Will it be easy to get a job as an engineer technician?

If I take the A+ Exam and get a job as a certified computer technician, how easy would it be to change careers to being a software engineer?

• Answer:

  That really depends where you get a job.   If you get a job in a place that does mostly computer repair as a service, than no, it's not going to help you very much at all.   That being said, I manage an IT group for a significantly larger company... I have people who have come in the door as repair techs, but they built scripts, utilities and did other development work while in their role as help desk techs. Over time, they moved deeper into software support, SQA and other areas of a very large IT department.   The best thing that an A+ will give you is the ability to work a computer related job that pays relatively well while you work on your software development skills. Just understand that the work you do with an A+ doesn't relate very directly to the work you'd do in software development. It may also give you the opportunity to work within a larger IT organization and gain exposure to software development groups, but this, again, depends where you work.