A little hope please

Most of us aren't more educated - we're just OPINIONated. Right, Oz?
:)

Seriously, though, give us some background on what you do now and what you'd like to do. That information can help us give you a better idea on your question.

However, the short answer is no, you haven't thrown your money away (provided, of course, you're in IT or looking to go into IT). From my perspective any certification work is worth it...as long as you learn something (training).

Any certification or training is always worth it! As long as you have learnt from the training, this will help to either get into the IT profession or to get higher up in the IT proffesion! And will mean you can to your job more effectivly and effeciently.
Good luck.

The training and cert will give prospective employers a documented reason to hire you. If you have no on the job experience then you have to give an employer some assurance that you have the skills to do the job. Many employers will hire someone with certs and little or no on the job experience. They understand that they will have to invest time while you gain experience. The training and cert will definitely make you more appealing.

You may also want to do one other thing. If you have a "technical school" for electronics and computers near you then you may want to take their courses. These schools usually have a placement service. Some allow you to use their placement service for the rest of your life. This can be a good investment. Be sure to check that any school that you consider attending does, in fact, have a placement service and that they do, in fact, place most of the people who graduate from their program. This can make finding your first job a lot easier. Be a skeptical consumer though. Make them prove that their school will get you a job when you graduate. Investigate schools through your state's educational agencies.

Talk to as many employment agency recruiters as possible. When you interview at an employment agency don't just answer their questions; ask your own questions. Ask them how much money you should expect to make in your first job. They will tell you the truth. They want you to make as much as possible because they are paid according to your first month's salary/wage. They will not try to lowball you. Ask the recuiter about the number of jobs available and what employers are looking for. Ask them how your profile compares and contrasts to the people who are typically being hired. Ask them for advice on interviewing with a prospective employer.

When you do land an interview remember that you are selling yourself. Be upbeat. Be confident. Concentrate on your strong points before you go into the interview. You should convince yourself that the prospective employer is lucky that you showed up because you are the perfect person to fill the job. During the interview you should listen to the interviewer for a list of what they are looking for in a new employee. If they don't volunteer that information then ask them. Then you list how you can address each of their expectations and requirements. If there is a qualification that you don't currently satisfy then confidently say so and say that you can pick up that skill quickly. When you are leaving be sure to say something like "I'm looking forward to seeing you again." or something like that. Some people don't like that but most will not mind and it will leave the impression that you will be seeing them again. The implication is that you will see them when you start working at that business. I have used these techniques for a long time and I can tell you that 9 out of 10 times if I got an interview then I would be offered the job.

Good luck. I hope that you enjoy the IT field. It can be very demanding. I have often said that if I hadn't become a system administrator then I would probably have entered another stressful field such as air traffic control.

That is one way to know if you 'wasted money on that kind of training. The second way to know is - How much do you now know that you did not know before?
As for entering the IT field, welcome. I didn't hate the mfg field, it was family business that went under and I decided to try it. I also was mid 40's
However the days of wandering into a high paying job off the bat seem to be gone ($50,000 for a cert) You will be in an entry level position with entry level pay, but you can rise quickly if you have good work habits and contiue to learn

Greetings. I'm The Trivia Geek (call me Jay), one of the official cogs in the TechRepublic machinery. We're glad you're here and hope we can make you feel welcome, though I'd guess some of our site regulars have taken care of that already.

That said, I'll throw out the usual pitch for maximizing your TechRepublic experience. At the top of every techRepublic page is a "My Profile" link. I'd encourage you to click on it and then fill out your member profile. This will let your TR peers know your IT "life story" even after this thread has died off. Moreover, we're planning a lot of helpful features in the near future that will be driven by your profile data.

Besides a healthy profile, you'll want a healthy contacts list (which you can reach from the "My Contacts" link atop each page). To add somebody to your contacts list, just click on their hyperlinked name below their posts, which will take you to their profile. From there, just click the "Add to My Contacts" link, and they'll be linked to you. That way, you'll be able to track their activity through the Posts From My Contacts feature on the Discussion main page (check for this in our top-nav), and the Blogs From My Contacts link on the Blog door (also in the top-nav).

Again, welcome, and if you have any questions, feel free to peer-mail me.

--Jay

and A+ is the first one you need so way to go.

For your next step I recommend a community college lab-instructor based training program that gets you hands on in a networked environment, as opposed to a straight 'MS Eboot camp'. They usually prep you for MS exams and you learn more real world skills than you will with exclusive MS curriculum.

I suggest going after an AA too. The A+ cert is worth it and will help you, but that degree will open even more doors.

Keep in mind you might have to suck it up for a couple years before you can get your dream job...

I think certs don't hurt but it really depends on what you want to be doing. For my company (Large IT group for a hospital/university) you would need your A+ cert to even be considered for a desktop support technician.

My suggestion would be to think about the jobs you want to work in, call the human resources department (if they have one) and tell them your interested in applying for a technical position and would like to look at the position description of X. If they don't have an HR or if they won't show you, cold call a manager in their IT department and explain that you are interested and want to know their requirements.

Certs are great, but without knowing where you want to end up, you can spend your money on certs that aren't going to open doors for you.