Are the Comptia Certifications even worth getting now?

I work in the IT field for an IT consulting company and though is isn't required at this point, my employer is encouraging me to get some certifications. I wanted to get my Comptia A+ and I have heard mixed things about it- some people say its a great foundation and some say it's utterly useless. In addition, comes the topic of renewing it; do I renew or get a higher level cert? (Interested in getting the Network+ cert eventually). It is unfortunate that there isn't a lifetime certification anymore, but the CE requirement doesn't sound too bad unless I am completely missing something (such has time consuming and hidden fees) The A+ cert is $75 for 3 years, the Network+ is $149 for 3 years, but from what I understand if I have the Network+ I will only be paying fees towards that.

What does everyone think?

I'm in the same boat... just figured I would do it... even if its "Useless" to some opinionated internet-I.T managers .. they don't represent everyone. and you have to start somewhere.

No point in renewing imo... just get a higher one, until it becomes too difficult/consuming.

@MBirdy88:

Well the problem I see in not renewing is that companies will not hire you if you have a lapsed certificate. It's true you can keep going higher, but honestly, I'm only interested in Network+ and maybe Security+ in addition to A+ of course. The annual fees are so small that it's not really a factor and your basically paying to have a certificate that yields you more money.

I did it before getting my first break, I really don't think it was key to getting me the job however I think it give me a good base , along with the voluntary work I added to my CV. After that I feel certs are good for backing up existing experience & knowledge

i tell young people all the time no knowledge is wasted, education is always worth it (if reasonable price), silver and gold may vanish away but a good education will never decay, the more qualified the better. worth it.

I really appreciate your response. Thank you so much!

I've been working as a Department of Defense Civilian, IT Technician on a military base for the past 5 years now. CompTia's Security+ certification is one of the mandatory certs needed in order to receive an admin token so that I have admin rights to work on the computers for my organization. We're also required to have a MS Windows 7 certification, and a secondary baseline certification (I went with A+) in order to work there. So yes, it's absolutely worth getting certifications, as you never know what company you're going to work for requires it. Even if a company doesn't require it, some employers may ask for it later on down the road should you change companies. When it comes to CompTia and your CE's, if you have multiple certifications and renew the highest level CompTia cert, any cert below it is automatically renewed for the next 3 years as well. Using myself as an example, I just completed my CE's for my Security+ not to long ago. As it is "ranked" higher than an A+ cert, CompTia also renewed my A+ and N+ certs. You'll only pay the fees for the 1 highest cert. You don't pay for each one as you mentioned about the N+. The good thing about most companies out there is that if they require you to have CompTia certifications, they'll cover the renewal costs and fees for you.

Oh, and there aren't any other hidden fees with CompTia. You pay the CE fee and that's it. Then the rest is up to you to earn the required amount of CE's over the next 3 years. They're not that hard to obtain. I completed the 50 I needed in one day. Lucky for me as a DoD employee, one of my annual training tests for work was worth 40 credits with CompTia. It's a 25 question test that takes all of 20 minutes to take. Then you get 3 credits for each year you work as a tech you can use. That's 9 more right there as each cycle is 3 years. Then you can take an online course, or upload a memo stating that you taught an IT Course at work which earns you 2 more...the list goes on and on. You'll find a quick way of earning those CE's.

Let me try to add another perspective here.

I'm also an IT consultant and I work for one of the largest consulting firms in the world that caters mostly to Fortune 500 comanies and up. Almost all of my clients have been Fortune 500 and several of them have been Fortune 100 companies. If you're an IT consultant, you almost definitely know the company I work for. The reason I'm mentioning this is not for "bragging rights" but because I'm trying to give you an idea of the scale/level we offer without directly coming out and announcing where I work on a public internet forum. This will help you decide if the information I'm giving you applies to you or not.

