Book Excerpt

Will becoming an A+ certified technician help you?

CompTIA's A+ exam is a leading vendor-neutral certification exam for computer technicians. The exam curriculum is not bound to a specific company or vendor, but is based on an industry-wide job task analysis. With the IT industry booming, the exam is consistently increasing in popularity. If you find yourself wondering if becoming an A+ certified technical with be a worthwhile investment in time, money and effort, consider the benefits A+ certification exam provides:
  • Credibility: Certification indicates that you have the required knowledge and proficiency to perform the job.

  • Enhanced career opportunities: Recruiters prefer certified candidates for job placements. Being A+ certified can also play a role in getting a promotion at a job. Many companies such as CompuCom, CompUSA and IBM have also made A+ certification mandatory for their service technicians.

  • Better salary: Surveys consistently show better salaries for A+ certified candidates as opposed to non-certified candidates in equivalent positions.

  • Greater confidence: Surveys indicate that certification gives candidates a higher level of confidence.

  • Credits towards other certifications: Popular certification programs such as those by Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Novell and Certiport recognize CompTIA A+ certification in their advanced certification tracks.

  • Prerequisite for trainings: Many companies require candidates to be CompTIA A+ certified to qualify for their corporate and vendor-specific training programs.

  • College credit: Many colleges offer credit for students who are A+ certified. CompTIA's Website even publishes a list of colleges that offer college credit for a CompTIA certification. In addition, there are many free A+ certification Websites offering resources such as practice exams and study guides to help students to attain their certification.
CompTIA A+ certification validates the knowledge of computer service technicians with the equivalent of 500 hours of hands-on experience. Earning CompTIA A+ certification proves that a candidate has a broad base of knowledge and competency in core hardware and operating system technologies including installation, configuration, diagnosing, preventive maintenance and basic networking.

If you plan to build, repair configure or maintain computers or computer networks, or plan to perform other functions of a computer service technicians, A+ certification will let you emerge much stronger in your career.

ProProfs Comptia A+ Certification School ProProfs Free Online A+ Certification School provides free study aids for the A+ exam such as study guides, practice exams, practice questions and testing software. Its free online Comptia A+ learning center is located at: http://www.ProProfs.com/certification/comptia/a-plus/index.shtml

http://www.ProProfs.com: Educational FREEway by Professionals & Professors!

This was first published in January 2006

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