So I got a call from a vender for exam preparation material, and they shared with me something that will affect many people now. Previously if you held CompTIA A+, Network +, and/or Server + you were not required to renew them. Kind of nice since many other venders required you to do so. Due to them getting those Certifications blessed per se by the ISO. Then they have to provide a way to renew, meaning that we have to renew. They have set this at every 3 years. This is effective as of January 1, 2010. So I looked at their renewal page to see what you can do. You can take the latest version of the Cert, or a Bridge exam to it. You can start keeping track of CEUs, and after hitting a particular number of them then you are good for another 3 years.Good thing though is that you only have to maintain the highest of the 3 that you have, the order being as I have them listed in the title. For example if you have the Network +, you don't have to maintain the A+ just maintain the Network +. By this same theory, even though they don't state it exactly, then you could just take and pass then next certification to complete the renewal requirements. Since when you pass say the Security + then your highest wouldn't need to be renewed for 3 years.
Have no gripes about this because I am kind of tired of running into techs that claim certain certs but have had them forever, and can't even swap out a light bulb. OK I am exaggerating but we all know them. Off to study for the next Exam....
Here is the link to CompTIAs Renewal Policy FAQ
The author is correct about A+ certification not being not only the holy grail but a key requirement for a technicians, plenty of technicians don't need a+, while one is not pride and arrogant to say they don't need or can benefit from a certification and it proves you, the a+ with its constant changes, questions about what you sort of need but get it wrong but figurable, aka certain operating system and motherboard questions that wreckless, questions that you don't need including irq's and dmas , serial ports, and paralell (still relevant but) and 80286 os, AND that you get wrong BUT are correct, aka the default irq for a soundcard is 5,2/9 cascad
ReplyDeleteis the correct answer but debatable, questions about linux, mac OS, but not in the prior/after the exam year.
While re certification is desirable, the author is negligent on the cash cow, the entry levelness, and the stupidy of telling an employer that a 2010 cert is valuable than a 2011 cert that expires after 2014.
Three years is not a long time to renew a cert, while technology does change, 3 years is extremely short, folks where using windows xp for quite a few years and pcs did not change significantly, in fact a person who renews in 3 years rather than 5 is at a disadvantage. Also given laptops, smartphones, and others which do not negate the PC, the comptia exam is both overinclusive of theory and problem solving, while underinclusive of practicality such as how to easily explain a problem or situation to a novice and enterprise tooling.
The author then listen to everything comptia says "Do you believe politicians and talking all the time", and then uses a catch phrase that politicians use exaggerating points.
Criticism it is, however renewing advanced certificates such as cisco and microsoft (life)
which introduce new products, is less debatable
This is a cash-cow and employers will pay for it, too more so then smart employers/students.