So the question is, are the Comptia certs worth it. To that I would say it depends. I don't know what level of services your company is offering to clients, but at the level we work at the Comptia certs are basically ignored because they are too basic and general. Part of my job is interviewing new-hires (both college graduates and experienced IT profressionals) and Comptia certs don't factor into hiring decisions at all. It certainly won't count against you, but if it's coming down between two similar resources the Comptia certs won't put either resource over the top. Certs that would put someone ahead of someone else for hiring purposes include certs targeted at enterprise level services and hardware like Netapp or other SAN provider certs, Cisco certs, certs around public cloud providers like Azure or Amazon, Microsoft certs like the new MCSE, "Private Cloud" certs around different hypervisors like the Microsoft private cloud cert, and others targeted at similar levels. These are certs aimed at medium-sized and larger business services, whereas the Comptia certs seem to be aimed at either individual computer repair or small business services.

Now, I'll throw in the caveat that my knowledge is pretty out of date as to the specifics of what the Comptia certs have to offer. I have an A+ cert, but I got mine back when it -was- a lifetime cert and was before they even added Network+. When I took them the hardware portion of the test asked you questions like what are the addresses and IRQs of parallel printer ports, standard serial ports, and how you set up a 56k modem. Hell, the software/OS portion of the test was around DOS and Windows 3.1. That probably sounds like a joke but I'm actually dead serious. :)

So here's the deal. The issue with the Comptia certs isn't that the knowledge required to pass them isn't good. It's great, in fact. The issue is that they are so general that (unless they have gotten much harder since the last time I looked into it), the knowledge required to pass them is something that a lot of people will have already without having to specifically study to take the tests if they are already pretty experienced engineers or technicians. When I took A+ they gave you an hour for each of the two exams. I had already been working as a tech for about 5-6 years and I was able to pass both tests in about 20 minutes with no prior prep.

So I'd say the Comptia certs are worth getting in the following circumstances:

1) Your current employer values them and would be willing to give you additional roles/responsibilities if you have them.

2) You're looking to move to a new company and you know that the companies you will be interviewing with value these certs.

3) You don't already have the skills necessary to pass the exams, in which case there's great value in studying for these certs because the skills are a great foundation. However, if this is the case I still don't know that the cert itself would be worth it (especially if your employer isn't picking up the cert/testing or training material fees). If this is your situation, I'd say study for the Comptia exams and learn all you can about server administration, basic scripting, active directory domain design (assuming you work with Windows), as well as the ins and outs of the TCP/IP protocol, the OSI model, how DHCP works in detail (how to configue servers, scopes, redundency, etc), how DNS works (setting up DNS zones, what all the different DNS record types are, the details of how name resolution works, forwarders, etc) and other similar areas. If you know this stuff pretty well, you might be able to pass these certs cold in which case you already know what you would learn from studying for them. In that case, you can probably save yourself the $225 for the certs themselves.

Let me know if you have any questions.

-Byshop

A+ IN GENERAL is a waste... but is basically required by every IT company out there. the knowledge is so basic that anyone even remotely considering IT should probably already know most of it.

This is fantastic advice.

I'm not network/sysadmin/etc guy (I'm the Lead DBA at a cloud company), but I am involved in the hiring of those position. Comptia certs are pretty much ignored and are def not required. Not saying they are useless, but companies are more concerned with experience and with more specific certs as mentioned above.

Basically I wouldn't say don't get them, the more certs you have the better your resume looks, but individually the Comptia certs don't count for much.

Thanks. Yeah, I would say that if someone feels like they have gaps in their knowledge around something like networking, the basic Cisco certs like the CCDA/CCNA series are better places to start. While obviously they are geared towards Cisco hardware and are less general, the basic network knowledge that they offer is far more in-depth and the cert itself is one that companies actually look at. The problem with "generalist" certs is just that, they are too general to be of much value. The assumption is that most competent techs will already know most of what is covered by these certs, so getting the cert isn't really considered much of an accomplishment. By comparison, back when I was doing Microsoft cert tests pretty actively there were a few that I could pass without any prep but that's because I was already operating at a "thought leader" level in that particular technology. The rest of the exams I had to prep for, and prep doesn't just mean reading a book. It means spending a fair amount of real, hands on time with the products.

