Having read tens of thousands of forum posts since 2001, I've noticed a strange trend that won't go away. Most people get into IT certifications the wrong way. They pick a cert first, pass it, then ask “right, what now?” — and end up with a drawer full of certificates that don't add up to anything an employer recognizes. At around $400 a pop, IT certifications are an extremely expensive pastime unless each one pays you back many times over!
I've also noticed this with IT degrees. Three or four years and $100k, and then people post online saying they can't get any interviews as they have no usable skills or vendor certifications! This is pretty much a daily post on many IT-related Reddit groups I visit.
A certification on its own is just a line on a CV. A certification path is a story: it tells an employer where you started, what you can do now, and where you're heading. That's what gets you hired and promoted. So before you book a single exam, it's worth spending an afternoon planning the route. Here's how to do it properly — and the mistakes I see people make again and again.
Why You Need A Plan (Not Just A Cert)
Without a plan, you waste two things you can't get back: money and time. IT exams aren't cheap, and the hours you spend studying for the wrong one are hours you didn't spend building toward a real job. Worse, certs expire. Pass something too early, before you've got the experience or the next rung lined up, and you'll be renewing a cert you never actually used.
A plan fixes all of that. It tells you which exam to sit next, why, and what it sets you up for. It stops you drifting. And it means every cert you earn makes the next one easier — because you've built a foundation instead of a pile.
Take some time to be honest with yourself about your goals, your budget, and available time. Is it really worth spending six months and over $500 in exam fees to pass the CompTIA A+ if you actually want to be a network security expert? I'm speaking from the bitter experience of wasting months of my life studying for exams that were too low-level or high-level for where I wanted to be in my career if I'd taken the time to think about my future.
The Common Mistakes
Before we get to the path, let's clear out the things that derail people:
Chasing trends. Cloud is hot, AI is hotter, so everyone wants to jump straight into a cloud or AI cert — even when they've never configured a switch or locked down a server. Trends are real, but you can't skip the fundamentals. The people earning well in the cloud got there through networking and systems, not around them. Some famous IT YouTubers have made a career out of ‘You Need to Learn Azure NOW!‘ videos, but the very next week, they are telling you that you need to learn Python.
Taking advice from strangers on Reddit. I'm not knocking the community, but a random thread can't see your situation — your background, your strengths, the job market where you live, what you actually enjoy. You'll get ten confident answers pointing in ten directions. Use forums for encouragement, not for your career strategy.
Chasing the highest-paying cert. People search “highest paying IT certification,” see CISSP or CCIE at the top, and decide that's the plan. It isn't. Which brings me to the biggest trap of all.
The Trap: Running Straight At The Expert Certs
Becoming an expert in a particular vendor's software or hardware, or even a season's project manager, takes time and real-world experience. The truth is that entry-level jobs often pay the same as, or a little more than, professional-level jobs. An expert is often somebody who learns more and more about less and less. You risk backing yourself into a corner if you learn everything there is to know about a certain software product, only to have it become obsolete. Many Lotus Notes email administrators discovered this many years ago.
You cannot just decide to be CISSP-certified. The CISSP requires five years of relevant paid work experience before you're fully certified — you can pass the exam early and hold the associate title while you build the hours, but you can't shortcut the experience. Same story with the CCIE or a cloud architect cert: these are expert-level credentials that assume years of hands-on work.
Running at them on day one is like trying to bench press your bodyweight on your first day in the gym. You'll either bounce off the requirements or pass something you can't yet back up in an interview.
The other version of this trap is collecting vendor certs for your wall. A dozen logos look impressive on LinkedIn, but if they don't tell a coherent story — and you can't demonstrate the skills behind them — they're just wallpaper. Employers can spot a paper certification a mile off.
Start With Your Strengths, Not A Cert
Here's the bit most people skip. Before you pick a direction, be honest about what you're actually good at and what you enjoy:
- Do you love solving puzzles? Troubleshooting a network that's gone dark or chasing down a security incident might be your thing.
- Do you stay calm under pressure? Security operations, incident response, and network engineering all reward people who don't panic when everything's on fire.
- Are you a strong team player or a natural coordinator? That points toward project management or a leadership track rather than deep technical specialism.
There's no wrong answer — but matching the path to your strengths is the difference between a career you enjoy and one you grind through.
Build The Foundation: Network+
Whatever direction you eventually take, almost everything in IT sits atop networking. If you don't understand how data actually moves — IP addressing, subnetting, ports, routing, the OSI model — you'll hit a ceiling fast in security, cloud, or systems.
That's why I'd point most people at CompTIA Network+ as their foundation. It's vendor-neutral, it's respected, and it gives you the language and concepts that every later cert assumes you already know. Get this solid, and everything that follows gets easier. (If you're brand new and coming from a help-desk or hardware angle, A+ first is fine — but Network+ is where your real planning starts.)
You should allow around two months of study time for the exam. It's part theory and part practical tests (PBQs), but we teach you how to pass it all here. The Network+ is the only IT certification that I consider non-negotiable.
Then Climb: Associate → Professional → Expert (Later)
Once Network+ is in the bag, you branch toward whatever fits you — security, cloud, networking, Linux, project management, whatever lights you up. The key is to climb in order:
- Associate level — your first specialist cert in your chosen area.
- Professional level — the deeper, more demanding cert that proves you can do the job properly.
- Expert level — CCIE, cloud architect, and the like. These come much later, once you've got the professional certs and the real-world experience to match.
Don't try to leap from foundation to expert. Climb the rungs.
Ensure you put every certification to use. Even the Network+ should get you a role in a company. You might have to apply to 50 or more jobs, but keep at it. Once you add the next certification, look to get promoted, a pay raise, or a more challenging role with another company.
Four Example Tracks (All Starting From Network+)
Here's what that ladder looks like in practice. Each of these begins from your Network+ foundation. Use this as an example and not a must-follow track:
Networking
Security (general)
- Associate: CC (ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity)
- Professional: SSCP (Systems Security Certified Practitioner)
Ethical Hacking
Linux Administration
Pick the track that matches your strengths, work it from the bottom up, and only look at expert-level certs once you've earned the professional ones and put in the hours on the job.
The Bottom Line
Don't chase trends. Don't outsource your career to a Reddit thread. Don't sprint at the highest-paying cert before you've earned the right to sit it. Build a solid Network+ foundation, be honest about your strengths, pick one track, and climb it in order. That's how you end up with a certification path that actually means something — to employers and to you.
Every cert on every track above has a full course inside howtonetwork.com — video lessons, hands-on labs, practice exams, and live Cisco racks, all under one membership. So once you've planned your path, you can work the whole thing in one place without juggling a dozen subscriptions. Take a look at what's included.
Have fun,
Paul
