4 Certifications Experts Exchange Can Help You Earn

As we established last week, certifications matter—especially when it comes to being competitive in today’s job market. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a self-taught technology professional or you’ve been out of the classroom for a while, chances are your resume could use some padding to help keep your qualifications current and desirable to employers.

Member, cyber security analyst, and Mac expert, Justin Pierce, commented on last week’s article and explained how a lack of certifications had hindered his career.

"I ran smack into this wall. I made the mistake of thinking my traditional education and work experience would carry me through in this industry because I didn't factor in the most important of variables—"change". ... I didn't have much time to work on grabbing certifications, but when I found an hour to use, I worked on grabbing certs that were tied to universities. That was a mistake. Why? Because "change" happened and industry recognized certs became a thing. Certs became so important. ..." Pierce said.

Experts Exchange understands this shift in the background of the modern-day technology professional, and has worked to provide tools that help tech individuals stay current on technologies in ways that may impact their career opportunities. One of our efforts to support this goal has been to provide continued education opportunities in e-learning formats—courses that enrollees can take at their convenience and at their own pace. We’ve bolstered our Courses offering to include timely and relevant materials that offer background training and continued learning on the most recent—and in-demand—technology issues, such as Active Directory and Microsoft Server Infrastructure.

But we felt we could do even more than that.

When we realized that certifications are where the continued need lies, we wanted to offer learning opportunities that work toward professional and industry-recognized certifications. So how are we meeting this need? By offering courses geared specifically toward certification exams. When you enroll in courses in a certification path, you’ll be armed with the study tools needed to pass third-party exams.

Here are some of the most popular certification path courses we currently offer:

Course #1: Certified Web Development Professional 

Pursuing a career in web development? You first need to understand how to use and apply HTML5 code, JavaScript, and PHP. This comprehensive course contains 5-10 hours of video training per topic and covers all aspects of understanding and application needed to pass the exam.

Course creator, Mark Lassoff, says this certification is a vital stepping stone for careers in web development.

“[HTML5] is one of those skills that opens the door to a lot of modern development and design positions. Anything that appears on the web or hybrid mobile applications have HTML5 as the scaffolding. So it’s a critical skill for developers to have and many developers who’ve worked in more tradition environments may not have encountered HTML5 directly. Understanding HTML5 allows you to create a more maintainable web or mobile application. Many are deficient because they’ve learned HTML5 informally, making courses like this of great importance,” Lassoff said.

Course #2: CompTIA IT Fundamentals

CompTIA—also known as the Computing Technology Industry Association—is widely known as the nonprofit that issues certifications for the IT industry. It seems only fitting that e-learning course creators ITPro.TV have created a course geared specifically toward one of the entry-level CompTIA IT Fundamentals certifications. Marking this item off your certification list and adding it to your resume will prove to hiring managers that you have all the basics down, and are ready and willing to come aboard and begin working.

When a tech professional crosses this certification off their must-have list, they are headed down the path toward more advanced and desirable CompTIA certifications, such as security, hardware, cloud applications, Linux, and many more.

Course #3: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases (Exam 70-462)

Database management is a huge part of an IT professional’s job. Understanding how to maintain speeds, keep access points clean, and safe from external attacks is critical for effective sysadmin applications. Windows remains a prevalent server provider in today’s business world, and this popular course offers instruction on backing up, restoring, and protecting Windows servers running Microsoft SQL 2012. Completion of this course provides relevant info on the creation and maintenance of a Windows server, and you’ll be prepared for the 70-462 exam.

Course #4: Network+ Exam N10-006

This popular course prepares you for the Network+ exam, introduced by CompTIA in 1999 as a “vendor neutral networking certification that is trusted around the world.” Networking is the process of connecting computing devices and terminals, and is essential knowledge for IT professionals and sysadmin workers. This course covers terminology, hardware, and a thorough understanding of this sometimes broad topic to prepare you for the CompTIA Network+ exam.

Technology is constantly changing, as are the jobs and expertise needed to understand and maintain technology applications. Continued education is necessary for staying current in this industry. Whatever your area of interest, certifications are a widely recognized way to prove you know the material and are familiar with the latest trends and technologies. Not only do they advance your subject-matter knowledge, they can also advance your career opportunities.

For more details, view the comprehensive list of certification paths.