How to Get IT Certifications (7-Step Plan)

How to get IT certifications is one of the more answerable career questions in tech, because a few hundred dollars and a couple of months of disciplined study per credential can open doors that a resume alone often cannot. The problem is that most first-timers go about it backward: they pick the certification that sounds most impressive, buy the most expensive course they can find, and then sit the exam before they are ready, losing the fee, the time, and a chunk of confidence in one go. Done in the right order, the same outcome costs less and lands more reliably.

This breakdown gives you that order. It walks through seven steps, from choosing the certification that actually matches the job you want to adding the finished credential to your resume and diarising its renewal, with an illustrative worked example and a companion that estimates your own timeline and cost as you read. It sits alongside our reference work on whether certifications are worth it and what certifications cost; this one assumes you have decided to get one and need a clean, repeatable process to actually earn it. Keep the companion calculator open and enter your numbers once as you go.

Before you start: what you need

Earning a certification is less about intelligence and more about running a simple process without skipping steps, so gather your inputs before you spend a dollar. Going in with your own targets fixed is what stops a course seller from setting them for you.

You need three things in hand:

• A target role. The specific entry-level job title you want to be hireable for, in your market. "A job in IT" is not a target; "a help-desk or IT-support technician role" is, and it points directly at which certification to earn first.
• A budget. A realistic figure that counts the exam voucher plus study materials and a practice-exam package, not just the headline fee. Our [breakdown of certification costs](/articles/how-much-do-certifications-cost/) helps you size it honestly.
• Weekly study hours. The number of focused hours you can genuinely protect each week, because that single figure, more than any quoted timeline, decides how long earning the cert will take you.

Time estimate: for a foundational credential, plan an illustrative 8 to 12 weeks of steady study, adjusted up or down by your weekly hours and starting knowledge. Difficulty: moderate, and the hard part is consistency rather than any single concept. Keep the companion on this page open as you read; enter your weekly hours, your exam cost, and the months you have available, and it will estimate your study weeks, a total cost, and whether your plan is on track. Enter those once, then work the seven steps in order, because each one sets up the next. Your illustrative version of this plan comes out to an illustrative number of study weeks for an illustrative all-in cost.

Step 1: Pick the right certification for your target job

Start with the destination, not the credential. Before you compare study guides or exam fees, write down the exact entry-level job you want to be hireable for, then find which certification that job actually asks for. A certification is a tool for reaching a specific hiring outcome, and you cannot judge whether a tool fits until you know the job it has to do. Someone aiming for a help-desk role and someone aiming for an entry cloud or security role should earn different first certs, and only a defined target reveals which.

Make the target concrete enough to test. Pull up a handful of real job postings for that exact title in your market and note which certifications the listings name or prefer, because that repeated set is your shortlist. This is also where the entry-versus-specialist distinction matters: a foundational, vendor-neutral certification proves baseline literacy and is what entry-level postings screen for, while specialist and expert credentials assume hands-on experience you may not have yet. Our IT certification roadmap lays out a sensible order, showing the foundational cert most people should start with and the tracks that branch from it.

The illustrative payoff of this step is focus. Anchoring on the cert your target postings actually name usually cuts a long list of impressive-sounding options down to one obvious first move, which saves both money and months. A shorter, better-matched choice beats a longer list of famous names.

Watch out for chasing prestige. The most advanced or best-paid certification is rarely the right first one, because those exams assume experience a newcomer has not built, and failing an expert exam is a costly way to learn that lesson. Let the job postings, not the marketing, choose your first credential, and save the higher-tier certs for after you have the foundation and the hands-on time they quietly require. Our note on whether a certification is worth it can pressure-test whether a given cert earns its place in your plan at all.

Step 2: Check the prerequisites and exam details

With a target cert chosen, get the facts about the exam before you plan a single study session, because those facts shape everything that follows. Go to the vendor’s own certification page and read the exam objectives, the number and type of questions, the time limit, the format, and any recommended prerequisites. The objectives document is the single most useful page in the whole process, because it is literally the blueprint the exam is written from, and your study plan should mirror it section by section.

Note the practical logistics too. Confirm whether the exam is delivered at a testing center, online with remote proctoring, or both, since that changes your test-day preparation later. Check the exam fee and whether a voucher or bundle is available, and treat the price as a figure to verify directly with the vendor rather than a number to take from a forum post, because exam prices change and vary by region. The same caution applies to the passing score: many IT exams use a scaled score with a stated pass mark, but the exact threshold and how it is calculated are illustrative details to confirm current with the vendor, not numbers to assume.

