thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

thinQcompass

Tell us where you are standing and which way you want to go. We will lay out which certifications to take, in what order, and how long each one is likely to take you — including the ones we do not teach.

Plan my direction
Have a job in mind? Paste the details and we will read them

Paste the details of the position or offer — the requirements section is the part that matters. We will pull out the job title, the certifications it asks for, the experience and the pay, show you what we matched, and build the route from there.

IT Manager / IT Director

Owning the infrastructure, the budget and the team. Vendor contracts, roadmaps, hiring, and defending spend to people who do not care how DNS works.

$175,140Median pay
12 moYour horizon
8 hrsPer week
5Steps in range

Pay is the US Bureau of Labor Statistics median for Computer and Information Systems Managers, May 2025 — the occupation this job is counted inside, which is usually broader than the job title itself. BLS projects 16% growth in this occupation between 2025 and 2035. The median spans everyone from a small-firm IT manager to an enterprise CIO. Study times are our own estimates for someone working 8 hours a week, and they are ranges for a reason.

We do not teach ITIL 4 Foundation. It is on your plan because you need it, not because we sell it.
PMI PMP: PMI requires documented project hours before you may sit the exam - 36 months leading projects with a four-year degree, 60 months without.
Most postings for IT Manager / IT Director name a bachelor's degree. Plenty of people hold this job without one, and certifications plus demonstrable experience are how they got there - but expect the résumé screen to be the hard part, not the interview.
IT Manager / IT Director is not usually a first job. The realistic route is systems or network administration, then a team lead role. Almost nobody is hired into IT management without having run the systems first. The plan below is still the right study order for getting there - it is the timeline to the title that is longer than the timeline to the certifications.

What are you aiming to earn?

$175,000
$62,000 $176,000

IT Manager / IT Director reaches this. Its median is $175,140.

Your sequence

In order. Each step assumes the one above it.
Scroll the steps — the marker follows  
$99,130 · Network and Computer Systems Administrators $175,140 · Computer and Information Systems Managers

Both ends are US Bureau of Labor Statistics medians, May 2025. Everything between them is a straight line we drew, not data: nobody publishes pay per certification, and real pay moves when you change job, not when you pass an exam.

  1. 1

    CompTIA Network+

    1.8-2.8 months · from month 1

    Vendor-neutral networking. The foundation almost every later path assumes you already have.

    ~$114,332 modelled Associate We teach this See dates →
    Other ways to take this step
    • Cisco CCST Networking — if Network+ feels like too big a first step, this is the same ground at half the depth
  2. 2

    CompTIA Security+

    1.8-2.8 months · from month 3

    The baseline security credential, and DoD 8140 approved - which is what unlocks federal and contractor roles.

    ~$129,534 modelled Associate We teach this See dates →
    Other ways to take this step
    • Cisco CCST Cybersecurity — if you want to show security intent before you are ready to sit Security+
  3. 3

    CompTIA Project+

    1.4-2.3 months · from month 6

    Vendor-neutral project delivery, and it never expires.

    ~$144,736 modelled Associate We teach this See dates →
  4. 4

    ITIL 4 Foundation

    2-3 weeks · from month 8

    Service-desk shops run on ITIL vocabulary. Cheap, quick, and it makes you legible to managers.

    ~$159,938 modelled Foundational We do not teach this
  5. 5

    PMI PMP

    3.2-5.5 months · from month 9

    The project credential employers name. Requires documented project hours before you can sit it.

    ~$175,140 modelled Expert We teach this See dates →

    On the model, this is the step that reaches your $175,000 goal.

    Experience requirement. PMI requires documented project hours before you may sit the exam - 36 months leading projects with a four-year degree, 60 months without.

Change your answers

Nothing is saved and no account is needed. Your answers live in the page address.

What interests you?

Pick as many as apply. If you are not sure, pick the one you would read about on a Saturday.

Where you are now

Both of these change the plan. Experience especially — it decides what we skip and how fast we think you will move.

How much time you have

Be honest rather than optimistic. A plan built on hours you will not find is a plan you abandon in week five.

$62,000 $175,000 $176,000

Anything you already hold

Tick these and we will not sell you a course you do not need.

I already hold some certifications

Free, and it will tell you about certifications we do not sell. If the honest answer is that you need something we do not teach, the plan says so.