What Certifications Have You Added Alongside CompTIA?

You mean, there are OTHER CERTS?!!?

lol

Lately, I've been working on Microsoft Azure stuff, since I've been doing a lot of work in Azure - just this week, I spun up a Managed Instance for SQL, stood up IIS, an NSG, and App Proxying - pretty straight forward, once I started learning what was happening.

Oh, and for those that think you can save money by hosting stuff in the cloud, read the fine print. Microsoft may be gracious and give you those 720 vCore hours for a Managed Instance in SQL for free for the first year. What they don't tell you is they burn down if the MI is running, and they burn down at a rate of 4 to 1, since the smallest MI has 4 cores. This means you get only 180 hours of run-time per month under that plan - so plan accordingly.

I also keep up the Fortinet fundamental stuff as well as certs from the CECU (since I'm in Career Higher Education).

Oh, and I'm working on certs for ministerial work as well. Yes, ministry. This week, I'm studying basic chaplaincy - maybe I'll have an ordination as the first IT Chaplain - I've prayed quite a bit in server rooms, hoping a system will come up.

Who's next?

/r

Gregory Childers said:

I'm curious how other instructors have built their certification portfolios over the years.

CompTIA has always had a vendor-neutral philosophy, and I think that's one of its greatest strengths. It teaches concepts and skills that apply across technologies instead of focusing on a single vendor.

But many of us also teach courses or work with clients who use specific technologies. That got me wondering how everyone balances CompTIA with other certifications. Besides your CompTIA certifications, what other certifications do you currently hold? Are you pursuing anything new?

How do vendor certifications like Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud, Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, or CrowdStrike fit into your portfolio? What about vendor-neutral certifications like ISC2 or ISACA? Or more specialized certifications from organizations like OffSec or GIAC?

When you're deciding what certification to earn next, what drives that decision? Customer demand? Personal interest? Better career opportunities? Something else?

I'm not looking for a right or wrong answer. I'm just interested in hearing how other CompTIA instructors think about professional development and how you've put together a certification portfolio that works for you.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Click to expand...

Back when Bill Gates was the only computer nerd billionaire, I built my career on the MCSE. This involved passing six exams, which I pulled off within five months. I kept the Microsoft certifications alive up until about 2020. That’s when I embraced CompTIA as my primary certification solution.

I first earned Security+ in 2007. Now I hold A+, Security+, PenTest+, SecurityX and SecAI+. My certs from Microsoft and other software companies have expired.

My challenge now is marketing my training services for Security+ and SecAI+.

I've added a few AWS certs, a PMI cert, and a couple of Microsoft/Azure certs. I'm not as diligent about renewing those, though. I choose certs based on my interests and/or based on upcoming projects or classes I'm about to teach.

It's interesting to compare CompTIA exams and objectives to exams and objectives from other companies. CompTIA does a pretty good job of giving sufficient detail in their objectives so you know what you need to know on the exam. Vendor-specific certs, especially AWS, often do a good job providing free training materials or good documentation on their services, making it easier to find in one place what I need to study. But it's also a little annoying that the vendor certs are (understandably) focused on how to use their products rather than understanding the underlying concepts.

Gregory Childers said:

I'm curious how other instructors have built their certification portfolios over the years.

CompTIA has always had a vendor-neutral philosophy, and I think that's one of its greatest strengths. It teaches concepts and skills that apply across technologies instead of focusing on a single vendor.

But many of us also teach courses or work with clients who use specific technologies. That got me wondering how everyone balances CompTIA with other certifications. Besides your CompTIA certifications, what other certifications do you currently hold? Are you pursuing anything new?

How do vendor certifications like Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud, Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, or CrowdStrike fit into your portfolio? What about vendor-neutral certifications like ISC2 or ISACA? Or more specialized certifications from organizations like OffSec or GIAC?

When you're deciding what certification to earn next, what drives that decision? Customer demand? Personal interest? Better career opportunities? Something else?

I'm not looking for a right or wrong answer. I'm just interested in hearing how other CompTIA instructors think about professional development and how you've put together a certification portfolio that works for you.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Click to expand...

I've added Microsoft certifications such as SC-900, AI-900 and AZ-900, and PL-900. I'm currently working on adding AZ-104. I have Cisco (CCNA) 200-301. Because my workplace will be teaching Python, I'll be adding the Python certification. I also have the SSCP planned, stemming from a WGU cybersecurity program. Primarily, my workplace focuses on CompTIA certifications.

