While it is a great certification to attain, those in education jobs and counselor jobs would say that there have been a great deal of misconceptions surrounding the A+ certification and what exactly it is good for. Of course, there have been many questions surrounding whether or not A+ certification is actually necessary to break into the IT field, and we'll do our best to answer those questions.
The biggest question is: will this help you in any IT career? Those in education jobs and teacher jobs say absolutely 'yes'. If your dream job is computer repair and help desk support then absolutely 'no'. Other jobs such as programming, application design, even game design, aren't going to require the A+ certification. Will an A+ certification help in these fields? Absolutely, it helps to know how to work on your computer if it breaks down, but those in counselor jobs stress that it is not absolutely necessary.
Basically, you will learn the appropriate way to upgrade, build, repair, and generally work on personal computers. If you want you can just go in and pay for the test, you don't absolutely need to take a course. If you are confident enough to do this, then you are encouraged to do it because no one likes to sit through long complicated courses.
There are books that you can purchase which will help you out with your A+ certification course, and you can check these out at your local library to help prepare yourself. Those in education jobs say that this is a great way to ensure success on your A+ Certification exam.
You should take note however, that having an A+ Certification does in no way guarantee your success in gaining an IT job of any kind! Of course, it's going to look great on your resume, as those in the counselor jobs will no doubt tell you, but employers are going to be looking at your other credentials in addition to this.
A computer science degree would be infinitely better than A+ certification, but you may have already guessed that. What you'll want to do is make sure you get all the degrees and certifications that you can, A+ being a supplementary one. If you want to get this certification that's great, it will help you out quite a bit and while you're learning new skills you can make extra money on the side repairing computers and giving technical support. Just remember that those in teacher jobs will tell you that you need to shoot higher. Always try to better yourself, and always make sure you're getting the best education possible to secure your future!
