PC technical Support

[ObUk]

After so many years of fixing my family's IT problems and suchlike i have decided to have a go at getting into doing PC technical support for a living.
I have been told that doing CompTIA A+ might be a good starting point.

I have read up about the qualification and it seems to be fairly decent.
but can any of you guys/gals (maybe you work in the industry or suchlike) maybe advise me wether this would be a good starting point.
or wether there would be something better to do first or if compTIA is worth the paper its printed on.

Thanks a lot :eng101:

ObUk

[Lancer]

For tech support, you can't get much better than A+ or an MCDST, AKA "Microsoft certified desktop support technician". But yeah, in my opinion it's pretty much perfect for tech support.

But one thing, think before considering the MCDST alone since it seems to assume knowledge roughly equivalent to A+. I should know, doing them both right now and all.

You should check at local colleges as a place to do it, maybe. I know I found both the A+ and MCDST qualification packed into one course, but taught separately. Free too, along with the exams. It's lucky, since the only reason I decided to do them both is I finally realised that having the knowledge without the qualification is pointless for finding a decent job in the area.

I'm just using this as a starting point, really. If you do both, you could go along the Microsoft or Cisco route, to more network focussed courses, become a network admin who brings in the money.

Anyway, time for me to go get ready to head out for the place I just mentioned.

Edit: I should probably stress that the MCDST is purely for supporting users with Microsoft software, but I think that's going to be fairly obvious. I also know that in the syllabus they're using now, they don't go into Vista although I hear they've pretty much got the units sorted for the next "version" of it.