I thought I would just write down how much time and money I have spent for continuing education and professional development.
- $349.00 for a lab simulator for Network+ TestOut and I have not completed it for over a year.
- $434.15 each year for 2+ years for Coursera Plus for Google Project Management and Google IT Support
- Free access to Pluralsight via my work which took me around 3 months: Network Security Basics, VLAN Operation and Con figuration, Network Troubleshooting and Tools, Ethernet Operation and Switch Configuration, Network Management and Operations, Introduction Enterprise Network Infrastructure, Network Concepts and Protocols
- Over $600 on other miscellaneous educational stuff over the last three years.
I failed to schedule and take the Network+ exam last year, I knew I would fail it. It really does require alot of real-world networking/hardware experience. I think the hardest thing about the Network+ was getting motivation to use my knowledge to create a home lab to practice what I was learning.
I also underestimated how much time Network+ study would take when it was not part of my daily work experience.
Otherwise, if I were to look into a physical or live/online class for Network+ certification, I would 100% start building a physical homelab to put what I am learning to work.
Right now I am using Coursera to do other courses in my spare time at night and on weekends for continuing education to get baseline certificates that expand my skills. These include:
- Data Visualization with Tableau Specialization
- Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate
- Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate
- Learn SQL Basics for Data Science Specialization
- Programming with Google Go Specialization
- Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate