and
most of these are based on theoretical situations that force you to apply your
knowledge to real-world scenarios.
VMware Certified Professional 5 or VCP 5 is another one of the most popular certifications
today. VMware is one of the most widely used virtualization platforms,
thus making this credential very important.
The VCP is the entry-level
credential and part of the requirement is to have hands-on experience with
VMware vSphere. The VCP5 exam itself only has 85 questions that need to be
answered within 90 minutes.
Citrix also has similar
certifications that are focused on virtualization:
- Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer
- Citrix Certified Integration Architect
Microsoft has a lot of
certifications for IT professionals using its products, including Microsoft
Certified Solutions Associate, MCSA, and Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert,
MCSE. The new MCSE is no longer focused on server administration and
its associated technologies, but on the different approaches to solving
business and enterprise problems. It now takes a look at business
intelligence, database administration and cloud computing. In fact, there
are now three tracks that can help you get an MCSE credential:
- MCSE for Private Cloud
- MCSE for SQL Server 2012
- MCSE: Business Intelligence
Cisco, on the other hand, has the Cisco
Certified Network Associate Security certification. The CCNA tests
various skills that relate to designing, creating, deploying, installing and
configuring, testing and maintaining Cisco appliances and security
devices. This would include testing:
- Your understanding of the different types of attacks and threats against networks
- Your knowledge on designing effective policies on network security as well as implementing it
- Your knowledge of Cisco products and technologies
- Your skills on how to provide secure access to network devices, among others
The CCNA Security credential has two
possible paths. One is to pass the CCNA Composite Exam or take two separate
exams: Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices 1 and 2. As always, you would
need to know the concepts as put forth by Cisco and how to apply them to
real-world scenarios. In fact, a big part of the CCNA is performing tasks
with simulated switches and routers. You would need to practice on Cisco
equipment, so it would be helpful if you can rent or buy Cisco equipment if you
do not work with them at your company. Either that or you can practice on
simulators available online such as Cisco Academy’s Packet Tracer or Boson’s, but a good free alternative comes
from GNS3, which is open source. Trainsignal has a lot of resources to introduce you to GNS3.
How
to Prepare for a Certification Test
No matter which test you want to
take, you will always need to prepare. Here are some general tips on how
to prepare for your certification exam:
1. Practice makes perfect.
Practice tests will help you
tremendously in passing the test. Working on practice tests can help you
know which areas you need to brush up on, as well as making you familiar with
the actual test. You will be able to simulate just what it will be like
to answer the test with the time limits, instructions and other variables that
are present during the actual test.
2. Make sure to keep the time.
While doing practice tests, take
note of the time you need to complete it. You will need this in order to
pace yourself so that you could complete a certification exam within the
allotted time. If, for instance, you take four hours to finish an exam
that has an allotted time of 1.5 hours, then you might not be ready to take at
all.
3. Study groups help.
Study groups are a great way to
cover examination topics and battle the boredom that comes from studying
alone. Chances are, there are colleagues in your office who are studying
for the same exams. If not, then you can probably find a study group on
Craigslist or online certification forums.
4. Use different preparation methods.
Fortunately for you, there are a lot
of ways to study for an exam. You can get books, participate in an online
forum, go through a formal classroom review, and talk to people who have taken
the same tests. Do not just rely on one preparation method because it
might not be enough.
Whatever you do, however, please be
sure to avoid braindumps.
Braindumps are online sites that help you cheat on your certification exams
by divulging the questions and answers to actual tests. While this
may sound like an easy way out, it is undoubtedly highly unethical. Also,
if you are caught, you could instantly fail the test.
But the deeper evil of braindumps is
that you are getting credentials for something that you do not really know or
understand. How will a CCNA certification, for example, help you if you really
do not know anything about routing and switching?
5. Make sure you are ready for the
test.
This probably goes without saying,
but if you have prepared and you still feel that you are not ready for the
test, do not go through with it. And when you do feel that you are ready,
make sure that you get enough rest and sleep on the night before the exam.
Above all, you should have a clear
understanding of what skills will be covered on the specific test you’ll be
taking. Some more popular exams, CompTIA for example, work hard to
measure your real-world experience and test your problem-solving skills.
Aim high and good luck!
