| The world is your oyster. Where you decide to | | | | career path can go in any direction you decide to |
| take your career after this is entirely up to you. | | | | take it. Let's take a look at some different paths |
| There are some things to consider depending on | | | | to follow. |
| your geographic location. If you happen to live in | | | | The Hardware Path: |
| or near the larger populated cities, competition for | | | | You can go from simple computer repair to |
| entry-level technical positions can be fierce. More | | | | manufacturing high-end workstations and servers. |
| and more IT graduates enter the workforce each | | | | The Technician Path: |
| day. By obtaining your A+ certification you can | | | | The next step is taking the Net+ Exam and |
| have a substantial advantage over your | | | | installing network cabling, supporting corporate end |
| competition in the career world, as well as having | | | | users and managing the corporate desktop. |
| a good foundation for adding more certifications | | | | Administration: |
| too. | | | | Network support, configuring routers and |
| Computer repair and technical support can | | | | managing user accounts on the corporate servers. |
| however be quite lucrative. Here are some of the | | | | This is also the well known Nework+/ MCSE |
| common fields that your A+ cert can make you | | | | NOVEL CNA/Cisco CCNA track. |
| a part of: | | | | Development: |
| *Field service technicians | | | | Design and manage the companies web presence |
| *Help Desk and Customer Service | | | | and intranet. |
| *PC technicians | | | | (.NET, ASP, MsSQL, PHP, MySQL, Oracle, |
| *Computer Manufacturing (DELL, HP, IBM etc.,) | | | | ColdFusion) |
| However the opportunities for advacement and | | | | As you can see from just this small list the |
| alternate fields are virtually endless. Here are | | | | possibilities are astounding. This is only a small |
| some areas where specialized training and skills | | | | percentage of the technologies and career paths |
| are in large demand: | | | | for you to choose from. The table below lists |
| - Computer Forensics | | | | various other certifications that you can combine |
| (Due to an increase in computer related crimes | | | | with A+ to take your career in a new direction. |
| such as identity theft etc., lead to a greater need | | | | Also visit Comptia's Related certification page for |
| for people to analyze data without corruption.) | | | | more information on how to apply A+ towards |
| - Disaster prevention and recovery | | | | advanced certifications by vendors such as Cisco, |
| (Oh-No!, I forgot to back-up my files. Now what | | | | Microsoft and more. |
| do I do?) | | | | * Hardware: Server+, Manufacturing |
| - Personalized Training | | | | * Technician: Net+, MCDSP, MCP/MCSA (Microsoft |
| Teach corporate and home users how to use | | | | Track) |
| software applications, prevent data loss and | | | | * Administration: Network+,CCNA/CCNP,CNA |
| identity theft.) | | | | CNE,Linux Track, MCSE |
| - LSDBMS and VLSDBMS | | | | * Development: .NET, MCDBA, PHP/MySQL |
| (Large Scale Database Management Systems and | | | | (Open-source Track) |
| Very Large Scale Database Management | | | | Information technology is an ever changing arena. |
| Systems) otherwise know as terabyte data | | | | And while you may have decided on a specific |
| warehousing. | | | | career path, the benefits of the CompTIA A+ |
| Other Career Paths: | | | | certification will remain a solid foundation for you |
| Once you have gone through the IT industry right | | | | to build on. |
| of passage, the CompTIA A+ certification. Your | | | | |