June 5, 2024 • 26 mins
Discover how CompTIA's rebranded Tech Plus certification is revolutionizing IT education! Join me, Professor J Rod, as I reflect on my journey of earning a doctorate and how this new, more accessible certification is a game-changer for career changers and newcomers to the IT field. We'll explore who stands to benefit the most from Tech Plus, from professionals needing a broad understanding of IT to those looking to boost their job performance with enhanced tech skills. This episode offers valuable insights into the significant implications of this certification rebranding on career progression and IT education.
Ready to tackle one of the hottest debates in career development? We'll dissect the ongoing discussion about the value of certifications versus degrees in the job market. Drawing from my background in psychology, I even propose a mixed-method study to compare the career trajectories and earnings between degree holders and those with certifications alone. Plus, learn how advanced degrees, like a master's, can elevate your career prospects and earnings, especially in IT. We'll wrap up by emphasizing personal responsibility and dedication in exam preparation, and I'll share heartfelt thanks to our production team and listeners. Tune in for an episode packed with practical advice and encouragement to achieve your professional goals!
If you want to help me with my research please e-mail me.
Professorjrod@gmail.com
If you want to join my question/answer zoom class e-mail me at
Professorjrod@gmail.com
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Music by Joakim Karud
Little chacha Productions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And welcome to technology tap.
I'm Professor J Rod.
In this episode we're going totalk about CompTIA Tech+.
Let's get into it.
All right, welcome guys,welcome, welcome, welcome.
(00:59):
First episode back from a while.
If you listened to the previousepisode, you know what I was
doing.
I got my doctorate.
That's what I've been workingon the last couple of months.
That's why you haven't heardany of technology tap.
But I miss you guys, you know,and I'm back.
But you know I had to take careof my business, right, you know
, and I had to give up somethingin order to finish that journey
(01:22):
.
But I it.
So, uh, you know, email me.
I told you guys in the lastepisode, email me if you want me
to change my name to dr jrodfrom professor jrod.
I kind of like professor jrod,but you can email me, professor
jrod, that's jrod at gmailcom.
Let me know if you want me tochange it.
All right, so so while we wereaway, comptia announced that
(01:47):
they are changing theirfundamentals ITF fundamentals
exam to Tech Plus.
I actually like the name of it.
I think the name kind of fitsrather than I.
You know, I get it ITfundamentals, but I kind of like
the tech one because this isthe first one.
Right, tech is going to be myfirst exam, but I'm looking at
(02:11):
it.
I'm actually looking at theguide, the certification guide
from CompTIA, and it's a littledifferent from what I expected.
One, if anybody ever took thefundamentals one, I mean, that
was not an easy test.
The latest version of ITF wasnot.
(02:32):
It was not.
So many people complained thatthey felt like it was harder
than A+.
Right, you know, tell me thatI'm wrong.
Right, tell me that I'm wrong.
But I think most people feltthat that exam was really hard.
I think it had a lot to do,that it had a lot of programming
in it and, you know, mostpeople are not programmers, but
(02:54):
they had a lot of questions.
It was super weird, you know,because I taught it.
Uh, the new exam and I, youknow, I, I I had the older one,
the one before that one, and youknow that cert never expires,
so I didn't take the new one.
But, you know, when I worked inLincoln Tech, there were people
that were coming out of thatexam room full of sweat saying,
(03:16):
man, I barely passed.
You know, and sometimes youknow some of these places, you
know they want you to have theupdated cert and if you don't
have it, you're gonna getanother job, right?
So there was a lot of guyscoming out there out of that
exam, sweating, you know,thinking like man.
(03:36):
I didn't, you know, I almostdidn't pass.
But let's take a look at the.
The tech plus, so formerly knownas compTIA ITF, is a
universally recognizedcertification that demonstrates
an individual's understanding ofthe vast landscape of
technology and the ability tonavigate and leverage tech tools
(03:56):
and platforms efficiently.
What I think they did here inTech Plus, that they did
differently, right?
So they say who benefits fromTech Plus?
And this is where it getsinteresting right, students and
career changers considering acareer in technology, which I
think it's a good one to startwith.
(04:18):
Right, if you are, I don't know.
If you were a student, I don'tagree.
But if you're changing careers,yeah, you should know the
fundamentals.
Right, you should takefundamentals, because I think A+
, a+ it does a good job.
But if you have never doneanything with a computer, I
(04:43):
think A plus is a little hardfor people.
To be honest, right now let meknow if I'm wrong, but I
honestly think you know if youin computers, if you're already
in the industry, right, if youare, you know, like me, I was a
tech for a long time and then Idecided to do A+.
So a lot of the terminologythat was going on and all the
(05:05):
stuff even though the stuff wasnew because I wasn't exposed to
everything in technology, right,like A-plus kind of, does you
know security, networking, thatyou know, and it goes really in
depth into it?
