Logical IT Certification Progression
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People put too much hate on A+.
Sure if you've already been a bench tech for a few years it kind of doesn't mean much at that point, you've seen enough problems to be a good tech.
But for me, I owned like 2 computers before I got my first job as a tech, and they wanted A+ for the job. All of my study was purely for A+, with no experience at all. I remember reading those fat bastard 5 inch computer repair books all night trying to memorize power supply voltages for each pin, and IRQs and 802.x details. I burned through many highlighters and notebooks!
As a person with no real computer repair skills, all of that study was a huge foundation for me. It's not the A+ test or cert that teaches anything, it's how much study and experience you get/need to pass it in the first place. I actually failed the hardware part of the test at first due to all the friggin nonsense trivia questions.
Regardless, a person can be a "computer repair tech" purely by experience but not really know anything about how anything works or why. But you do gain a bit of an advantage with the book learning aspect too. It's nice to read up on how things work under the hood, and not simply know how to fix it.
Experience is great, book learning is great, but a mix of both is better still.
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@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
People put too much hate on A+.
Sure if you've already been a bench tech for a few years it kind of doesn't mean much at that point, you've seen enough problems to be a good tech.
Because it's a cert for bench, sold to IT on a scam marketing binge, that is horribly outdated and treated as a joke by the company that makes it. It's really that bad. The data on the test isn't real world or useful. And it's for an industry different than the one it is sold to.
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@scottalanmiller said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
People put too much hate on A+.
Sure if you've already been a bench tech for a few years it kind of doesn't mean much at that point, you've seen enough problems to be a good tech.
Because it's a cert for bench, sold to IT on a scam marketing binge, that is horribly outdated and treated as a joke by the company that makes it. It's really that bad. The data on the test isn't real world or useful. And it's for an industry different than the one it is sold to.
All this may be true, but I'm speaking of the training you do before taking the test.
My computer hardware and software and repair books were quite valid training materials with a ton of references and technical details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
The $140 test is inconsequential at that point. Take it not, depends on if your job market puts any validity behind it.If you want to hire for a basic bench tech position, what are you going to ask for? There are only a few options.
- Some kind of undergrad or computer science degree. But who gets a degree like that to get a bench tech job at $10/hr?
- Years of experience. Again, what experience tech wants a beginner bench tech job?
- Some random certs that at least prove they must have read a computer repair book once.
I'm not saying A+ is awesome, but what else is a decent alternative? CCNAs don't want $10/hr tech jobs. Net+ has nothing to do with bench tech really. MS Windows certs only barely apply, if at all.
What is a beginner bench tech to do?
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@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
As a person with no real computer repair skills, all of that study was a huge foundation for me. It's not the A+ test or cert that teaches anything, it's how much study and experience you get/need to pass it in the first place. I actually failed the hardware part of the test at first due to all the friggin nonsense trivia questions.
Why the {self moderated} {censored} {bleeping} {honk} do I need to know the L2 Cache on an 8088 CPU? Pentiums had been out 4 years at that point, and the P2s were just hitting the market when I took my test.
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@dafyre said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
As a person with no real computer repair skills, all of that study was a huge foundation for me. It's not the A+ test or cert that teaches anything, it's how much study and experience you get/need to pass it in the first place. I actually failed the hardware part of the test at first due to all the friggin nonsense trivia questions.
Why the {self moderated} {censored} {bleeping} {honk} do I need to know the L2 Cache on an 8088 CPU? Pentiums had been out 4 years at that point, and the P2s were just hitting the market when I took my test.
<just kidding>
You had to learn history in school, so why not in IT?
</just kidding> -
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
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@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Arguably, if you've done bench work for any extended amount of time it really doesn't require much thought. You see the same types of issues coming in and your response is almost reflex, especially if you are working on a standardized set of hardware.
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@RamblingBiped said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Arguably, if you've done bench work for any extended amount of time it really doesn't require much thought. You see the same types of issues coming in and your response is almost reflex, especially if you are working on a standardized set of hardware.
Yes and no.
I had to do a lot of bizarre stuff and a lot of bizarre requests. We would solder loose power ports on laptops, or USB ports. Reseat loose mobo chips. Analyze POST codes. Do advanced data recovery on dying hard drives, repair MBRs from viruses. Replace various broken control boards on CRT monitors.
After about 8 years you've certainly seen it all. Like wanting DOS 7 installed in a WinXP world. Or recalibrating a dot matrix printer for an old custom application on DOS.Bench tech used to be fun when people actually wanted "repair". Nowadays it's either replace hardware and reload. Or just reload. People don't care about "fixing" any more, half the time it's faster to wipe out and start over.
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Microsoft's Windows exams are often overlooked. I believe it is a great certification. I went through the Windows 7 version with my fiance and I found it to be a great starter IT test. These test go over everything you need to know about a specific desktop OS. The material is setup in a way that really focuses on beginners, but also presents useful knowledge like knowing your way around the control panel, understanding the boot files, etc.
MTA also some interesting courses that go beyond desktop OS(es) and give you some insight to servers, IT infrastructure, etc.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/mta-certification.aspx
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@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@scottalanmiller said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
People put too much hate on A+.
Sure if you've already been a bench tech for a few years it kind of doesn't mean much at that point, you've seen enough problems to be a good tech.
