I've been just browsing online about A+ and Network+ certifications and it seems like many people out there just slam them and say that certifications are "worthless" etc.... I don't know what is making people say things like this? Now, I'm studying for A+, and I know it's only a start... I plan on going for Network+ after, then onto further certs after that, likely more into networking as that is what interest me the most. But are they really "meaningless" or "worthless"??? My hopes with attaining the knowledge and getting these certs are to further my knowledge in computers (which I love to learn about) as well as making myself more attractive for the job market out there.

I guess it depends on who you talk to, if you read this article it say's A+ is a must have.

http://www.globalknowledge.com/articles ... ted+States

The IT field has so may avenues to go down that I think starting with A+ is just going to give you a good base to begin with. It really depends on what you plan do to do in the long run.

Mary M.

They are certainly not worthless imo. I believe the CompTIA courses are approved by the US dept of defense and that must surely mean something. In th UK a lot of organisations(mainly public ones i.e.our money wasting councils) look at A+, net+ as the min entry level cert for new staff. I'd have to say if I hadn't of done the net or sec+ courses I would not have passed my cisco exam so easily (I pissed all over it. Scored 935/1000) as I did a few weeks ago. The Net+ prepared me for the bigger cisco exam. It gave me alot of confidence. If I had gone in without doing the net+ it would have taken me alot longer and some topics may have been harder to grasp.
three cheers for CompTIA!

That's good to know. Thanks for the info. Yeah, I think some people are just bitter and miserable in their lives and like to poo poo things for no reason. You have the exact certs I'd like to get. I'm studying for A+ now, then will go for Net+, then Sec+, then Cisco! I'm excited to learn.