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Computers have taken over the world, or at least many professions.

Everywhere you turn, a quick dig beneath the surface sawdust of

construction, the grease of auto mechanics, and the hum of medical technology

reveals one or more personal computers (PCs) working away, doing essential

jobs. Because the PC evolved from novelty item to essential science tool to

everyday object in a short period of time, there’s a huge demand for a workforce

that can build, maintain, troubleshoot, and repair PCs.

 

■ The Importance of Skill in

Managing and Troubleshooting PCs

The people who work with computers—the information technology (IT)

 

workforce—do such varied jobs as design hardware, write computer programs that enable you to do specific jobs on the PC, and create small and

 

large groupings of computers— networks —that enable people to share

 

computer resources. IT people built the Internet, one of the most phenomenal inventions of the 20th century. IT people maintain the millions of computers that make up the Internet. Computer technicians, or PC techs as

 

those of us in the field call each other, make up the core of the IT workforce.

Without the techs, none of the other stuff works. Getting workers with skill

in building, maintaining, troubleshooting, and fixing PCs is essential for

success for every modern business.

In the early days of the personal computer, anyone who used a PC had to

have skills as a PC tech. The PC was new, buggy, and prone to problems. You

didn’t want to rely on others to fix

 

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your PC when the inevitable problems arose. Today’s PCs are much

 

more robust and have fewer problems, but they’re also much more

 

complex machines. Today’s IT industry, therefore, needs specialized workers who know how to

 

make the machines run well.

The Concept of

Certifications

 

Every profession requires specialized skills. For the most part, if you

 

want to get or keep a job that requires those specialized skills, you

 

need some type of certification or

 

license. If you want a job fixing automobiles, for example, you get the

 

Automotive Service Excellence (ASE)

 

certification. If you want to perform companies’ financial audits,

 

you get your Certified Public

Accountant (CPA) certification.

 

Nearly every profession has

some criteria that you must meet to show your competence and ability to perform at a certain level.

While the way this works varies

 

widely from one profession to another, all of them will at some

 

point make you take an exam or

series of exams. Passing these exams proves that you have the necessary
skills to work at a certain level in your profession, whether you’re an

aspiring plumber, teacher, barber, or lawyer.
If you successfully pass these exams, the organization that administers
those exams grants you certification. You receive some piece of paper or pin or
membership card that you can show to potential clients or employers.

 

This certification gives those clients or employers a level of confidence that you can do what you say you can do. Without this certification, either you will not find
suitable work in that profession or no one will trust you to do the work.

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Chapter 1: Getting to Know the A+ Exams 1

 

Try This!

Six Degrees of Personal Computers

As a fun exercise, divide up your class or your study partners and try

this. One side comes up with a profession that seemingly doesn’t use or

depend on personal computers. The other side then, within six steps,

tries to knock that argument down. Here’s an example.

Side A: Poets don’t need computers.

Side B: Sure, the poet could handwrite his or her poetry, but

eventually would want the poems typewritten, thus a computer.

Side A counters: The poet could use an old-fashioned typewriter.

Side B: Okay, then to submit the poem for publication, the poet

would have to use the mail—the mail is sorted electronically by

computers.

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Side A counters: The poet could hand-deliver the typed

manuscript.

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Side B: To get into print, the poem would have to be made

electronically, whether by someone at the publisher’s typing it in

or even using a scanner to get it into electronic form.

Side A: Arghh!!!

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You get the idea? Have fun and let your imagination run the game. By

the end of a few minutes, you’ll probably be convinced that computers

are indeed everywhere and involved in just about every aspect of modern life.