I wasn't really you know, andit goes really in depth into it.
I wasn't really you know, thatwasn't me.
(05:30):
But if you don't, if you don'tknow of something, it's hard.
But if you don't know anything,it's even harder, in my opinion
.
Right.
So I think, if you are a careerchanger, so I think if you are a
career changer, you should goand take a tech plus class.
I, you know, I don't think it's, it's you know, if you are, you
know putting down floors forliving, which you know you make
money.
You know putting floors Right,and then you have no experience
(05:54):
in IT, right, you have noexperience in IT, right, and
then your brother-in-law is anIT guy and he tells you hey, you
know, go take Tech Plus.
That's the one you should getfirst, right, because it will
really teach you thefundamentals of PC, which is
(06:15):
what you need to grasp beforeyou move on.
Now, if you're a collegestudent, right, and you like
taking courses already, it'sprobably not for you, but for
career changes it's definitely,definitely.
It says professionals workingin fields that require a broad
understanding of IT.
Okay, marketing, sales andoperations staff who want to
improve job performance, enhancetechnology skills and rely less
(06:38):
on IT.
That's a you know what.
That I find it's a goodmarketing skill Market to people
who, you know, maybe like wantto know a little bit more about
computers.
But, right, you know, it'd be agood like an idea.
So, like, if you have marketing, we have like 20 people
(07:00):
marketing maybe send one personto take that tech plus course,
right, and then, like, theycould be like the you know the,
the, the one that everybody inmarketing goes to right, say,
hey, I'm having a problem beforeit goes to tech right, right,
you know, then that person couldbe like kind of like a triage
person, right.
He says, oh, you know what, Ithink you're going to need to
(07:23):
open up a ticket for this one,but maybe they can fix it on
their own, right.
I think that would be a goodplace where they can market it.
And then you know, you might beable to do it to salespeople
who are selling computer partsthat maybe are not as technical,
but because you know they don't, they're salespeople, right?
(07:45):
You know, if you're asalesperson you can sell
anything, but you want to be alittle bit more technical, a
little bit more knowledge aboutthe product that you're selling.
You may want to take thiscourse, a Tech Plus course, and
get your Tech Plus certification.
Hey, who knows, you might likeit, right?
And then, you know, migrateover to Tech.
You know a lot of people aredoing that.
(08:08):
So you know I've alwayspreached Tech is a good field.
If you want to make money, it'sone of the best fields that you
can do.
Let's see CompTIA.
Techplus serves as an essentialentry point for those beginning
their journey into the excitingworld of technology.
It provides a comprehensiveoverview of fundamental concepts
(08:29):
and practical skills paving theway for fulfilling a venture
into technology.
Techplus is a vendor-neutral,internationally targeted
technological certificationensuring that individuals
possess the essential knowledgeto engage with and understand
technology across differentenvironments.
It focuses on establishing asolid base in computing security
, data and application software.
(08:50):
Techplus combines theoreticalknowledge with practical
exercise, simulating real-lifetech scenarios.
This approach enhances criticalthinking and problem-solving
abilities, preparing learners toaddress a variety of
tech-related issues confidently.
And then what's new in thisversion?
Techplus includes in-depthexploration of virtualization
(09:14):
and cloud technologies, which isnew right, such as hypervisors,
guest operating systems andcloud service model, reflecting
the industry's move towardscloud computing.
Right, that's what we're movingtowards now, or we've been
moving and the need for this newtechnology understanding
Acknowledge the growingimportance of digital literacy.
(09:36):
Right.
Tech Plus covers essentialdigital skills and online
collaboration tools, preparingindividuals for both personal
and professional digitalinteractions, addressing the
vital importance of security indigital interconnected world.
Yeah, this would probablyemphasize, you know, if you kind
of like salespeople or peopleyou know that have one guy
(09:57):
marketing how important securityis and they can like emphasize
that cascade around the companyCause, again, people are still
not taking security seriouslyand in the series of hacking
over the summer you'll see uh.
Tech plus covers uh vitalaspects like safe browsing
practice, understandingcertificates and privacy
(10:19):
considerations crucial for thesafe use of digital tools and
online platform.
Tech Plus divides into databasefundamentals, emphasizing data
value, database structure, basicbackup concepts and
highlighting the importance ofdata management and analysis in
IT.
Additional topics on emergingtechnologies include the
Internet of Things, vr and ARsystems, offering insights into
(10:42):
the future of technology and thesocietal impacts.
A significant addition of techis the inclusion of AI concepts
such as AI chat box, aiassistants, ai generated code
and content, and understandingthe increasing relevance of AI
Sounds okay.
(11:02):
Right, it's going to be techplus zero, seven, one Right.
Of course, they're going tohave cert master Right, which
you know.
A lot of my students have usedcert master and they like it.
I mean it's expensive though,but they a lot of students like
it.
You know I give them hats off.
