certification needed?

[SPARTAN1630]

i recently quit due to complications with college and im good enough to be able to build and repair computers in a small business environment ( say from my room or dads garage) do i need to be certified? i mean is the imfamus TKAHRLOW certified?

[Luke122]

It never hurts to have certifications, it'll certainly put customers at ease.

A+ is a good one to start with.

[SPARTAN1630]

It never hurts to have certifications, it'll certainly put customers at ease.

A+ is a good one to start with.

im going to get it but is it required by law to have it?

[Luke122]

Not that I'm aware. If you are working "under the table", then you could probably get away without a business license too, but I'd get one, just to be safe. Chances are that it's not very expensive.. for me it's $75/year for a business license in my town.

Certifications are more to do with customer confidence and knowing what you are doing. To be honest, I've seen TONS of computer repair/sales businesses come and go over the years, and they all failed very quickly, due to lack of knowledge. Certifications mean that you have at least gotten some training.

[SgtM]

It's not required, but like Luke said, it's a very good idea to have one. Seeing a cert definitely builds confidence in your customers. Personally, I have Net+ and an MCP.

[x88x]

Personal opinion: Certifications are stupid and mean absolutely nothing.

Customer's opinion: Oh, hey, they got that certification, that must mean he knows what he's talking about.

Boss's opinion: Aha! He got [x] certification! That means we can market that to clients and make ourselves more appealing to them. Let's give him a raise.

Basically, they're dumb, but you should probably get them anyways.

[Kayin]

MCSE here.

Useless, honestly, except for the fact that idiots want you to have little pieces of paper proving that you know what you just showed them.

[Twigsoffury]

I'm not A+ certified, but managed to get my foot in the door with a temporary to hire position (lol i can whip a computer up pretty fast) at a point of sales equipment repair house.

Most of the hire they get is temporary to perm positions so we get to see alot of well "workers" roll through the door, But you would be surprised at the amount of people who are A+ certified But yet have no idea what to do when you ask them to replace a tube or board,panel in a monitor. Two or three of us actually have a A+ certification. but the majority don't.

so maybe a temp-2-perm job might be a good thing to try if your starting out in the computer field, mine was a 8 month contract, the pay was rather craphola (8.25$) but i proved my worth and they hired me at the end of the contract at 13.75$ an hour. i've been working there for about 4 years now and my pay has went up from what i started as.

Plus i get to learn something new everyday, I don't think i could do normal customer PC repair as dealing with customers just isn't "my thing".. lol i was a hotel clerk for awhile and i'm done with customers.

I mean if your good at computers, and put forth alot of effort, any boss will see that and say to himself
" oh sh@#, this guy just fixed that computer in 10 minutes"