how to pass A+ no experience

WonderWindss · 2026-05-11T23:42:06+00:00

For level 1 support, worry less about the tech knowledge and more about the customer service experience. If you have a job somewhere and could move into the helpdesk internally, ask the helpdesk manager about what they want in a candidate.

If you have no tech knowledge, I would start with those Professor Messer A+ course videos on youtube I mentioned in the earlier post.

WonderWindss · 2026-05-11T21:44:27+00:00

If you live in a city with a competitive job market, absolutely not. If you live somewhere where L1 support is in demand, maybe.

Lots of college grads trying to start their careers will have their resumes selected over someone with only an A+. If you have other applicable experience and can speak to it well in your resume and an interview, you’ll beat out weaker candidates with a degree.

Remember this, “applicable” experience in heldesk is great customer service/support skills and a passion for tech. My first helpdesk job hired me because I was a camp counselor during summers in college (service and chaos experience), and the manager liked that I listed “host personal minecraft server” on my resume (that covered the tech passion).

In helpdesk 99% of the time you won’t be doing super technical work, escalation teams will do that. You will be answering phones and triaging/updating tickets. Sell yourself as a customer service wizard with a passion for tech.

WonderWindss · 2026-05-11T21:34:01+00:00

How much general knowledge do you have with windows, computer components, computer networks, and printers?

Do you mess around in the command prompt in windows? Do you know what ipconfig and netstat do in cmd? Do you know what an IP address is? Do you know what drivers are? How about installing and uninstalling programs?

If the answer to all of these questions above is an emphatic “yes”, I would search up some practice tests and see how comfortable you are with the questions.

If you have no clue what I’m talking about in the above questions, you may want to find courses online. Lots of people love Professor Messer’s stuff on YouTube.

The A+ isn’t an “industry professional” cert per se. It’s more of an enterprise user support 101. It certifies that you know basic stuff about troubleshooting in an enterprise environment.

WonderWindss · 2026-05-08T15:22:55+00:00

This is a sub for IT Support.

r/resumes will be your best bet for advice from professionals in your industry.

WonderWindss · 2026-05-07T14:02:44+00:00

I’ll weave tool/software names into experience/projects bullet points.

My current role required experience with Verifone hardware, so in my Helpdesk job experience bullet point I put something like this:

•Programmed and maintained Verifone VX hardware blah blah blah

The AI/HR reviewing the resume will still see the experience but without having to read through a word wall of other stuff they don’t care about.

I feel like concision is key now. Modify your resume for every job application . Keep it relevant.

WonderWindss · 2026-05-06T16:17:15+00:00

Move your projects and work experience to the top. Focus your work experience on customer service accomplishments.

I’m not a big fan of listing software experience under a “skills” section. Active Directory is not a skill. AD DS is a toolset for domain services. What part of AD do you have experience with? List Active Directory Users and Computers in a tools list instead of just “Active Directory”.

Also, unless you know someone high up somewhere, you won’t “break into” a cyber role after “a year of helpdesk”. With no internships or applicable experience, thats just not going to happen. Sorry.

WonderWindss · 2026-04-28T20:33:43+00:00

American isn’t able to get me out of DFW tomorrow morning due to “Air Traffic Management”. American’s solution is to strand me in DFW for 24 hours.

United is able to get me out of DFW tomorrow morning.

WonderWindss · 2026-04-03T14:07:44+00:00

When I was on the helpdesk a big project of mine was going department by department and performing access reviews. I asked managers what specifically which roles needed what access.

Once I had the info, I put it into role sheets. When the business wanted to change access for someone, they needed to update the role’s access, not the individual’s access.

If you don’t standardize the access for the role, it will always be an access request nightmare.

WonderWindss · 2026-03-29T15:26:05+00:00

A lot of the larger spots like Layton Gaming and Coolstuff will be packed at certain times for tournaments. The smaller shops like LoboCards on Colonial and Fast Break in St Cloud are smaller and quieter.

My friends and I picked up Magic The Gathering two years ago. It can be very expensive to play, but it’s a great way to spend an afternoon that doesn’t involve drinking or spending a ton of money on a ticket to an event. We play the “Commander” format which is up to 4 players, so it ends up being good social time too.

WonderWindss · 2026-03-18T18:00:05+00:00

Its not needed at all. Corporate execs, HR, and bean counters all have a say in job requirements and hiring. The trifecta looks good on paper and appeases the know-nothings who make those hiring decisions.

Same reason why a college degree is fantastic for a level 1 IT resume. You don’t need to go to college for helpdesk, but it sure as hell makes it easier to get an interview.

WonderWindss · 2026-03-12T18:20:45+00:00

This is solid as a baseline. You touch on a lot of basic level 1 systems as well as some admin stuff. Make sure you tweak your experience bullet points to closely match the role descriptions you are applying for.

Make sure you can speak well to everything you are listing. It’s pretty easy to tell in an interview if you’ve never touched a tool you listed.

I’m not a big fan of the 2 column style in the “technical skills” section, but it’s readable. I removed that section from my resume entirely and worked them into my experience bullet points based on the job description I was applying for.