(11:23):
I'm curious to see what's goingto happen when they when that
merger with TestOut is completeand how they're going to do it.
Potential level one positionsIf you get certified with
TechPlus IT support specialist,help desk technician, computer
technician, data entrytechnician and technical sales
(11:45):
associates.
What is covered in the exam thisis the most important part 14%
are IT concept and terminology.
Basics of computing, includingprocessing, output and storage.
Understanding the notationalsystem, such as binary,
hexadecimal, decimal and octal.
Comparing and contrastingcommon unit measures like
(12:07):
storage unit bit by kilobyte,throughput units uh kilobytes,
uh megabytes and processingspeed megabytes and giga
megahertz and gigahertz.
That's 14 of the exam 22 isinfrastructure overview of
common computing devices andtheir purpose, including
smartphones, tablets, laptops,and more explanation of common
(12:30):
internal computing componentslike motherboards, cpus and gpus
.
Comparison of storage types,volatile versus non-volatile,
local versus cloud installationsand configuration of common
peripheral devices andunderstanding different types of
input and output interfaces.
Virtualization and cloudtechnologies, including
(12:50):
hypervisor and cloud servicemodels.
And basic network concept andcapabilities of small wireless
networks.
That's 22%.
It leads me to believe thatthey're going to have a massive
change in A-plus by reading thiswhen the new A-plus exam comes
out.
Applications and software 18%.
Components of operating systemand its purpose.
(13:12):
The purpose and proper use ofsoftware, including productivity
, collaboration and web browsingsoftware.
Configuration and use of webbrowser features.
Common use of artificialintelligence and software.
That's applications of software, which is 18%.
Next is software developmentconcepts 14%.
(13:33):
Comprise of programminglanguages, categories,
interpreted versus compiled,fundamental data types and their
characteristics.
Purpose and use of programmingconcepts like identifiers,
arrays, functions and objects,and then programming
organizational techniques andlogical concepts.
Five is data and databasefundamentals that's 14%.
(13:55):
The value of data andinformation in decision-making.
Database concept, purpose andstructure, structure versus
non-structure, relational versusnon-relational databases, and
then basic data backup conceptsand the importance of data
persistence and availability.
And then number six 18%, issecurity Fundamental security
(14:21):
concept and frameworks,confidentiality, integrity and
availability, methods to securedevices and security best
practice, password best practiceand common use case for
encryption, which is good toknow.
You know, for the, you know thelower people at the lower end
of the IT scale, right, reallythe users right, and configuring
(14:44):
settings for small wirelessnetworks.
So it looks like, yeah, I thinkthere's going to be massive
changes to the A+.
That's what I'm thinking.
So I mean, you know, I don'tknow, we'll see.
They have some stuff on.
Nearly all IT managersrecognize the values certificate
(15:08):
professionals bring intoorganizations, such as boosting
productivity, helping to meetclient requirements and closing
the organizational gaps.
Yeah, that's going to be one ofmy next goals, guys.
In closing the organizationalgaps, yeah, that's going to be
one of my next goals, guys.
I want to do a research on whatthe employers look for.
Do they look for certificationor they look for degree?
My opinion is Is it dependsRight, most of them will take
(15:38):
you.
My opinion is if you are, ifthey just want you to do one
specific job, they'll take thecert Right, but if they want you
to do multiple jobs, they'll.
They'll take the degree.
Multiple jobs, they'll take thedegree.
And the problem with the certis the cert will make you stay
(16:01):
at the job longer.
This is a psychologicalapproach, right, and I'm a
psychology major, that's myundergrad.
It would make you stay therelonger than probably you should,
where if you had the degree,you would probably stay in a
place for a year and then quitand get the experience and quit.
(16:24):
And if you look at some ofthese onboard messaging stuff,
message boards, you see that alot of people, especially with
degrees, they do that.
They find a job, they'll suckit up for a year and then they
quit and then they get anotherjob paying more money, so, um,
because now they have theexperience.
So, um, you know, that's that'smy opinion.
(16:53):
But I want to do like a survey.
Uh, you know, you know a reallygood study.
I did kind of one informal acouple of years back, but I kind
of want to do one like reallyin-depth, you know, and you know
, interview some people, maybelike a mixed method, surveys and
interviews and see what peoplethink.
(17:13):
But I'm leaning that way,that's like that.
Plus, I think, as good as itmight be, the certification will
not get you in most cases.
Most cases it's going to behard for you to move up.
(17:35):
Not every time, uh, every time,not every time, but I think in
most cases.
You know, if you have two peopleand they both have, you know
one of them has a degree and theother one just has certs and
(17:55):
they're both equally the sameright as far as work and all
that, they're going to take theguy with the degree.
I'm sorry, they will take theguy.
Most companies will take theguy with the degree.
Yes, even though that guy mightbe really good, I think at the
end of the day the employersstill value the degree.