The illustrative payoff here is a realistic cost picture. Once you know the voucher price, you can add study materials and a practice-exam package to reach a true total, which the companion totals for a foundational cert in the example numbers, well above the voucher alone.

Watch out for out-of-date information. Vendors periodically revise exams, retiring one version and releasing a new one with different objectives, and studying the wrong version is a genuine risk if you rely on old guides or secondhand summaries. Always confirm you are preparing for the current exam code and objectives on the vendor’s own site, note any announced retirement date, and make sure every study resource you buy is mapped to that current version rather than a superseded one.

Step 3: Build a realistic study plan and timeline

Now turn the exam objectives into a calendar. A study plan is simply the objectives list broken into weekly chunks that fit the hours you can protect, and building it honestly is what separates people who finish from people who drift. Estimate the total study hours the material demands, an illustrative 80 to 120 hours for a foundational cert with little background, then divide by your realistic weekly hours to get a week count. If you can protect ten focused hours a week, an illustrative 100-hour target lands near ten weeks, which is why the companion returns an illustrative number of study weeks for the example inputs.

Build the plan around the objectives, not around a book’s chapter order, so that every week advances a named exam domain. Front-load the topics you know least and schedule the heaviest domains earlier, when your energy and runway are highest. Reserve the final week or two entirely for practice exams and weak-area review rather than new material, because consolidation near the end pays off more than cramming new content. Block the study sessions into your actual calendar as appointments, since a plan that lives only in your head loses to every busier week.

The illustrative payoff is a plan you can trust and a readiness read: the companion compares your study weeks against the months you have available and returns a readiness read, which tells you at a glance whether your weekly hours fit your window or need adjusting.

Watch out for a plan built on hours you do not really have. The most common failure is scheduling twenty hours a week that real life then eats, leaving you demoralised and behind. It is far better to plan for the hours you can genuinely defend, even if that stretches the calendar, than to set an aggressive timeline you abandon in week three. If the readiness note comes back tight, the honest fix is to add a few hours a week or extend the timeline, not to pretend the material will compress. Build in a buffer week too, because something always slips.

Step 4: Choose study materials on a budget

With a plan in place, buy the smallest set of materials that covers the objectives well, because more resources rarely means better preparation. For most foundational certifications you need only three things: one primary study resource mapped to the current exam objectives, a way to get hands-on practice, and a quality practice-exam package. Adding a fourth and fifth resource usually spreads your attention thin rather than deepening it, so resist the urge to collect courses you will never finish.

Choose the primary resource to match how you learn. An official study guide or textbook suits readers, while a structured video course suits people who absorb material better by watching and listening, and either can be the single spine of your plan. Whichever you pick, confirm it targets the current exam version, since an outdated guide teaches retired objectives. For hands-on practice, a home lab built from free or cheap tools, or a free tier of a cloud provider, cements concepts that reading alone leaves fuzzy, and it costs little beyond your time. The illustrative materials-and-practice budget in the companion is about the difference between the exam voucher and the all-in total it reports, a modest sum next to the fee itself.

The illustrative payoff is coverage without waste. One strong guide plus real practice plus a good test bank typically covers everything a foundational exam asks, at a fraction of what a full instructor-led program costs.

Watch out for paying for a pricey bootcamp when self-study is genuinely enough. For entry-level material, disciplined self-study with a good guide and practice exams commonly gets people across the line, and expensive instruction is a preference for those who need structure or accountability, not a requirement. If you have honestly tried the cheaper route and found you need live help, that is a fair reason to pay for more; buying the most expensive option first, before you know whether you need it, is not. Our certification cost breakdown shows how the materials slice compares with the fee.

Step 5: Take practice exams and find your weak areas

Practice exams are the most reliable tool you have for turning study into a pass, so make them the engine of the second half of your plan rather than an afterthought. A good practice test does two things at once: it rehearses the exam format and timing so the real thing feels familiar, and it produces a domain-by-domain score that shows you exactly where you are weak. That second function is the valuable one, because it converts a vague sense of “I should study more” into a precise list of the objectives to drill next.

Use them diagnostically, not just for a score. Take a full timed practice exam early enough to expose your weak domains while there is still time to fix them, then study those specific areas, then retest. Repeat that loop, and watch not only the total score but the spread across domains, because a solid average can hide one domain that would sink you. Keep a simple log of the topics you miss, since patterns in your misses point straight at the concepts you only think you understand. The idea is to fail cheaply on paper now so you do not fail expensively on exam day.

The illustrative payoff is a clear go-signal. When your practice scores are consistently clearing the target across every domain, with a comfortable margin rather than a lucky single result, you have earned real evidence that you are ready, which is worth far more than a feeling.