Short version is while being a generalist is a good start (and the Comptia certs certainly cover general skills), if you want to make any real money in the industry you need to be an expert at something and that's why the more specific/targeted certs are far more valuable. I don't know if I'd spend $225 of my own money just for the piece of paper on a Comptia unless I knew there was some specific and immediate benefit I would get from it (i.e. it's a requirement for a promotion).

-Byshop

I went from general IT to software support to software development, and this is what I did:

Learn the material for free (libraries, online). The skills and knowledge are more important for many employers. If an employer needs the certificate, you can pay to take the test. A+ and Network+ are good starts.

I guess as someone who is going to college for similar things... I don't feel like I understand the point of the IT industry yet. It seems to pointless, as everything becomes more and more machine and less and less man. Security seems pointless, you're basically playing a game of back-and-forth with hackers anymore. I think we'd be better off if we just went back to pen and paper, and screw storing everything on computers to begin with.

...But that would make too much sense, probably...

It'd be better to get your degree in IT rather than the Certs. However if you don't know enough to pass the A+ I'd recommend taking it or reading up. Then from there just get job experience. Byshop provided the best examples of what you should be doing.

~Just an example of my career path, all luck? Maybe...

I have an AS in Criminal Justice. Played around with computers my whole childhood, remember forcing my first DDR ram stick into a DDR2 ram slot and frying the slot :P.
First job was from craigslist working for a startup computer repair shop.
Then it just grew from there and I am now a clinical application analyst, make about 70k Age 26.

@Byshop: No offense, but it seems like you got certified over 20 years ago, but the new questions on the exams are a lot harder in my opinion. I'm getting ready to take my Comptia A+ exams and I have been studying a lot. I would say that 85%- 90% of the questions are from Windows 7 to the Windows 8 era. Once in a while you will get a curve ball thrown at you, but if you don't have an IT background the tests will be near impossible unless you have studied. The exams that you take today are harder than the exams that people took who got the lifetime certification bottom line. In addition, they are more valuable in my opinion because you have to keep brushing up on your knowledge to keep the certification(s). The Comptia A+ exams have Windows software, PC hardware, Networking hardware and concepts, Smartphone hardware and software questions. The test now is dynamic; if you are weak in an area you will have a tough time. For example, if you get a networking question wrong, it will keep asking you questions about networking until you get a certain amount right.

Basically, you have to take two exams and each exam is up to 90 questions. You have 90 minutes for each exam and the questions are multiple choice, however, there are some pratical exam questions that put you in a Windows 8/7 simulator. You have to perform easy tasks such as format the D drive or clear the history from Internet Explorer. I have only been working for a small mom and pop IT company for just over a year now, but I also have an Associte's of Science in Computer Networking Engineering and Electronics from SBCC, one of the the most useful Associte's computer degrees in the country. My degree took me through an advanced Comptia A+ course which included advanced throubleshooting and the diagnosis of PC hardware and software problems. I also went through an advance cyber security course which I thought was a lot of fun. The network side started off small, but it get extremely hard when we got into the Cisco Acadmy courses to the point where we were doing multi-variable subnetting. We also worked on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 in great depth. I learned more in those two years of school than most people learn in a lifetime and one of my professor's told me that even though I had a lot of knowledge, I would still have to study if I wanted to pass my Comptia certs. I also want to point out that back in the day, at the end of programs like the one that I went through, the school would give you your comptia certs, but they stopped doing that years ago. All school does is prep you for the exams, you still need field experience and to do a lot of studying.

