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I have been in IT support for over 5 years now. However, I have no certs, and only about 1/2 of my bachelors degree prior to dropping out. I am having a hard time moving up from support since I do not have any “specialty” skills other than mobile device support but again its still support.

I do not have the money nor time to go back to finish my bachelors degree at this time due to a few side items I run. (Owner of a DJ Company & Owner of Rental duplex)

I have looked at getting my A+ , Network+, and Security+ and started some brief overview.

I was thinking I would want to get a basic cert first but ever time I sit down to start studying for my A+ I get bored with the knowledge I already know but fail to remember some of the terminologies in the practice test I have taken.

Do you think A+ is worth it with my experience?
What other certification do you recommend? I have looked at going into Networking or Security part of IT.

7 Spice ups
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CCNA R&S first. CCNP longer term. CCNA Security is helpful (firewalls, ACLs, etc).

Am a huge fan of the Cisco Network Academy commonly offered at local community colleges (CC). Can self-study for the CCNA, but the structured course form ought work well with provided physical equipment, like minded students, and an on-hand instructor to surmount “that one question” causing trouble/bottleneck.

Cisco Academy graduates fit in the Cisco learning ecosystem. Helps to see things on that side of the playground, as it is.

If find a CC offering it, they may also grant Dreamspark access as well, which can help with MSFT labbing. Need your own physical equipment for a lab of that sort, of course.

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The A+ is not worth it for someone with ANY experience and/or someone looking to go into IT. You are way past “not evenl ooking to go into IT.” Your first day on the job you were past the A+.

You might want the Network+ to start, that is a good exam and the entry level IT exam, but is meant for someone in their first two years, not five years in.

You might want to think about what specialization you want and how to get there.

5 Spice ups
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I’m just over 2 years IT experience and so far only have A+. Wasn’t planning on getting it but my college gave me a free voucher so might as well right? Like SAM said, with your 5yr experience, you will want to skip A+ and go straight to N+, MCSA/SE, or CCNA/NP depending on what you want to specialize.

2 Spice ups
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Please note that my experience is

1 year small business consumer level
2 years as a tech at Sprint with phone repairs
2 years as enterprise support with 3000+ devices

Also, I thought about Cisco certs but the company I am currently with uses majority of Juniper equipment with only items being Cisco are the APs.

What entry level security certs besides security+ are out there and are common too? I noticed a lot of security certs are made for experience or someone working in the field already.

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Then i’d recommend MCSA desktop or server version. It tackles server/desktop managing and some basic networking. Server+ which is vendor neutral is a good one too.

EDIT: added some info

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Security is not an entry level field nor much of a “field” in any sense. You don’t really decide to “go into” security and you certainly do not do it through certs. YOu need to build a field of expertise and apply security to it later.

2 Spice ups
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There is a real question: Are Security Careers Even Real ? I’ve done a bit of work in security and worked in some extreme security fields and as a career, it just does not seem to exist outside of some incredibly niche scenarios.

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Very true now that I think about our security employee he is in charge of the firewall, antivirus, door access, and writing policies. Which everyone of those could be broke down into networking, business software, or management. Which leaves it not much of an individual career but more of a combined field.

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And in IT, pure IT, security I know six and seven figure security people (and none below that) and not a one got there through certs or schooling but all by getting to high echelons of individual disciplines (network engineering, systems administration, whatever) and having good security thought processes and understanding and just “falling into” the security aspects of it. And none seem to move from security to security role, it is something that they would do when it came up and move away from with their next position.

1 Spice up
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In terms of IT Support, I’d say ITIL and Lean IT are both worth looking at. ITIL for a service support framework/methodology and Lean for Continual Service Improvement and process waste elimination.