>My son is in the military. He’ll be finishing his tour sometime next year and for the moment not planning to reenlist. (he'll be another 4 in the reserve)
>
>He’s been working with computers, all the way from networking, fixing to his job as an Intelligence Analyst. (Doing whatever they do)
>Although he managed to get college credits, still needs to work on his degree.
>Because of his lack of formal education at the moment, he is planning to get an A+ certification to get a job as soon as he gets back home.
>
>I would appreciate any advice/suggestion or guidance on this, especially those of you with info on A+.
>
>If you have experience on this subject, what books should I get?
>What areas the book should cover? (I sent him a book I bought but he said it was too easy and finished it right away)
>
>Do you consider his plan a good idea?
>
>Should he aim a little higher considering his background?
>
>Are there any former military people here w/similar experience?

I am not even sure what an "A+" certification is all about - I must have heard it somewhere. But I do work with CCNA certifications (Cisco, networking), and hope that the following general comments are at least slightly useful.

Industrial certifications can indeed be very useful. I think many companies will value the fact that an indivual holds one of those.

For the CCNA exam, the Cisco site lists certification objectives, i.e., what knowledge are you supposed to prove with the certification exam. Perhaps you can find something similar for A+.

For the CCNA, there is a special preparatory course, by Cisco Academies, also called CCNA. I know both the contents and the exam (I am an instructor), and I think that for most people, it would be quite difficult to prepare for the certification exam without some special course, i.e., by only browsing through the internet, and reading books on your own. This may, or may not, be similar in the case of A+.

Many certification exams, including those from Microsoft and Cisco - but at least a score additional companies, too - are administered World-wide by two companies: www.vue.com, and www.prometric.com. Perhaps you can get additional information there. At least, you can get an overview of available certifications.

"The" encyclopedia has some quick overview, as well as links, for A+: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompTIA. See also the related link for "professional certifications" - especially the "criticisms" part! But this link also lists professional certifications by several other companies.

I'd say, pursue a certification in an area of his liking, which may be networks, programming, linux expert, SQL server / Oracle server administrator, etc. - and choose something that is not too basic.

Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)