So much truth in this article! Great write-up Scott!

Indeed, continual learning throughout the entire journey is a must. This field is growing and evolving so quickly that we have to be passionately diligent if we're going to keep up with it and remain relevant.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is this:

1. Don't limit yourself by taking a path that you think you should take when your heart is leaning towards something else. Here's an example: Someone just starts tinkering with Linux and they're immediately excited about it. But instead of diving in and taking advantage of that natural spark, they miss an opportunity to start a fire and gain a lot of great experience because they instead choose to do something they're less interested in (Perhaps because someone convinced them to go down a different path because it "might pay more" or something of that nature).

(Which leads me to #2)
2. Follow your passion! I'm so glad I've never been in a situation like the example I gave in #1. If you continue to spend time pursuing the things that excite you, it's a lot easier to be happy and feel fulfilled. This, at least for me, also requires having an open mind and sometimes making sacrifices to "dabble" and try new things to keep the journey fresh and exciting.

@IRJ said in Logical IT Certification Progression:

A+ didn't teach me anything useful. It was a test just to get a piece of paper to help me get a job.

This, at least in my opinion, really depends on experience and understanding prior to taking the test.

I personally think that the A+ certification is great in at least two scenarios:

1. For people who don't have enough experience or understanding to realize that solving IT problems, in a "foundational" sense, really boils down to "Is the issue I'm trying to work through a 'hardware problem', a 'software problem' or 'both'?"
2. For people who partially fit the profile of #1 but they don't yet realize it, or they haven't developed it enough.

(3) My opinion is that the A+ cert is either for someone who is very green to the field of IT and is just beginning their journey (and this may not even mean someone who is pursuing a career in IT), so they're looking to build foundational knowledge -OR- it's for someone who's got some IT experience and they want to either begin a career in IT, or they're still in the early phases of their IT career and they need to play the game of "show me your paper" in order to take it to the next level (which matches your scenario).

@scottalanmiller I saw some info about MangoCon, but didn't realize it was the first conference :D. Cool, hope you guys had a great turn out!

@scottalanmiller @dafyre Thanks guys! Scott told me about this site months ago, but I JUST NOW finally bit the bullet and signed up, lol.

I'm looking forward to learning a lot from all the great people and years of collective experience!