(18:18):
So for people who say, oh, thedegree means nothing, I kind of
disagree.
You know, I kind of disagree.
I think it's important.
You know, they pull far.
They pull far.
Not saying that you cannot get ajob with a cert.
No, absolutely you can.
But I'm just saying the.
You know, let's see somebodywho has a degree, or we could do
(18:43):
a study of somebody who hasonly the degree and somebody who
only has a cert and let's say,like, let's see the last 10
years how much they made eachone of them made.
I'm pretty sure it's going tobe the guy with the degree who's
made more.
That's what I mean about howimportant the degree is, right,
yes, you could still make goodmoney not having a a degree, but
(19:08):
I think you can make more moneywith the degree and you could
move up.
You know management wise,if-wise, you know they're going
to want.
You know they're going to wantand let's be realistic you know
you could be there.
If you apply for a job as amanager of, you know, mis
manager, right, and thensomebody else has a master's
(19:31):
degree in information management, right, who do you think
they're going to take?
And you both have the sameexperience, the same amount of
experience who do you thinkthey're going to take?
They're going to take, they'regoing to take the master's
degree guy.
So, but you know, again, thatdoesn't mean that you cannot get
(19:55):
a job in IT without a cert.
That does not mean that at all.
I'm not trying to say that youcan get a degree.
You can, you really can, butthe degree helps you enormously,
(20:17):
enormously.
So, and again, I kind of want todo a study on that.
That's one of my goals I don'tknow when, but that's one of my
goals is to do a long, you knowon that, because I think I think
that's something that that youknow, I think something that you
(20:39):
guys actually will beinterested in in in, uh, uh, you
know, finally, put it to bed,right, what's more important
cert or degree?
And I think it's going to bedegree and it and I think a lot
of you are going to be a littlebit disappointed when, when they
say it's it's the degree um,you know the degree is going to
be a little bit disappointed.
When they say it's the degree,the degree is going to help you.
(20:59):
The degree does not hurt you,neither does the cert, but the
degree does not hurt you at all.
It actually helps you more thananything.
Now people are going to say, oh, but you got to borrow money,
blah, blah.
Yeah, but I'm of the beliefthat you make more, especially
the higher you go right, and I'msaying that you should go for a
doctorate because don't gocrazy.
(21:29):
But I think the master's degree,if you're going to work in IT,
is what you should reach for,because a master's degree will
change your whole trajectory andgive you confidence and you'll
start making more money.
You know, once you find yourniche Right, my niche is what?
Teaching, comptia Right, that'smy niche.
I've I've been doing for likeseven years.
(21:52):
People call me Schools, call meall the time hey, can you do a
bootcamp?
Hey, can you do a bootcamp?
I've gotten hundreds of peopleto pass their CompTIA
certifications Right, so that'smy niche.
Well, once you discover yourniche and you have a master's
degree, you're going to make alot more money than you're
(22:13):
making if you just had a cert.
I guarantee you that just goeswithout saying.
That will happen.
But I know there's a lot ofpeople there who say, well, I
know so-and-so who makes$130,000.
He doesn't have a degree.
Yeah, you're going to findthose.
You're going to find those.
(22:33):
Yeah, but those are rare.
Those are rare.
Is you know, without it's, it'syou know you could find somebody
working as a?
Uh changing the tracks, right,for mta new york, new york city
transit, right, who?
Who?
Uh, you know the guy therechanging the track track
(22:55):
supervisor.
He probably makes you know sixfigures and he probably doesn't
have a college degree on cert,right, what he has is longevity,
right, he's probably been therea while.
You ask him how long he's beenthere.
You know, I'm sure he, you knowit's going to be at least 10
years that he's been there.
But you could make more quicklyright going in there and it all
(23:20):
depends on where you work andstuff.
You know, let's not, let's notgo too crazy.
They're not going to pay you.
You know 160 000 coming outcoming out of college.
But yeah, maybe you get,possibly you can get half of
that, you know, coming out ofcollege, uh, and you know it's
very difficult for a company togive that to somebody who just,
(23:40):
oh, I have my Security Plus, payme $80,000.
No, they're not doing that.
So that's why I get upset bypeople who recommend people, by
people who recommend people forSecurity Plus as the first
(24:01):
CompTIA, right?
No, tech Plus, especiallysomebody who's never done IT,
put them in Tech Plus.
Don't make them go to SecurityPlus because they're going to
hate it, they're not going tounderstand it.
There's an expectation that youknow stuff, right.
So tech plus came out.
If you have your brother-in-lawor your cousin who wants to get
(24:24):
into computers, tell him totake tech plus.
That shirt never expires and atleast he who gets some
knowledge of it and then he goes.
You might not get a job with it, honestly.
You might not get a job with it, honestly, you might not get a
job with Tech Plus, but thatwould you know.
If he gets it, then I'll leavehim confident to take the A plus
.
