A+ Certification

I personally think it is a good cert to have
because in entering the IT field every little
bit helps and it's better then walking into
an interview and telling them that you tinker
with PC's at home a lot but have no formal
training or certification. As far as what
the exam tests it's sort of a toss up on the
value. I learned a fair amoount of new
material in studying for my A+ cert but I
think I probably could have passed the test
with little real study. Of course I have
been tinkering on PC's at home for many years
so I take a lot for granted that someone that
is fairly new to the field might not know.

The answer depends on one's current level of experience. In preparing for the test, you will come across usable information regardless of your experiences. For those whose experience is undocumentable, it offers a measure of confidence that ascerts a certain minimum level of competency and an ability to learn. Finally, for those with no practical experience, the course will de-mystify the computer. It will remove the fear that you might break something if you try to fix it. A+ Certification isn't the end-all of certifications but it's a great place to start.

I got my A+ about 2 years ago, and am doing the N+ now. I've being in the omputer games from '84 and dos 2.0, so it was simply a piece of paper for me. However I have found poeple come to me a lot more now. So the A+ does seem to have some sort of effect.
But even more useful in my job is the books that I used on the course, I refer to them a lot still and I know that the other techs here use them as well.