My thoughts after completing the Google IT Support Specialization

tl:dr: The certificate

At the start of the year (2021) I undertook the Google IT Support Specialization offered by Google on the Coursera platform. I achieved a certificate of completion by early February.

This specialization consists of five sub-courses. These sub-courses are taught using video-on-demand along with quizzes and the occassional “practical” test.

To be awarded with a specialization each sub-course must be completed by way of graded work and final exams.

The five courses that make up the specialization are:

1. Course 1 - [Technical Support Fundamentals]: A primer to IT support, really high-level stuff including assembling a desktop computer and the basics of binary and the Internet as we see it today. As an introduction to using a computer as anything than a glorified web browser, it’s a great introduction, explaining enough to someone completely fresh to bring them up to speed but not boring anyone who has taken a look at this stuff before.

2. Course 2 - [The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking]: Second up the basics of networking again explained concisely and without acronym overload (looking at you Network+), at this point the Google internal thinking does show its hand slightly with the omitting of the OSI Layer model for the newer TCP/IP model, don’t cut yourself on that bleeding edge Google. More of the same bite size fundamentals as seen in the previous course.

3. Course 3 - [Operating Systems and You: Becoming a Power User]: The weakest/shortest course so far (not that length is always important) perhaps it personally felt shortest as it the topics covered were very basic we’re talking installing/updating/removing a media player on both a Windows Desktop install and a Linux terminal but explained nicely and the live test lab environments are a literal sandbox, go wild worst that happens you just destroy and spin up a new one.

4. Course 4 - [System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services]: Moving in a more interesting direction with this course covering a wide gambit of topics from virtualization to directory services. Not much to say on this one much denser than previous courses but still only scratching the surface of these topics, however once again the walkthrough labs are great for actually playing with all this fun stuff you’ve been learning about.

5. Course 5 - [IT Security: Defense against the digital dark arts]: Great name, kinda cringe but hey Harry Potter is still as popular as ever¹. This course covers the most popular security threats (DoS, Malware, and Password theft/attacks) as well as a nice coverage of cryptology and Networking hardening. The latter consists of adequate wireless encryption and an overview of Wireshark, for an absolute introductory foray into practical network security it’s not bad.

As outlined above, the topics covered across the courses touched on many areas of IT, from binary arithmetic to OSI network layers to soft skills.

Completing the course has given me a much firmer foundational knowledge of IT as much of what was covered I was aware of already or had covered already. This is not a detriment however, as reinforcing this basic stuff gives a much stronger foundation for the more advanced stuff later on. As the old adage goes; we walk before we may run.

Another unexpected but appreciated result of sticking with the courses to achieve the Certificate is a confidence in my own abilities when it comes to troubleshooting and the ability to learn new things efficiently.

Although perhaps this might just be the Google brainwashing taking hold.

Overall, the course had some challenging moments (this could be due to my own folly however, as I will admit to seriously speeding through some material), but the video explanations are adequate with plenty of additional reading and quizzes to ensure you’ve understood the content.

Closing thoughts: As a primer for anyone looking to spin into IT or grab themselves the CompTIA A+ (aren’t they the same thing?) this Specialization is a great tool for exposing yourself to the technologies used every day, everywhere (alright maybe not everywhere but hey it’s pretty damn close).

An excerpt from the Specialization page on Coursera:

The content is highly interactive and exclusively developed by Google employees with decades of experience in IT.

Through a mix of videos, assessments, and hands-on labs, you’ll be introduced to troubleshooting, customer service, networking, operating systems, and security — foundational IT skills required for an entry-level job.

Your skills will include: Network protocols, cloud computing, Windows operating system, Linux command line, systems administration, encryption algorithms and techniques, and more.

If you’re still reading, Good Job! Now how about reading my experience with the A+ certificate?