Watch out for skipping practice exams to save money, which is a false economy given that a retake costs more than a test bank. Watch out too for memorising specific practice questions instead of understanding the underlying concepts, because the real exam rewords everything, and rote answers collapse the moment the phrasing changes. Aim to understand why each right answer is right and each wrong answer is wrong, so your knowledge survives new wording.

Step 6: Register for and pass the exam

Only when your practice scores are steadily clearing the target should you register, because booking too early is how people waste a voucher. Schedule the exam on the vendor’s or testing provider’s platform, choosing the delivery method you prepared for, whether an in-person testing center or an online remote-proctored session. Picking a date a week or two out gives you a concrete deadline that sharpens your final review, while still leaving room for one more full practice run and targeted weak-area work.

Prepare the logistics deliberately, since avoidable friction on test day costs passes. For an in-person exam, confirm the location, what identification you must bring, and how early to arrive. For an online proctored exam, test your webcam, microphone, and internet connection ahead of time, clear your desk and room to meet the proctoring rules, and close every background application, because a technical failure mid-exam is stressful and sometimes disqualifying. The night before, favor rest over last-minute cramming, since a clear head reads tricky questions far better than a tired one stuffed with facts learned at midnight.

During the exam, manage time and uncertainty calmly. Read each question fully before the answers, flag anything you are unsure of and move on rather than burning minutes, and return to flagged items with the time you banked. Many exams let you review before submitting, so use that pass to catch misreads. The illustrative reality is that a candidate whose practice scores were consistently strong usually passes, and this step is about execution, not new learning.

Watch out for two test-day traps. First, second-guessing answers into the wrong ones: change a response only when you have a concrete reason, not a nervous hunch. Second, letting one hard early question rattle you into rushing the rest. If you do not pass, remember it is common and recoverable, your score report shows which domains to revisit, and a retake is usually available after a short wait, though you generally pay again, so confirm the retake policy with the vendor.

Step 7: Add it to your resume and plan renewal

Passing is the milestone, but the credential only pays off once employers can see it and you keep it valid, so finish the process deliberately. Add the certification to your resume by its exact official name with the earning date, placing it where a recruiter scanning for it will find it fast, which for an entry-level resume usually means a dedicated certifications section near the top. On LinkedIn, use the licenses and certifications section and enter the credential exactly as the vendor names it, so it matches the keyword searches recruiters run. Where the program issues a verifiable digital badge, link it, because a credential someone can confirm carries more weight than a line of text.

Then, on the same day you pass, plan the renewal, because the most avoidable way to waste a hard-won certification is to let it quietly expire. Many professional IT certifications are valid for a fixed number of years and then require renewal, while some foundational ones last for life; confirm which applies to yours. Renewal is commonly handled either by earning continuing education units, often shortened to CEUs, and paying a fee, or by passing a newer version of the exam. Diary the expiry date immediately and note the renewal requirements, so the deadline never surprises you.

The illustrative payoff is a credential that keeps working for you. Continuing-education routes usually let you accumulate credit through training, webinars, or earning a higher certification, which means your next learning step can also renew your current cert, compounding the value of each effort.

Watch out for treating the pass as the finish line. A certification listed as active on your resume after it has lapsed is a needless credibility risk, so keep the dates accurate and update or remove a credential once it expires. Watch out too for stopping at one cert when your target role expects a stack: use this same seven-step process for the next credential, and let each one build on the last. Our certification salary and ROI breakdown shows how stacking credentials tends to move pay over time.

How study hours scale by certification level

Not every certification asks for the same investment, and setting your timeline by the wrong level is how plans go wrong. Foundational, vendor-neutral certs are built for newcomers and demand the fewest study hours, while specialist and expert credentials widen and deepen the objectives, and they usually assume hands-on experience that itself took time to build. The illustrative chart below shows how study hours tend to scale by level, so you can anchor your own plan to the right tier rather than a number borrowed from a different one.

The practical lesson is to match your ambition to your available hours. If the companion returns an illustrative number of study weeks for a foundational target and your window is comfortable, that is a green light; if you were eyeing a professional-tier cert on the same hours, the same math would stretch across many more weeks, which is exactly the reality check a plan is for.

How to get IT certifications in the right order

Most people who search for how to get IT certifications are not really planning one credential; they are planning a stack, because IT careers tend to advance cert by cert. The good news is that the seven steps above are the whole method, run once per credential, and the only genuinely new decision each time is which cert comes next. The ordering rule is simple and worth stating plainly: foundational before associate, associate before professional, and specialist or expert tiers only once you have the hands-on experience those exams quietly assume. Climbing in that order means each exam builds on knowledge the last one certified, so the study hours per credential tend to fall even as the material deepens.

