Apple Certification

[ss90kim]

So I am a college student right now and wanted to do some IT stuff but never got a chance to because my major is Psychology and wanted to finish the degree since I already came so far and payed for all the years I studied it. I probably would have changed my major to IT if I could go back. Anyways, I had some questions about the Apple certifications for those who have experience, are in the process, or are already certified.

Where do I start? I saw the exams for mac integration. Do I start there and where do I continue to become a technician? I also wanted to get certified in Pro Applications as well. Can I do whatever I want.

Also I am confused as to where I get study materials and which books are best. I don't want to do courses so I can save some money. I saw that Apple has guides and pdfs. Are these good enough to study so that I can pass the Integration and Aperture level one? If I go on to be a technician or specialist are these guides not enough for me to pass the exam?

I would appreciate it if someone could give me some guidance. Thank you!

 

[miles01110]

"IT" is not a major. As far as certifications, there are far more useful ones if you want to go into the IT field, namely the ones from comptia and cicso.

 

[hakuryuu]

Get some vendor neutral certs (A+, Network+) and maybe CCNA to start with. I have my ACTC and it just isn't worth it to be honest. I learned some good stuff but honestly I should have spent my time on the CCNA which I am just now getting around to. My manager doesn't care whether I have any of it because he knows I know what I am doing but there will be a point in the future where something like the CCNA will get me past HR where the Apple certs were more of a curiosity.

Oh and a cert in Aperture.. really?

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

What do you want to do in IT thats the real question. If you want to be in IT don't waste your time with those Pro App Certs they are useless. Also, as it stands right now most of Apples certificates are changing as well. I'd venture to say pretty soon they will be meaningless unfortunately. If you want to work in IT you will want to focus on Networking, Agnostic Hardware Support, and light coding/scripting (shell is a great place to start.) I started with my A+, then I graduated college with a E.E.T, then received my Mac Genius Certification, after that got all my Server Certificates for OSX. Best thing to do is be as agnostic as possible it will allow more doors to open especially since in the IT world being a jack of all trades is valued more then being just "The Mac Guy".

 

[Detrius]

If you want to be a technician, there's not much reason to pay to get the certification yourself. Any company that will hire you will pay for the exams for you, and you'll get free access to the training material anyway. There's no substitute for on-the-job training. The exams are worthless. A few months of experience is all it takes to be a decent technician.

 

[JTLintstockings]

I have to agree with the others with a few exceptions. The problem with Apple is that they are primarily consumer devices. Few organizations are sporting Apple desktops and applications on a scale that would require hiring an apple tech. I cannot imagine the apple certs being anything more than a curiosity, or a that's nice, unless you are applying for something very industry specific or where you could apply your existing education to. Maybe a job with the genius bar at apple would look favorably to having them. It looks like you need to find an Apple certified training center (I noticed one near my city) to get your Apple certs. They look expensive. Hit up career builder and search for Apple. See what pops up.

A+ and Net+ will be enough to get you the most entry level position at a lot of organizations. They are easy enough that paying for classes is unnecessary. Just study hard, do practice tests and you should be fine. I would AVOID trying to get CCNA without having a job lined up. It is not particularly easy, you have to renew it every 3 years or less and there are too many IS college grads with that cert competing for too few jobs. Wait till you have a job and let the company pay for those certs. VMWare would be my first choice for advanced certification. It is the future of computing at large organizations. There is definitely no substitute for on the job training. I have used all of three classes from my entire computer science degree in 10 years of employment. Everything else has been learned on the job or on my own. I hate to sound negative but without an IT degree of some sort you are going to be at the bottom of a large barrel for quite a while. Hope you love computers. My friend has an IS degree and had to practically beg to get an entry level tech job. Perhaps you could find something that marries psychology and IT.

Good luck.