So, again, it's all up to you.
(24:45):
You know you have to put inwhat you want, right?
You know it's up to you.
I can do only so much.
You have to be able to do stuffon your own like study and and
being and actually taking theexam.
So, but I have faith in you.
So, all right, that's going toput a ball on this episode.
(25:15):
All right, that's going to puta ball on this episode.
Thank you all for listening tomy tech plus, not tech talk,
right, and we'll see you on theother side.
(26:02):
This has been a presentation oflittle cha-cha productions art
by Sarah and music by Joe Kim.
If you want to email me, youcan at ProfessorJRod, that's
J-R-O-D at gmailcom.
And welcome to technology tap.
I'm Professor J Rod.
In this episode we're going totalk about CompTIA Tech+.
Let's get into it.
All right, welcome guys,welcome, welcome, welcome.
(00:59):
First episode back from a while.
If you listened to the previousepisode, you know what I was
doing.
I got my doctorate.
That's what I've been workingon the last couple of months.
That's why you haven't heardany of technology tap.
But I miss you guys, you know,and I'm back.
But you know I had to take careof my business, right, you know
, and I had to give up somethingin order to finish that journey
(01:22):
.
But I it.
So, uh, you know, email me.
I told you guys in the lastepisode, email me if you want me
to change my name to dr jrodfrom professor jrod.
I kind of like professor jrod,but you can email me, professor
jrod, that's jrod at gmailcom.
Let me know if you want me tochange it.
All right, so so while we wereaway, comptia announced that
(01:47):
they are changing theirfundamentals ITF fundamentals
exam to Tech Plus.
I actually like the name of it.
I think the name kind of fitsrather than I.
You know, I get it ITfundamentals, but I kind of like
the tech one because this isthe first one.
Right, tech is going to be myfirst exam, but I'm looking at
(02:11):
it.
I'm actually looking at theguide, the certification guide
from CompTIA, and it's a littledifferent from what I expected.
One, if anybody ever took thefundamentals one, I mean, that
was not an easy test.
The latest version of ITF wasnot.
(02:32):
It was not.
So many people complained thatthey felt like it was harder
than A+.
Right, you know, tell me thatI'm wrong.
Right, tell me that I'm wrong.
But I think most people feltthat that exam was really hard.
I think it had a lot to do,that it had a lot of programming
in it and, you know, mostpeople are not programmers, but
(02:54):
they had a lot of questions.
It was super weird, you know,because I taught it.
Uh, the new exam and I, youknow, I, I I had the older one,
the one before that one, and youknow that cert never expires,
so I didn't take the new one.
But, you know, when I worked inLincoln Tech, there were people
that were coming out of thatexam room full of sweat saying,
(03:16):
man, I barely passed.
You know, and sometimes youknow some of these places, you
know they want you to have theupdated cert and if you don't
have it, you're gonna getanother job, right?
So there was a lot of guyscoming out there out of that
exam, sweating, you know,thinking like man.
(03:36):
I didn't, you know, I almostdidn't pass.
But let's take a look at the.
The tech plus, so formerly knownas compTIA ITF, is a
universally recognizedcertification that demonstrates
an individual's understanding ofthe vast landscape of
technology and the ability tonavigate and leverage tech tools
(03:56):
and platforms efficiently.
What I think they did here inTech Plus, that they did
differently, right?
So they say who benefits fromTech Plus?
And this is where it getsinteresting right, students and
career changers considering acareer in technology, which I
think it's a good one to startwith.
(04:18):
Right, if you are, I don't know.
If you were a student, I don'tagree.
But if you're changing careers,yeah, you should know the
fundamentals.
Right, you should takefundamentals, because I think A+
, a+ it does a good job.
But if you have never doneanything with a computer, I
(04:43):
think A plus is a little hardfor people.
To be honest, right now let meknow if I'm wrong, but I
honestly think you know if youin computers, if you're already
in the industry, right, if youare, you know, like me, I was a
tech for a long time and then Idecided to do A+.
So a lot of the terminologythat was going on and all the
(05:05):
stuff even though the stuff wasnew because I wasn't exposed to
everything in technology, right,like A-plus kind of, does you
know security, networking, thatyou know, and it goes really in
depth into it?
I wasn't really you know, andit goes really in depth into it.
I wasn't really you know, thatwasn't me.
(05:30):
But if you don't, if you don'tknow of something, it's hard.
But if you don't know anything,it's even harder, in my opinion
.
Right.
So I think, if you are a careerchanger, so I think if you are a
career changer, you should goand take a tech plus class.
I, you know, I don't think it's, it's you know, if you are, you
know putting down floors forliving, which you know you make
money.
You know putting floors Right,and then you have no experience
(05:54):
in IT, right, you have noexperience in IT, right, and
then your brother-in-law is anIT guy and he tells you hey, you
know, go take Tech Plus.