Let the job market sequence the stack rather than a vendor’s marketing ladder. After each pass, pull up postings for the next role you want, note which credential they name most often, and make that the next target, exactly as Step 1 did for the first one. A stack chosen this way reads as a coherent career story to a hiring manager, help desk to systems to cloud or security for example, where a random collection of famous badges reads as exam collecting. Our IT certification roadmap lays out the common tracks, and our salary and ROI breakdown shows how a deliberate stack tends to move pay where a scattered one does not.

Pace the stack honestly. Leave time between exams to actually use the new knowledge, since hands-on repetition is what turns a passed exam into a defensible skill, and diary every renewal date as the stack grows so nothing lapses while you study for the next tier. Many programs count a higher certification as continuing education for the ones beneath it, which means a well-ordered climb can renew the lower rungs automatically. One credential earned, applied, and kept current each planning cycle beats three rushed passes that fade, and the companion reruns the study-week and cost math for each new cert you point it at.

What getting certified actually costs

The exam fee is the number everyone quotes, and it is rarely the number that matters most. A realistic cost of getting certified splits across the exam voucher, your study materials, and a practice-exam package, and that is before you count the value of your own study time, which dwarfs all three. The illustrative split below shows how the out-of-pocket cash tends to divide, so you can budget for the whole thing rather than being surprised after the voucher.

Priced this way, the companion adds an illustrative materials-and-practice amount to your entered exam cost and reports an illustrative all-in total for the example numbers. The point is that the cheapest path is almost never a cheaper exam; it is skipping the pricey bootcamp you did not need, not skipping the practice tests that get you through on the first attempt.

A worked example: zero to a foundational cert

Run one realistic scenario through all seven steps to see how the plan falls out. Our candidate, call her Priya, is switching careers with no IT background and wants an entry-level IT-support role. On Step 1, her target job postings repeatedly name a foundational, vendor-neutral certification, so that becomes her first credential rather than the cloud cert a friend suggested, which assumes experience she does not have. On Step 2, she reads the current exam objectives on the vendor’s site, notes the format and an exam voucher price she confirms directly rather than from a forum, and treats the passing score as an illustrative figure to verify.

On Step 3, Priya estimates the material at an illustrative 100 study hours and knows she can protect ten focused hours a week, so her plan lands near ten weeks, comfortably inside the illustrative 8-to-12-week window, which is roughly what the companion returns on those inputs. On Step 4, she buys one official study guide mapped to the current objectives and a practice-exam package, sets up a small free home lab for hands-on work, and skips the expensive bootcamp because self-study covers this level. Her out-of-pocket total, exam plus materials plus practice, comes to an illustrative sum in the example numbers, and the companion returns a readiness read.

On Step 5, an early timed practice exam exposes weak spots in networking and security concepts, so she drills those domains, retests, and repeats the loop until her scores clear the target across every area with margin. On Step 6, only then does she register, prepares her online-proctoring setup the day before, rests rather than crams, manages her time by flagging and returning to hard questions, and passes. On Step 7, she adds the credential by its exact name to her resume and LinkedIn, links the verifiable badge, and diaries the renewal date the day she passes so it never lapses. Zero to certified, in an illustrative ten weeks and for a modest all-in cost, by running the process in order. Price your own version in the companion.

Common mistakes when getting certified

Most failed or overpriced certification attempts come from a small set of repeatable errors, and naming them is half the defense:

• Chasing the hardest cert first. Starting with an expert-level credential that assumes experience you have not built is the fastest way to fail an expensive exam. Earn the foundational cert your target postings name, then climb.
• Skipping practice exams. Practice tests are the single best predictor of passing, and skipping them to save a little money usually costs more in a retake. They also show you exactly which domains to drill.
• Cramming instead of spacing study out. Facts learned in a late-night rush fade fast and crumble under reworded questions. Steady sessions over weeks beat a frantic final push every time.
• Paying for a pricey bootcamp you do not need. For foundational material, disciplined self-study with a guide and practice exams commonly suffices, and expensive instruction is a preference, not a requirement. Try the cheaper route first.
• Ignoring renewal. Many certs expire, and letting one lapse wastes the whole effort. Diary the expiry and CEU requirements the day you pass, not when the reminder email arrives too late.
• Memorising questions, not concepts. Rote answers collapse the moment the exam rewords them. Understand why each answer is right or wrong so your knowledge survives new phrasing.