I also want to point out that I currently live in California and even though I work for a very small local company, most of the medium to large IT companies I have seen in California absolutely require you to have some sort of Comptia certification if you are going to be applying (or at least be willing to get one). After talking to my boss and some other IT vets on here in great depth, the A+ is definitly the way to start because it shows you have advanced knowledge in IT. In addition, some of the more important Comptia certs are the Network+ (which is usually required with your CCNA cert if you want to be a system administator) and the Security+ certification.

@Mighty-Lu-Bu: No offense taken, of course. I wanted to be very clear what my experience with the Comptia certs was from quite a while ago. However, the tests back then weren't exactly what I'd call "easy". Having the addresses and IRQs of all the ports on a standard PC compatible, knowing the AT codes to manually configure and dial a Hayes compatible modem, knowing the DOS commands to partition, format and troubleshoot disks, understanding the difference between Conventional, Shadow, Extended and Expanded memory and knowing how to turn extended into expanded and move TSRs from conventional memory into shadow memory, how to set environment variables in DOS and which ones are necessary to get something like a sound card working, and understanding how to create config.sys and autoexec.bat files were all items that I remember from the exam, but at that point I have been living and breathing all of that content for years so it wasn't that big a deal. To many, however, those questions would have required a fair amount prior exam prep.

Even though I haven't seen the modern tests, what you are describing is very much what I would have expected because nearly everything you described is in pretty much all standard certification exams. Mutiple choice and multi-select answers, OS simulator questions, a larger pool of questions from which a fixed number in each category (or "objective domain") that are randomly selected each time you take it, and (for some tests, anyway) a dynamic system that deliberately asks you more questions on there areas where you are weaker.

Like I said in my first post, if you are looking at an employer or position where Comptia certs are required, then you already have the answer to your question. I never meant to suggest that the knowledge for getting a Comptia cert is worthless, only that if you are a strong tech already then (with the exception of Security+ which is a bit more specialized) then you likley already have the knowledge you'd get from going for the cert and depending on the type of job you are looking for then the piece of paper itself won't gain you anything.

I don't know where you are in your career but when you said you are a consultant I assumed that if you're job hunting then you are probably not looking for a sys admin or tier 2 technician type of position. There are a lot of jobs in IT that absolutely require A+ as a minimum pre-req, but when I think of someone who is already working in the industry for a consulting company these aren't typically the jobs I assume that someone like that would be looking for.

-Byshop

Yeah I am already in the industry and I have been working on my bachelor's. It was my boss who suggested that I get some certifications under my belt and he said he would help me with those.

If help means "pay for" then always go for it. You mentioned dollars in your initial post so I wrote my response assuming you'd be out of pocket for the costs, in which case I'd say the Comptia certs are debatably not worth it unless you know you need the paper for something. My company gives out free vouchers for any MS exam to any employee, plus we can get non-MS cert vouchers or reimbursements upon request. We also have a wealth of training materials available to us on our company intranet including items like practice exams and a Books 24/7 subscription, among other things.

It sounds like you are embarking on what'll be a fun career. Yes, the Comptia certs will help provide a good general foundation, but just remember that no company is going to pay anyone a six figure salary for the skills you'd get from getting your A+ (or a bachelor's for that matter). That's with cost of living notwithstanding, of course, and the average salaries might be higher depending on where you are in Cali but the statement still fundamentally holds true. If you haven't started down this path already, I would strongly recommend focusing on becoming an expert in a specific technology or practice. I had buddies who were making over 100k fifteen years ago doing highly specialized work like Oracle DB design and programming. Also, it's a good idea to avoid any skills that have a high potential for being sent to global delivery centers (the PC term for outsourced). Desktop transformation used to be a good one, but these days it's much more popular for consulting firms to staff projects like that 80-90% offshore. The same goes for low to mid level development positions, unfortunately. Offshore is great at work that is low to medium complexity, but where there is a lot of it. The very complex engineering or architecture tasks are the ones that tend to stay onshore, although the resources doing these tasks may be running offshore teams who will do most of the grunt work based on the designs provided by on-shore.