That's the one you should getfirst, right, because it will
really teach you thefundamentals of PC, which is
(06:15):
what you need to grasp beforeyou move on.
Now, if you're a collegestudent, right, and you like
taking courses already, it'sprobably not for you, but for
career changes it's definitely,definitely.
It says professionals workingin fields that require a broad
understanding of IT.
Okay, marketing, sales andoperations staff who want to
improve job performance, enhancetechnology skills and rely less
(06:38):
on IT.
That's a you know what.
That I find it's a goodmarketing skill Market to people
who, you know, maybe like wantto know a little bit more about
computers.
But, right, you know, it'd be agood like an idea.
So, like, if you have marketing, we have like 20 people
(07:00):
marketing maybe send one personto take that tech plus course,
right, and then, like, theycould be like the you know the,
the, the one that everybody inmarketing goes to right, say,
hey, I'm having a problem beforeit goes to tech right, right,
you know, then that person couldbe like kind of like a triage
person, right.
He says, oh, you know what, Ithink you're going to need to
(07:23):
open up a ticket for this one,but maybe they can fix it on
their own, right.
I think that would be a goodplace where they can market it.
And then you know, you might beable to do it to salespeople
who are selling computer partsthat maybe are not as technical,
but because you know they don't, they're salespeople, right?
(07:45):
You know, if you're asalesperson you can sell
anything, but you want to be alittle bit more technical, a
little bit more knowledge aboutthe product that you're selling.
You may want to take thiscourse, a Tech Plus course, and
get your Tech Plus certification.
Hey, who knows, you might likeit, right?
And then, you know, migrateover to Tech.
You know a lot of people aredoing that.
(08:08):
So you know I've alwayspreached Tech is a good field.
If you want to make money, it'sone of the best fields that you
can do.
Let's see CompTIA.
Techplus serves as an essentialentry point for those beginning
their journey into the excitingworld of technology.
It provides a comprehensiveoverview of fundamental concepts
(08:29):
and practical skills paving theway for fulfilling a venture
into technology.
Techplus is a vendor-neutral,internationally targeted
technological certificationensuring that individuals
possess the essential knowledgeto engage with and understand
technology across differentenvironments.
It focuses on establishing asolid base in computing security
, data and application software.
(08:50):
Techplus combines theoreticalknowledge with practical
exercise, simulating real-lifetech scenarios.
This approach enhances criticalthinking and problem-solving
abilities, preparing learners toaddress a variety of
tech-related issues confidently.
And then what's new in thisversion?
Techplus includes in-depthexploration of virtualization
(09:14):
and cloud technologies, which isnew right, such as hypervisors,
guest operating systems andcloud service model, reflecting
the industry's move towardscloud computing.
Right, that's what we're movingtowards now, or we've been
moving and the need for this newtechnology understanding
Acknowledge the growingimportance of digital literacy.
(09:36):
Right.
Tech Plus covers essentialdigital skills and online
collaboration tools, preparingindividuals for both personal
and professional digitalinteractions, addressing the
vital importance of security indigital interconnected world.
Yeah, this would probablyemphasize, you know, if you kind
of like salespeople or peopleyou know that have one guy
(09:57):
marketing how important securityis and they can like emphasize
that cascade around the companyCause, again, people are still
not taking security seriouslyand in the series of hacking
over the summer you'll see uh.
Tech plus covers uh vitalaspects like safe browsing
practice, understandingcertificates and privacy
(10:19):
considerations crucial for thesafe use of digital tools and
online platform.
Tech Plus divides into databasefundamentals, emphasizing data
value, database structure, basicbackup concepts and
highlighting the importance ofdata management and analysis in
IT.
Additional topics on emergingtechnologies include the
Internet of Things, vr and ARsystems, offering insights into
(10:42):
the future of technology and thesocietal impacts.
A significant addition of techis the inclusion of AI concepts
such as AI chat box, aiassistants, ai generated code
and content, and understandingthe increasing relevance of AI
Sounds okay.
(11:02):
Right, it's going to be techplus zero, seven, one Right.
Of course, they're going tohave cert master Right, which
you know.
A lot of my students have usedcert master and they like it.
I mean it's expensive though,but they a lot of students like
it.
You know I give them hats off.
(11:23):
I'm curious to see what's goingto happen when they when that
merger with TestOut is completeand how they're going to do it.
Potential level one positionsIf you get certified with
TechPlus IT support specialist,help desk technician, computer
technician, data entrytechnician and technical sales
(11:45):
associates.
What is covered in the exam thisis the most important part 14%
are IT concept and terminology.
Basics of computing, includingprocessing, output and storage.
Understanding the notationalsystem, such as binary,
hexadecimal, decimal and octal.
Comparing and contrastingcommon unit measures like
(12:07):
storage unit bit by kilobyte,throughput units uh kilobytes,
uh megabytes and processingspeed megabytes and giga
megahertz and gigahertz.
