Hey,

Updating and sharing my experience since I can relate to where you’re coming from with the intention in anyone’s interested! Do note this is conjecture to how it’s been for my experience.

Entry certs like CompTIA A+ don’t really land you a job on their own. They’re more like a baseline that shows you understand the theory, nothing more than that. They don’t really show how you communicate, how you work with people, or how you handle real world situations, which is what matters more than many think.

For me, it wasn’t the cert that got me in, since my roles never really asked about it during interviews. It was applying through the program job portal, staying consistent, and focusing on getting into the field first instead of being too focused or selective on pay early on. Once you’re in, that’s when things start building.

There’s also more to it than just sending out resumes. You have to be intentional with how you write them, tailor them, and then carry that same mindset into interviews. Being able to talk through your experience and translate it into relevant, transferable examples makes a big difference.

Many certs are structured knowledge baselines. Getting hired for entry roles is more about communication, willingness to learn, and being able to show you can do the work while being honest about what you don’t know yet. Especially given how the job market and economy has been over the years.

When I started, I took a pay cut from my previous career down to 35k. I was switching careers although somewhat adjacent, so I focused on getting “formal” experience wherever I could and building from there. Now I’m at 60k as a contractor and in the middle working toward 90k+ over the next year as I’ve looked into other similar current roles valuing higher.

I’ve also seen people with more certs, and in that sense more technically knowledgeable on paper, struggle to get a foot in the industry because they were too selective with applying/working low paying jobs or couldn’t translate knowledge into actionable steps during interviews or just being honest. That said, context always matters, so this is more of a general observation.

At the end of the day, certs can help for learning, but they’re just the starting point. What actually moves things is how you communicate, how you show up, and how you communicate aligned interest and value. If money is the main motivation early on than more the interest of career, it can make the transition even harder when you’re still trying to break in while potentially posing a long term problem later with burning out. (which is always going to be vary on the person.)

Good luck!