Troubleshooting cert
Spoon PPRuNerist & Mad Inistrator
A bit advanced for most troubleshooting, perhaps, Mixture.
It really depends what you aim / need to troubleshoot. Are you looking at personal use? SOHO? Corporates?
I am not aware of any certifications specifically aimed at troubleshooting. All the technology vendors certification programs incorporate an element of it into the syllabus for their exams.
At it's most fundamental, troubleshooting is taking a common-sense, structured, orderly, and methodical approach to problem solving, such that all possible faults are tested for and eliminated until the actual fault (or faults) is revealed. Hopefully, one starts with the simplest and most obvious and goes on from there!
A background in an engineering discipline (e.g. civil / mechanical engineering) is very helpful for developing an analytical approach, but common sense and patience are the basic requirements.
At the most basic level, the generic CompTIA certifications such as A+, Network+, Server+ etc. would be a reasonable starting point.
Then go on to MS MCITP / MCP / MCSE etc. in OSs; Cisco CCNA for Networking; VMWare VCP for virtualisation. As Mixture points out, there's a whole lot more technologies and product sets you can certify in - Citrix for terminal services, CISSP for security, then storage, Linux, hardware...
Certification is a bit of a treadmill - the technologies keep advancing, so you have to keep re-certifying to keep up (MS Server 2003 > 2008 > 2012). At the same time your knowledge is increasing in depth (hopefully), so you can get higher levels of certifications in the same sphere - e.g. CCNA > CCNP > CCIE.
SD
It really depends what you aim / need to troubleshoot. Are you looking at personal use? SOHO? Corporates?
I am not aware of any certifications specifically aimed at troubleshooting. All the technology vendors certification programs incorporate an element of it into the syllabus for their exams.
At it's most fundamental, troubleshooting is taking a common-sense, structured, orderly, and methodical approach to problem solving, such that all possible faults are tested for and eliminated until the actual fault (or faults) is revealed. Hopefully, one starts with the simplest and most obvious and goes on from there!
A background in an engineering discipline (e.g. civil / mechanical engineering) is very helpful for developing an analytical approach, but common sense and patience are the basic requirements.
At the most basic level, the generic CompTIA certifications such as A+, Network+, Server+ etc. would be a reasonable starting point.
Then go on to MS MCITP / MCP / MCSE etc. in OSs; Cisco CCNA for Networking; VMWare VCP for virtualisation. As Mixture points out, there's a whole lot more technologies and product sets you can certify in - Citrix for terminal services, CISSP for security, then storage, Linux, hardware...
Certification is a bit of a treadmill - the technologies keep advancing, so you have to keep re-certifying to keep up (MS Server 2003 > 2008 > 2012). At the same time your knowledge is increasing in depth (hopefully), so you can get higher levels of certifications in the same sphere - e.g. CCNA > CCNP > CCIE.
SD
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Depends what you want to troubleshoot, I'd say. Specialised, or general.
My qualifications are a bit different (none of them mentioned above)...
My qualifications are a bit different (none of them mentioned above)...
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my qualifications are all in chemistry / health & safety / dangerous goods handling / management skills but I seem to cope quite well with computer "troubleshooting"
If anything I've found in those I've employed that paper qualifications actually give little indication of an applicants ability for the job. Far more important is evidence of geekery - like does he build his own PCs? How much time does he spend online in his bedroom? Does he have a girlfriend ?(no = good) What does he eat (pizza = good, healthy diet = bad)
Nearly all good "troubleshooters" I've met have been self-taught, with long periods of reading Microsoft manuals and resource kits, but no formal qualifications. Conversely, those who actually have paper qualifications are as often as not a total waste of time: no practical experience.
Of course, what I'm talking about is very much at the low end of the feeding trough: home users, small / home businesses. Once you grow beyond that then things change a lot. You DO need relevant qualifications then
If anything I've found in those I've employed that paper qualifications actually give little indication of an applicants ability for the job. Far more important is evidence of geekery - like does he build his own PCs? How much time does he spend online in his bedroom? Does he have a girlfriend ?(no = good) What does he eat (pizza = good, healthy diet = bad)
Nearly all good "troubleshooters" I've met have been self-taught, with long periods of reading Microsoft manuals and resource kits, but no formal qualifications. Conversely, those who actually have paper qualifications are as often as not a total waste of time: no practical experience.
Of course, what I'm talking about is very much at the low end of the feeding trough: home users, small / home businesses. Once you grow beyond that then things change a lot. You DO need relevant qualifications then