That's 14 of the exam 22 isinfrastructure overview of
common computing devices andtheir purpose, including
smartphones, tablets, laptops,and more explanation of common
(12:30):
internal computing componentslike motherboards, cpus and gpus
.
Comparison of storage types,volatile versus non-volatile,
local versus cloud installationsand configuration of common
peripheral devices andunderstanding different types of
input and output interfaces.
Virtualization and cloudtechnologies, including
(12:50):
hypervisor and cloud servicemodels.
And basic network concept andcapabilities of small wireless
networks.
That's 22%.
It leads me to believe thatthey're going to have a massive
change in A-plus by reading thiswhen the new A-plus exam comes
out.
Applications and software 18%.
Components of operating systemand its purpose.
(13:12):
The purpose and proper use ofsoftware, including productivity
, collaboration and web browsingsoftware.
Configuration and use of webbrowser features.
Common use of artificialintelligence and software.
That's applications of software, which is 18%.
Next is software developmentconcepts 14%.
(13:33):
Comprise of programminglanguages, categories,
interpreted versus compiled,fundamental data types and their
characteristics.
Purpose and use of programmingconcepts like identifiers,
arrays, functions and objects,and then programming
organizational techniques andlogical concepts.
Five is data and databasefundamentals that's 14%.
(13:55):
The value of data andinformation in decision-making.
Database concept, purpose andstructure, structure versus
non-structure, relational versusnon-relational databases, and
then basic data backup conceptsand the importance of data
persistence and availability.
And then number six 18%, issecurity Fundamental security
(14:21):
concept and frameworks,confidentiality, integrity and
availability, methods to securedevices and security best
practice, password best practiceand common use case for
encryption, which is good toknow.
You know, for the, you know thelower people at the lower end
of the IT scale, right, reallythe users right, and configuring
(14:44):
settings for small wirelessnetworks.
So it looks like, yeah, I thinkthere's going to be massive
changes to the A+.
That's what I'm thinking.
So I mean, you know, I don'tknow, we'll see.
They have some stuff on.
Nearly all IT managersrecognize the values certificate
(15:08):
professionals bring intoorganizations, such as boosting
productivity, helping to meetclient requirements and closing
the organizational gaps.
Yeah, that's going to be one ofmy next goals, guys.
In closing the organizationalgaps, yeah, that's going to be
one of my next goals, guys.
I want to do a research on whatthe employers look for.
Do they look for certificationor they look for degree?
My opinion is Is it dependsRight, most of them will take
(15:38):
you.
My opinion is if you are, ifthey just want you to do one
specific job, they'll take thecert Right, but if they want you
to do multiple jobs, they'll.
They'll take the degree.
Multiple jobs, they'll take thedegree.
And the problem with the certis the cert will make you stay
(16:01):
at the job longer.
This is a psychologicalapproach, right, and I'm a
psychology major, that's myundergrad.
It would make you stay therelonger than probably you should,
where if you had the degree,you would probably stay in a
place for a year and then quitand get the experience and quit.
(16:24):
And if you look at some ofthese onboard messaging stuff,
message boards, you see that alot of people, especially with
degrees, they do that.
They find a job, they'll suckit up for a year and then they
quit and then they get anotherjob paying more money, so, um,
because now they have theexperience.
So, um, you know, that's that'smy opinion.
(16:53):
But I want to do like a survey.
Uh, you know, you know a reallygood study.
I did kind of one informal acouple of years back, but I kind
of want to do one like reallyin-depth, you know, and you know
, interview some people, maybelike a mixed method, surveys and
interviews and see what peoplethink.
(17:13):
But I'm leaning that way,that's like that.
Plus, I think, as good as itmight be, the certification will
not get you in most cases.
Most cases it's going to behard for you to move up.
(17:35):
Not every time, uh, every time,not every time, but I think in
most cases.
You know, if you have two peopleand they both have, you know
one of them has a degree and theother one just has certs and
(17:55):
they're both equally the sameright as far as work and all
that, they're going to take theguy with the degree.
I'm sorry, they will take theguy.
Most companies will take theguy with the degree.
Yes, even though that guy mightbe really good, I think at the
end of the day the employersstill value the degree.
(18:18):
So for people who say, oh, thedegree means nothing, I kind of
disagree.
You know, I kind of disagree.
I think it's important.
You know, they pull far.
They pull far.
Not saying that you cannot get ajob with a cert.
No, absolutely you can.
But I'm just saying the.
You know, let's see somebodywho has a degree, or we could do
(18:43):
a study of somebody who hasonly the degree and somebody who
only has a cert and let's say,like, let's see the last 10
years how much they made eachone of them made.
I'm pretty sure it's going tobe the guy with the degree who's
made more.
That's what I mean about howimportant the degree is, right,
yes, you could still make goodmoney not having a a degree, but
(19:08):
I think you can make more moneywith the degree and you could
move up.
