Three Things People Forget When Preparing For CompTIA Certifications
Table of Contents
Introduction
Getting a good job after a certification might depend solely on what score you got, but retaining the good job and advancing in it depends on something bigger: how did you prepare for the certification?
Same score, same test, same certification, but you can do better than others if you prepare the right way, so what is the right way to prepare for CompTIA certifications to have an edge over others as well
as get a good score on the tests?
Their Aim
Pardon me for being too forward, but only a few people would get the highly coveted CompTIA certifications just to hang on their walls, so I am assuming you are trying to get a CompTIA certification to land and retain a new job or nail an advanced role in your current workplace, remember that!
Remembering your aim (if what is listed above is your aim) means you are not only concerned about getting a certification, you are also concerned about what happens after the certification: a job.
In the workplace, what would make you valuable and irreplaceable is not how much certification you have, it is how much problems they cannot solve without you; if you are just like every other person in the workplace when problems arise, but you have better certification than the rest, if there were to be a lay-off of some staff, then the company is more likely to send you packing, since they have people with less qualification (meaning they pay less salary) and just the same use.
To distinguish yourself after you get a certification, you must not prepare with the certification being all you have in mind; you must constantly remember you are going out there to solve practical problems and be irreplaceable.
This means your mode of preparation must focus on getting hands-on practice, as well as knowing the theory.
You must pay a lot of attention to putting what you are studying into practice, and practicing with as many systems as possible.
You should not only focus on tricks to get higher scores or read practice questions, but you must focus on real-time practice.
This does not in any way mean you focus less on getting a good result in the tests; you cannot do this because a high score in the test is how you prove to companies that you have what it takes for them to accept you, it only becomes a problem when you focus on this and forget about what it takes to retain you.
Study Groups
For many of us, the most important things we gained in school were not taught in classrooms, they were gained from interacting with old friends, making new ones, creating connections, or volunteering. These are what build our characters.
Studying all on your own is enough to be good, but you need more than that to be special.
When you constantly follow discussions on study groups, you meet people who have had experience in various other fields, you meet people who will go on to create opportunities in the future, you meet people who have the same aim as you and some might be luckier than you after getting the certification; you need to stay connected to them.
You will meet with people who have gone through some things you plan to do in the future, ask them how it went. You will meet others who have learned some technology you have not – these things are what broaden your horizon and make you irreplaceable.
You should try to make the best use of study groups; connect with the bright minds, seek advice, ask what they plan to do with the certifications and how they plan to go about it. You might get more from the study groups than you would ever from the certification itself.
Using The Internet Wisely
CompTIA gives you a guide, but it is better to be guided by real people who have no personal interest to protect.
Apart from study groups, one thing to not undermine is using the internet appropriately.
Use online communities like Reddit, Quora to see related questions that have been asked by real people facing the same problems as you and how they were answered, and to be exposed to the views and ideas of a wide range of people. Of course, you must go there with a filter, but if you want to avoid using those spaces because of some negative and ridiculous comments, you’d be throwing the baby out with the bath.
Also, watching YouTube videos and reading the comment section opens you to a lot of ideas and exposes you to a wealth of resources. You can be exposed to incredibly useful shortcuts that make your preparation easier just from observing what others have done before you.
Summarily, these three steps take little time but give you a great edge over others whose only focus is getting a high score in their examination; at the end of the day, you spend almost the same time, that is if you do not spend less given the shortcuts others would have pointed out to you, and yet, you would have created great connections, and gotten much more exposure as well as more experience solving problems.