I'm primarily a cloud instructor, so have got all AWS and Google Cloud certs as well as many Microsoft ones. Also have the LF Kubernetes certifications. AWS and Google certs I do for fun, the rest as they are required to teach the relevant courses.

Initially, I obtained certifications like Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA), CompTIA A+, Cisco CCNA R&S, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, and Furukawa FCP simply to meet the requirements of the institution where I teach. However, due to some uncertainties in my current job - such as restructuring and layoffs - I began investing in CompTIA certifications, as they offered the most job opportunities (A+, in fact, outperformed even the trendier certifications in this regard). From then on, I became drawn to the nature of CompTIA certifications, and they became the core of my portfolio. &;-D

I usually list my certs like this:

COMPUTER CERTIFICATIONS

• AI Certs AI+ Foundation
• AWS re/Start Accredited Instructor
• AWS Certified AI Practitioner
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
• Apple Certified Associate
• AT&T Systimax Structured Cabling Systems Installation
• CompTIA Security+
• CompTIA Network+
• CompTIA A+
• CompTIA IT Operations Specialist
• Dell Certified Systems Expert (DCSE 685, 702, 3028, 3016, 577)
• Google IT Support Certificate
• HIPAA Privacy & Security Awareness
• ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity
• MCP: Microsoft Certified Professional; Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012
• MCTS: Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist; Windows 7, Configuring.

I did the Microsoft, Apple, Dell, AT&T & HIPAA certs (along with A+ & N+) when I was a working tech in order to meet the perceived market demand & job requirements.
After I stepped out of the technician role & into teaching I did Sec+ as a teaching requirement, then did the ISC2 to see how they compared. I did the Google IT Supp. Cert to see how it compared to A+. I did the AWS CCP, SAA & Instructor certs as job requirements. I did the AWS AIP & the AI+ Foundation cert for fun, but a couple of months after I got the AI+ Foundation cert the job started posting it as a requirement for IT instructors.

Next on the horizon is AWS Certified Security - Specialty. AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty was on the horizon but TIL that it sunsets at the end of this month. Alas,the penalty of procrastination
Both for fun.

Hey everyone, love this question!

As instructors, we're always walking that line between teaching solid vendor-neutral fundamentals and giving students practical insights into the actual proprietary stacks they’ll run into at work.

For me, building out my portfolio has never been about collecting badges just to have them—it’s really been about layering vendor-neutral foundations, multi-cloud depth, and eventually strategic leadership.

What I’m Holding Right Now​

My portfolio is pretty heavy on security and cloud at the moment:

• CompTIA (The Anchor): I hold SecurityX, SecAI+, and A+. CompTIA has always been my baseline for vendor-neutral concepts. SecAI+ in particular has been awesome recently for tackling AI threats and workflow security, while SecurityX keeps my engineering and architecture skills grounded.
• Google Cloud: Associated Cloud Engineer (ACE), Workspace Administrator, GenAI Leader, and Cloud Digital Leader.
• AWS: Certified Cloud Practitioner and Solutions Architect – Associate looking to pick up the AI Practitioner if time permits me later in the year

How I Pick What's Next​

A lot of it comes down to market reality and classroom value. Almost none of my clients or students work in a single-vendor vacuum anymore. Holding both AWS and GCP certs lets me bring real-world multi-cloud context into the classroom. When we cover a vendor-neutral concept in CompTIA, I can immediately pull up examples of how AWS IAM vs. GCP IAM handles it in practice. Also looking forward to having some microsoft cloud environment as it comes 2nd after AWS if you ask many - opinions vary.

My Current Roadmap​

I like to tackle things in clear phases:

1. Leveling Up the Cloud Tier: My immediate goal is to hit the Professional level for both cloud providers—targeting the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional and GCP’s Professional Cloud Architect- have the vouchers for these and hope to take out time to trash them out.
2. The Governance & Strategy Layer: Once those are locked in, I'm heading toward PMP and CISSP( this should be next year) - That way, I have the technical implementation side fully covered, backed up by solid project management and high-level security governance.

Curious if others here teach multi-cloud as well, or if you guys mostly stick to one main ecosystem in your day-to-day work? Looking forward to reading through the thread!