You know management wise,if-wise, you know they're going
to want.
You know they're going to wantand let's be realistic you know
you could be there.
If you apply for a job as amanager of, you know, mis
manager, right, and thensomebody else has a master's
(19:31):
degree in information management, right, who do you think
they're going to take?
And you both have the sameexperience, the same amount of
experience who do you thinkthey're going to take?
They're going to take, they'regoing to take the master's
degree guy.
So, but you know, again, thatdoesn't mean that you cannot get
(19:55):
a job in IT without a cert.
That does not mean that at all.
I'm not trying to say that youcan get a degree.
You can, you really can, butthe degree helps you enormously,
(20:17):
enormously.
So, and again, I kind of want todo a study on that.
That's one of my goals I don'tknow when, but that's one of my
goals is to do a long, you knowon that, because I think I think
that's something that that youknow, I think something that you
(20:39):
guys actually will beinterested in in in, uh, uh, you
know, finally, put it to bed,right, what's more important
cert or degree?
And I think it's going to bedegree and it and I think a lot
of you are going to be a littlebit disappointed when, when they
say it's it's the degree um,you know the degree is going to
be a little bit disappointed.
When they say it's the degree,the degree is going to help you.
(20:59):
The degree does not hurt you,neither does the cert, but the
degree does not hurt you at all.
It actually helps you more thananything.
Now people are going to say, oh, but you got to borrow money,
blah, blah.
Yeah, but I'm of the beliefthat you make more, especially
the higher you go right, and I'msaying that you should go for a
doctorate because don't gocrazy.
(21:29):
But I think the master's degree,if you're going to work in IT,
is what you should reach for,because a master's degree will
change your whole trajectory andgive you confidence and you'll
start making more money.
You know, once you find yourniche Right, my niche is what?
Teaching, comptia Right, that'smy niche.
I've I've been doing for likeseven years.
(21:52):
People call me Schools, call meall the time hey, can you do a
bootcamp?
Hey, can you do a bootcamp?
I've gotten hundreds of peopleto pass their CompTIA
certifications Right, so that'smy niche.
Well, once you discover yourniche and you have a master's
degree, you're going to make alot more money than you're
(22:13):
making if you just had a cert.
I guarantee you that just goeswithout saying.
That will happen.
But I know there's a lot ofpeople there who say, well, I
know so-and-so who makes$130,000.
He doesn't have a degree.
Yeah, you're going to findthose.
You're going to find those.
(22:33):
Yeah, but those are rare.
Those are rare.
Is you know, without it's, it'syou know you could find somebody
working as a?
Uh changing the tracks, right,for mta new york, new york city
transit, right, who?
Who?
Uh, you know the guy therechanging the track track
(22:55):
supervisor.
He probably makes you know sixfigures and he probably doesn't
have a college degree on cert,right, what he has is longevity,
right, he's probably been therea while.
You ask him how long he's beenthere.
You know, I'm sure he, you knowit's going to be at least 10
years that he's been there.
But you could make more quicklyright going in there and it all
(23:20):
depends on where you work andstuff.
You know, let's not, let's notgo too crazy.
They're not going to pay you.
You know 160 000 coming outcoming out of college.
But yeah, maybe you get,possibly you can get half of
that, you know, coming out ofcollege, uh, and you know it's
very difficult for a company togive that to somebody who just,
(23:40):
oh, I have my Security Plus, payme $80,000.
No, they're not doing that.
So that's why I get upset bypeople who recommend people, by
people who recommend people forSecurity Plus as the first
(24:01):
CompTIA, right?
No, tech Plus, especiallysomebody who's never done IT,
put them in Tech Plus.
Don't make them go to SecurityPlus because they're going to
hate it, they're not going tounderstand it.
There's an expectation that youknow stuff, right.
So tech plus came out.
If you have your brother-in-lawor your cousin who wants to get
(24:24):
into computers, tell him totake tech plus.
That shirt never expires and atleast he who gets some
knowledge of it and then he goes.
You might not get a job with it, honestly.
You might not get a job with it, honestly, you might not get a
job with Tech Plus, but thatwould you know.
If he gets it, then I'll leavehim confident to take the A plus
.
So, again, it's all up to you.
(24:45):
You know you have to put inwhat you want, right?
You know it's up to you.
I can do only so much.
You have to be able to do stuffon your own like study and and
being and actually taking theexam.
So, but I have faith in you.
So, all right, that's going toput a ball on this episode.
(25:15):
All right, that's going to puta ball on this episode.
Thank you all for listening tomy tech plus, not tech talk,
right, and we'll see you on theother side.
(26:02):
This has been a presentation oflittle cha-cha productions art
by Sarah and music by Joe Kim.
If you want to email me, youcan at ProfessorJRod, that's
J-R-O-D at gmailcom.
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