I don't know what specific services the company you work for offers, but these days the some of the stuff that's hot for any enterprise is public and private cloud tech. Understanding hypervisors like Hyper-V and VMWare as well as the various tools used to manage them at the enterprise level like System Center Virtual Machine Manager and VSphere. Understanding the pros and cons of IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS services in the Microsoft and Amazon space, and understanding when (and how) to move workloads between the various public and private cloud offerings. Security is also good in general because while it evolves it's one of those things that pretty much never goes away. There are also a lot of non-technical skills and certs that you can get that will make you a well rounded consultant. MOF and ITIL framework certs help you to understand process and how IT organizaitons are structured. These can be the difference between someone who comes in to fix a monitoring system versus being the guy who designs an entire IT support organization for a large company. PMP is also a good one because it gives you the skills you need to run your own projects, but that one is tricky because unlike many of these other certs you actually have to log a minimum number of hours running projects using different project management methodologies. With some of these more advanced certs, walking into a new employer and getting a six figure salary (or close to it) straight off the bat isn't out of the question.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

-Byshop

These certs are the lowest tier and I wouldn't even bother with them unless you have less than 2 years of experience. The highest paid guy I know doesn't have any certs whatsoever.

When you say "IT company" what do you mean? I've worked at about 6 high tech companies in Silicon Valley, including 2 consulting firms and none of them required that. I wonder if by "IT company" you mean local computer repair shop.

I agree with Byshop, here are my creds if you really want them: Experience with windows 7, windows 8 (not a lot), server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, Lync enterprise voice, Exchange, AD, Linux (centOS, red hat, ubuntu), OSX server, AIX, HPUX, Solaris, Salt, Nagios, powershell, perl, PBX, kickstart, vSphere, ESXi 4,5,6, vCLI, Veeam, Arcserve.

I'm a sysadmin and I spend most of my time doing my best to script the techs out of a job.

I have no certs and an AA in business, recently went back to college to get my BS in information systems (3 courses left) so I can move into management (the only learning I have done in this is when I got a choose-your-own-project assignment).

Can you define what you mean by IT company? Because what you are talking about really seems like geek squad type stuff.

I took a practice A+ exam a little while ago, it was laughably easy if you have any sort of experience working in an enterprise environment.

An IT company at least how I define one, is any company that troubleshoot hardware or software issues, or maintains computers, severs or networks. My sisters fiance is a system administrator in Orange County and he he tells me the more certs I have the better.

Well, what you describe certainly falls under the category of the kind of services that an IT company might offer, but that's just a drop in the bucket. You're describing IT support services and sys admin services, but that's just the "run state" for something that's already built. Who designs and builds the network you maintain? Who builds out the monitoring systems and patch management for the entire corporate network? Who designs the directory services or figures out the scale the needed for a SQL or web farm? These are all services that advanced IT consulting firms offer and more. However, if you're just talking about support and sys admin work, then yes the Comptia certs are very specifically targeted at the skills necessary to do those jobs.

But like I said, if the cert is free or you know you need the paper for something specific then always go for it. If you already have the skills to pass it easily, then it's not a huge time commitment and if you don't already have the skills to pass it then it'll be good for you to get them.

-Byshop

Just give them your Steam Collection List, gets you any job.... :P

Or they'll look at how many hundreds of games I haven't even started yet and they'll assume I never finish anything. :)

-Byshop

Damn.... no wonder no one hires me :P

The company I part time at - it's a "tech" help desk for the company. We don't actually physically work on any hardware and anything we learn is all proprietary for the hardware and software used. Getting an A+ or N+ doesn't actually benefit you or help you do the work.