Every one of these is a case of skipping a step to save time or money and paying more for it later. The seven steps exist precisely to close those gaps, and our note on whether certifications are worth it drills into the ROI behind several of them.

Troubleshooting: when it does not go to plan

Real situations rarely match the ideal process, so here is how to handle the four that come up most.

What if I failed the exam? Treat it as a data point, not a verdict. Failing is common, and your score report usually breaks performance down by objective area, which tells you exactly where to focus rather than restudying everything. Confirm the retake policy, waiting period, and any attempt limits with the vendor, since these differ by program, and note that you generally pay the fee again, which is one more reason to sit only when your practice scores are steadily clearing the target. Drill the specific weak domains, retest on paper, and rebook when the evidence says you are ready.

What if I have no time to study? Be honest about the hours you can truly protect and plan for those, even if it stretches the calendar, rather than setting an aggressive timeline you abandon. A slower plan you finish beats a fast one you quit. If the companion returns a tight readiness note, the fix is to add a few hours a week or extend the months you allow, not to pretend the material compresses. Small, consistent sessions defended against a busy week are worth more than heroic blocks that never happen.

What if my certification expired? Check the vendor’s current renewal rules, because many credentials can be renewed by earning continuing education units and paying a fee, or by passing a newer exam version, and some allow a grace period. If it has fully lapsed, you may need to retake the current exam, so weigh that against the renewal path while the credential is still active next time. Either way, diary the new expiry immediately, and remove or update any lapsed cert on your resume so nothing reads as active when it is not.

What if I do not know which cert to get first? Let the job postings decide. List the certifications your target roles name most often, and start with the foundational one that appears most, rather than the most advanced or best-paid credential you have heard of. Our certification roadmap maps a sensible order, and our highest-paying IT certifications breakdown shows where the higher-tier credentials lead once you have the foundation.

The 7-step certification checklist

Save this list and work it in order for the certification you are chasing:

• Step 1, pick. Choose the certification your target entry-level job postings actually name, foundational before specialist.
• Step 2, check. Read the current exam objectives, format, and fee on the vendor's site; confirm the price and passing score directly with the vendor.
• Step 3, plan. Turn the objectives into a weekly plan built on the hours you can truly protect, with a buffer week and a practice-only finish.
• Step 4, materials. Buy one primary resource mapped to the current objectives, a practice-exam package, and set up hands-on practice; skip the pricey bootcamp unless you need it.
• Step 5, practice. Take timed practice exams as a diagnostic, drill the weak domains, and retest until scores clear the target with margin.
• Step 6, pass. Register only when ready, prepare the test-day logistics, rest over cramming, and manage time by flagging hard questions.
• Step 7, apply and renew. Add the exact credential to your resume and LinkedIn, link any verifiable badge, and diary the renewal date and CEU requirements the day you pass.

A candidate who works all seven has earned the credential on process rather than luck. The two steps people most often skip, honest practice exams and planned renewal, are exactly the ones that separate a cert that pays off from one that fizzles, so protect those under pressure. Run your own numbers in the companion before you book anything.

The bottom line

Getting an IT certification is not about being the smartest person in the exam room; it is about running a simple process in the right order without skipping the steps that feel optional under time pressure. Pick the credential your target job actually asks for, confirm the exam facts with the vendor rather than a forum, build a plan on the hours you can truly protect, buy only the materials you need, and let practice exams tell you when you are ready. Do that, and a foundational cert commonly comes together in an illustrative 8 to 12 weeks for a modest, self-study budget.

The sellers will keep pushing the most advanced credential and the most expensive course, and the temptation to book the exam early or skip the practice tests will keep tugging. The defense is the same every time: work the seven steps in order, do not register until your practice scores clear the target with margin, and diary the renewal the day you pass so the effort keeps working for you. Your illustrative version of this plan is an illustrative number of study weeks for an illustrative all-in cost, with a readiness read based on your inputs. Price your own in the companion, verify every exam fee and passing score with the vendor, and earn the credential you can defend on evidence rather than marketing.

CredYard publishes this breakdown to explain the general process of earning an IT certification, not to endorse or rank any specific vendor, exam, course, or provider, and nothing here is career, financial, or educational advice. Every study-hour range, cost, timeline, passing-score reference, and worked example above is an illustration of the method, not a quote or a prediction, and real exam prices, objectives, passing scores, retake rules, and renewal requirements vary by vendor and region and change often. Before you register for or pay for any exam, confirm its current price, objectives, format, and renewal terms directly with the certifying vendor, and consider your own situation carefully rather than relying on any figure here.