Just started taking my I.T. Certification courses!

[moses_373 151]

Probably not a huge deal, but I'm excited as this will hopefully give me enough background and understanding to begin contributing to the scene in some small way.  Currently I'm just in the middle of A+ certification but later on I'll be hitting some C++ along with some other courses.  Any recommendations for other courses I should enroll in?

[gavin_darkglider 1562]

There are alot of certifications in the IT world. A+ is a good start, and C++ is also good, but I guess the real question is where you want your career to go. For example I would look in to Network+, Security+, Linux+, and MCSE. Also might look into SQL, PHP, Apache, HTML 5. as i said, it depends on what you want to do specifically.

[BL4K3Y 96]

I found that the best way to learn coding is to look at source code samples, read books and watch videos.

 

I have been learning C# for about a year now and with the help and advice from the web and a very talented coder on here (Swizzy), I can now write my own applications, comment code, debug, etc.

 

Gavin hit the nail on the head - you should decide which path(s) you want to take and focus primarily on those courses.

 

Some IT companies will give you "on the job" training as an apprentice (I started out as an apprentice IT Engineer a few months ago and I am currently working on CCNA and MCSE), so it might be worth contacting a few local IT companies to see what they can offer you.

[moses_373 151]

Thanks for the advice, the program I'm in has a set of core classes that everyone takes and then a set of secondary courses that branch out into a specialty, so I have a little time to decide ultimately where I want to end up.  I don't think I want to strictly write code as a career, so probably more on the end of network administration.  However, I still want to start coding as a hobby.  I've been on the receiving end of the scene for nearly a decade and am looking forward to finally being able to make some sort of contribution.  

I've already got a bachelors in broadcasting/advertising and found that wasn't for me, however, during that process I began fixing other students PC problems.  At first it was just as a favor to friends, but eventually people began paying me money to fix them up for them.  I found it to be pretty simple stuff, nothing google couldn't tell you how to fix, but they treated me like I was some kind of PC super wizard. At that point I began fixing game consoles, phone screens, etc. Mostly hardware stuff and that's when I realized I had wasted my time and money on the wrong education.