Upper management went on a trip about how the help desk technicians need an A+ and N+ if they want to be promoted. I happened to move up to Tier II before they wanted certs and I was told they wanted me on their Tier III team before I went to part time (I had a good opportunity to work at another company, but was asked to stay around part time)....they have Tier 1 techs that are just awful at their job and by awful I mean they lack basic abilities to pinpoint hardware/software issues for the customer and they escalate their cases to Tier II.

These Tier 1 techs, many of them have their A+ and a couple have their N+ and they're being worked with on promoting to Tier II just because they have their certs. Having a certification doesn't make them a better technician. It's reflected in their work - they haven't improved just because they have a piece of paper saying they completed the A+.

As I see it, getting certs (as others have said) is a good way to lay down a foundation of your possible skills/abilities. Does having a certification mean you're good at hardware or networking? Hell no. But at least you have something to help get you into a possible position.

I know someone that has a half dozen certifications across MS, A+, N+ and so on....but his wife has more than he does. She studies and passes the tests for new certifications for MS and so on, but she is the dumbest person when it comes to using computers. She can't troubleshoot, she can't fix and she can't comprehend actually using the necessary hardware (router, modem, switch, cabling and so on) to hook up a home network......she's book smart, but applying her knowledge, she just can't do it.

I know that I am late answering this question, but I would like to answer to help others coming along.

"Are Comptia Certs worth it?"

The answer is yes. They are great as an intro into something, such as computer hardware or software, security, networking, or whatever. They help you to understand the basic concepts, while letting you get to know some of the lingo. More importantly, they will help you find out what your passion is! This is very important in the IT world.

If you think that you should just get your A+ or Network+ and quit, then don't even do it. Not worth it. It will help you get an entry level interview, but not much more. But the point of those certs is to get your feet wet, to allow you to grow. This is what is most important.

If you are new to IT, or would like to get started, I recommend the following:

Get your A+ and a good OS cert, like Microsoft's Windows 7 (Enterprise Desktop Support Technician 685 or Enterprise Desktop Administrator 686).

Once you have the basics down, think about what you want to specialize in. You HAVE to specialize. Watch a ton of videos on YouTube about different things. On the Enterprise side you can pick from Windows Server, SQL, Exchange, VMWare, Linux, Storage or Networking.

Here are some example certs for those areas:

Windows Server: MCSA on Server 2012 or 2008. Next you could get your MCSE in Server Infrastructure or Desktop Infrastructure. These tests are not easy and you will probably take at least a year to get all the way to MCSE. SQL, Exchange also have their own certs.

VMWare: You should really want to understand this before you get into it. The knowledge is not cheep. In order to get the VCP 6, you have to take a VMWare Foundation class that costs about $3K. I would suggest getting the company you work for to pay for it. After that you can take the VMWare Foundation test. If you pass, you then have to take your VCP test. The tests are not easy but they are worth it. The VCP is the only cert that companies seem to know about. However if you get their next level, the VCIX (used to be called VCAP) then you will work for companies like VMWare or Dell. And you will make good money.

Linux: I don't know much about Linux, but I do know that the RHCSA (Red Hat Certified System Administrator) is well respected. It is also somewhat hard.

Storage: There are a lot of good ones. You could go for SNIA SCSP, then SNIA SCSE which is a good one if you want to be a storage guy. There is also NetApp and EMC certifications.

Networking: You should decide which company to go with, but in my opinion, Cisco is the one to go for. Their entry level cert is highly respected. And if you can one day get the CCIE, you will be making the big bucks. There is also Juniper and Brocade.

The bottom line is this, certs show that you have motivation, that you have a desire to grow your experience, and that you have some knowledge. But you still have to be able to troubleshoot and pass the interview questions. I hope this huge post helps :)

Just in case you are wondering, I currently hold a Lifetime A+, and a Security+, VCP-DCV 6, and some other certs. My Security+ is the only Comptia Cert that matters now. I work for a major computer/server company and work in their Enterprise help desk. I specialize in Hardware, Windows and VMWare.

@isaac7183: Please do not bump old threads.

-Byshop