Because it's a cert for bench, sold to IT on a scam marketing binge, that is horribly outdated and treated as a joke by the company that makes it. It's really that bad. The data on the test isn't real world or useful. And it's for an industry different than the one it is sold to.
All this may be true, but I'm speaking of the training you do before taking the test.
My computer hardware and software and repair books were quite valid training materials with a ton of references and technical details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
The $140 test is inconsequential at that point. Take it not, depends on if your job market puts any validity behind it.If you want to hire for a basic bench tech position, what are you going to ask for? There are only a few options.
- Some kind of undergrad or computer science degree. But who gets a degree like that to get a bench tech job at $10/hr?
- Years of experience. Again, what experience tech wants a beginner bench tech job?
- Some random certs that at least prove they must have read a computer repair book once.
I'm not saying A+ is awesome, but what else is a decent alternative? CCNAs don't want $10/hr tech jobs. Net+ has nothing to do with bench tech really. MS Windows certs only barely apply, if at all.
What is a beginner bench tech to do?
If you are hiring bench then absolutely, you hire people with a bench cert (or training.) The point is, you don't hire IT people at this level or, if you do, their entry cert is the Net+.
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@thwr said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@dafyre said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
As a person with no real computer repair skills, all of that study was a huge foundation for me. It's not the A+ test or cert that teaches anything, it's how much study and experience you get/need to pass it in the first place. I actually failed the hardware part of the test at first due to all the friggin nonsense trivia questions.
Why the {self moderated} {censored} {bleeping} {honk} do I need to know the L2 Cache on an 8088 CPU? Pentiums had been out 4 years at that point, and the P2s were just hitting the market when I took my test.
<just kidding>
You had to learn history in school, so why not in IT?
</just kidding>IT History is ACTUALLY valuable. Not as valuable as a CCIE, of course. But I see lots of mistakes made where IT History would have been really useful.
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@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Not quite, but that's closer. Bench is about tech, about consumer gear or business stuff that falls into consumer spaces. IT is "Business Information Infrastructure."
Lots of bench people make decisions. Like if you are building a white box desktop for a gamer, the bench guy will likely make several decisions from CPU to GPU to RAM to case and power supply. It's not a script, but it is not BII, either.
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@RamblingBiped said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Arguably, if you've done bench work for any extended amount of time it really doesn't require much thought. You see the same types of issues coming in and your response is almost reflex, especially if you are working on a standardized set of hardware.
That's mostly true, but the knowledge is not completely static.
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@scottalanmiller said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Not quite, but that's closer. Bench is about tech, about consumer gear or business stuff that falls into consumer spaces. IT is "Business Information Infrastructure."
Lots of bench people make decisions. Like if you are building a white box desktop for a gamer, the bench guy will likely make several decisions from CPU to GPU to RAM to case and power supply. It's not a script, but it is not BII, either.
hey - you're making it grey again
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@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@scottalanmiller said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Not quite, but that's closer. Bench is about tech, about consumer gear or business stuff that falls into consumer spaces. IT is "Business Information Infrastructure."
Lots of bench people make decisions. Like if you are building a white box desktop for a gamer, the bench guy will likely make several decisions from CPU to GPU to RAM to case and power supply. It's not a script, but it is not BII, either.
hey - you're making it grey again
There isn't nearly as many strictly hardware people anymore these days.
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@IRJ said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@scottalanmiller said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Not quite, but that's closer. Bench is about tech, about consumer gear or business stuff that falls into consumer spaces. IT is "Business Information Infrastructure."
Lots of bench people make decisions. Like if you are building a white box desktop for a gamer, the bench guy will likely make several decisions from CPU to GPU to RAM to case and power supply. It's not a script, but it is not BII, either.
hey - you're making it grey again
There isn't nearly as many strictly hardware people anymore these days.
My dream job
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@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@scottalanmiller said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Not quite, but that's closer. Bench is about tech, about consumer gear or business stuff that falls into consumer spaces. IT is "Business Information Infrastructure."
Lots of bench people make decisions. Like if you are building a white box desktop for a gamer, the bench guy will likely make several decisions from CPU to GPU to RAM to case and power supply. It's not a script, but it is not BII, either.
hey - you're making it grey again
Tee hee.
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@IRJ said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@scottalanmiller said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@Dashrender said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
@guyinpv said in Logical IT Certification Progression:
al details. I don't regret buying or reading through any of them. Books on Windows, DOS, printers, networks, repair and troubleshooting techniques, system design and building, etc etc. All of that is good.
Answer questions posed at an interview.
Besides, bench techs don't think, according to @scottalanmiller, they work by script - aka, reading a script and doing what it says. Once you have to start making decisions, you're no longer a bench tech, you're in IT.
Not quite, but that's closer. Bench is about tech, about consumer gear or business stuff that falls into consumer spaces. IT is "Business Information Infrastructure."
Lots of bench people make decisions. Like if you are building a white box desktop for a gamer, the bench guy will likely make several decisions from CPU to GPU to RAM to case and power supply. It's not a script, but it is not BII, either.
hey - you're making it grey again
There isn't nearly as many strictly hardware people anymore these days.
Not nearly, most are in datacenters now.
