[ctjohnb]

Hello all, I am new at this and have been practicing what I learned from the A+ class
to give myself experience till I can get an IT job.
but it seems like night and day as to what I have learned in class verses what actually takes place in trouble shooting. Granted the teacher I had only wanted us to memorize the book to pass the A+ cert. unfortunately we never had a whole lot of lab time to apply what we learned in relation to fixing pc's!
So yah, hey I passed the A+. Great, But what do I do now?
My goal is getting a job working on pc's or in a large corporation, But I am finding it tough with out the hands on, can someone please lead in the right direction. as to what I am going to need to know as far as pottential future classes and also some specialty programs that are geared towards trouble shooting and repair, spyware, secerity threats stuff like that. I mean like what does geek squad and those guys use to figure things out that exceeds the norm or obvious fix's.
So my thoughts at the moment are that untill someone give's me the opportunity to get my foot in the door. I would like to get my hands on as many of friends and families pc's as I can to give myself some hands. That way I can bring more to the table at an interview. So any and all replies would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

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my advice (from experience) is to actually go to school for "this stuff". I've found that a good trade school or community college will give you the most hands on knowledge with regards to computer related fields

i went to ITT Tech for 2 years and got my associates of applied sciences degree in computer networking systems. we had A LOT of hands on stuff (i'd say it was probably 60/40 split in favor of labs over theory) and it really prepared me for the job i have now (network administrator).

classes for certifications are fine and good, as long as the end goal is getting the certification, however if the end goal is actually learning how to do something other than take a test, you're starting at the wrong end of the line.

[dsenette]

my advice (from experience) is to actually go to school for "this stuff". I've found that a good trade school or community college will give you the most hands on knowledge with regards to computer related fields

i went to ITT Tech for 2 years and got my associates of applied sciences degree in computer networking systems. we had A LOT of hands on stuff (i'd say it was probably 60/40 split in favor of labs over theory) and it really prepared me for the job i have now (network administrator).

classes for certifications are fine and good, as long as the end goal is getting the certification, however if the end goal is actually learning how to do something other than take a test, you're starting at the wrong end of the line.