Your Next Certification Should Be a Career Decision: 9 Role-Based Certification Pathways

There are hundreds of IT certifications, and I talk to people every week who've earned three or four of them and still aren't any closer to the job they want. Collecting credentials isn't a plan. Pick the role first, then earn the certifications that lead to it, in the right order.

More certifications isn't the same as a better career

The right next certification for someone breaking into cybersecurity is the wrong one for an experienced network engineer, and different again for someone moving into management. When you study without a target, you spend months on credentials that don't add up to a story a hiring manager can follow.

So we built the pathways below around the jobs people actually apply for. Each one starts with the foundation, adds specialized skills, and ends at a level employers recognize. They're starting points, not rules. Your experience might let you skip a step, and that's fine.

Nine roles, nine routes

Find your starting line

Get a plan built around you

A pathway on a page can't know your experience, your schedule or the job posting you're eyeing. Our free thinQcompass career planner can. Tell it your interests, experience, study hours and the certifications you already hold, and it lays out which certifications to take, in what order, and roughly how long each one will take. You can even paste in a job posting and it will build the route to that job. It's free, and you don't need an account.

1. Pick a target role. Use the pathways above, or let thinQcompass suggest one.
2. Build your plan. Get a sequence with time estimates that skips anything you already hold.
3. Fund it. Military funding covers a flat $1,500 per class for qualified service members, veterans and spouses. Everyone else can use thinQflex to pay over time with no markup, or name your price.
4. Start the first class. Every class is live and instructor-led, with 90 days of Class Hub access and 24 months of free retakes.

Build the skills. Earn the credentials. Go after the job you actually want.

— Scott