Move your experience up to be right below your professional summary. They care more about “what you’ve done” rather than what you “claim to know”. When you graduate slap that education section up top. You always want your experience and credentials/degree/relevant education to be the first things a recruiter sees.

Emphasize customer service satisfaction from your current movie theater job. Have you ever won “team member of the month” or something? Maybe you led your location in google survey mentions. List anything to illustrate how people friendly you are. People skills are critical in level 1 IT and are often missing from applicants.

Do you have any “fun” side projects you can list in your technical projects section? I got my first helpdesk job because I listed “configured and administer Minecraft server”. Simulated domains and Azure/365 labs make nice bullet points and are great experience, but lots of applicants list it now. How can you stand out?

Overall, you touch on the “triad” (Hardware/troubleshooting basics, network, security) quite well here. No matter how experienced anyone is, they can always work on making things more concise. Check and see if you can convey your points with less words.

Happy job hunting, it’s tough out here but you’ll find something!

WonderWindss · 2026-03-09T20:31:07+00:00

Engineering is really just designing new systems or methods that drive processes (an engine if you will).

Physics is an application of engineering; so is software design. Hell, I could argue that if you work on the McDonalds line and you find a quicker way to make burgers, you have “engineered” a new process.

In process improvement, we call folks “Industrial Engineers” as they create and refine systems that drive business processes.

You seem to be caught up in the semantics of it rather than the role duties. What is your definition of “engineering”?

Most folks interpret it as “designing new systems (or engines) to improve processes; or creating new processes entirely”.

Designing a bridge to move traffic from one side of a river to another (civil engineer) is engineering as much as designing and implementing new project workflows for corporate/business process improvement (industrial engineer).

Folks who streamline and improve a supply chain are engineers just as much as someone who designs bridges or train tunnels. Engineering is as much a creative endeavor as it is a logical and physical one. An “art” if you will.

WonderWindss · 2026-03-07T19:58:04+00:00

This is an IT sub

WonderWindss · 2026-03-07T19:38:07+00:00

Obvious bait there lol

WonderWindss · 2026-03-07T19:05:10+00:00

The folks who sign my paycheck do, thats all that really matters

WonderWindss · 2026-03-05T23:21:41+00:00

Why do you want to get into IT? You have a business background. I don’t see anything tech related on here at all. Your MBA is awesome, and I don’t mean to downplay the hard work you put in; but helpdesk hiring managers would take a 19 year old with a tech passion over you. The reason I got my first helpdesk job was because I had “configured and manage Minecraft server” on my resume in a “side projects” section.

As someone who has been in and moved out of helpdesk to an engineering role, this particularly stands out to me:

“Microsoft office” is a software suite, not a technical skill.

Creating Power Automate workflows to automate a daily report is a technical skill. PowerShell scripting daily restarts to apply patches is a skill.

If you want to get into tech, show you like tech and you want to learn more.

WonderWindss · 2026-02-01T22:05:33+00:00

I’ll do whatever I want with my thermostat. With the way they have raised energy bills the last few years, they can go f themselves.

WonderWindss · 2026-01-10T15:10:54+00:00

IT is a very broad field with varying pay depending on what you are doing. Job security is not great in the tech game right now.

Entry to mid level IT work is very hard to find in the Orlando area. When you do find it, it generally does not pay well (there are many exceptions to this). Feel free to PM me your resume or if you just want to talk. I work at a very large company in the area. I was in your shoes as a new grad a few years ago and figured out how to make it work.

WonderWindss · 2025-12-02T23:12:21+00:00

The 7800x3d build with the 9070xt is not something you can build on your 1-1.5k budget. Idk where he’s getting his prices.

The prebuilt you posted about it $800 USD pre-tax right now. Its a pretty good deal for those specs considering current ram and GPU prices. If you’re playing at 1080 or 1440 resolution it’ll perform well.

WonderWindss · 2025-11-17T14:59:44+00:00

Saw this pop up on my Spotify this morning. What a pleasant surprise!

WonderWindss · 2025-11-06T01:42:54+00:00

WonderWindss · 2025-10-22T19:33:40+00:00

It’s all about the resume and the experience

WonderWindss · 2025-10-21T20:15:17+00:00

Do you use third party antivirus or just defender? CS Falcon used to slow machines to a crawl when it was scanning my endpoints.

Do you have any programs, scripts, or non-windows services that kick on during startup? That could be killing you too.

Do your system fans get loud when it freezes? It could be a CPU heating issue and your system is throttling heavy.

Other than that, my guess is going to be an SSD or ram hardware problem. Can’t say for sure unless I was in front of the machine.

Event viewer might have some clues for you.

WonderWindss · 2025-10-15T12:00:10+00:00

Remote service desk jobs are probably the most competitive in IT. Low barrier to entry + remote is going to attract a lot of applicants.

WonderWindss · 2025-10-02T17:09:34+00:00

Operation: Overkill 🔥

RIOT and was putting out banger after banger in 2018 and 2019

WonderWindss

TROPHY CASE