Microsoft Certification - How? Where? Who?

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Hey chums. As you may or may not know (or care) I am due to lose my job on 31st July.

I'm a bit of a Jack of all trades, master of none, so although I have Unix, Websphere and Oracle skills, they aren't at a level where I can go for specilast jobs.

In order to open up the market a bit, I was thinking of maybe getting some Microsoft certification as I've got a fair bit of redundnacy cash, and might have a lot of spare time soon

I'm getting a bit confused trying to work out what I need to do. I probably want to look into desktop support and server support, but not sure what level to get to - and how valuable they really are as a foot in the door.

Has anyone done them? Did you do it online or with books? Is it hard (I'm pretty IT competent, although I always struggle with networks for some reason)

Anyone got a clue (because I clearly don't)

[nowhere.elysium]

MCSE: Must Consult Someone Experienced.

Seriously, they're not staggeringly well-regarded, and the expire after a short(ish) period.

Throw yourself into UNIX with a vengeance, learn a couple of scripting languages, and then pass yourself off as a Mac OS X technician. Worked for me. OK, you'll have to deal with the fisher-price GUI every day, and hordes of Jobsaholics who can't cope with multiple mouse buttons, but it's stable work, and despite the claims that they 'just work', there is always something for you to fix.
Universities are a good place to aim for, as are FE colleges. Many of them are experiencing cutbacks, and while they keep threatening the IT departments with outsourcing, I don't really think that they'll go for it, once they've seen the end result in another college.

Read around the subject, pick up esoteric things. 2600 is a good source of interesting hacks, and can give you an edge that many career guys won't have.
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[RichieZX6R]

i heard that you can go on an intense course in india or some where to gain a CCNA (networking) cert but i think it was a couple of K's to do? Sort of like a boot camp. A guy i know mentioned it in a pub a bit back. No idea if he went on it or not though.
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[nowhere.elysium]

[dogbot]

And a CCNA is no guarantee of a networking job.

[UnknownStuntm...]

imho:

MSCE. Everyone has had a go at one of these at some point. They don't expire per se, but they're not massively well thought of if you did it more than 2 years ago. MS stuff seems to change (and hence the syllabus and grading technique) every few years. An MSCE exam can be sat at a testing centre for about £140 I think. The course material will be covered in many, many books, but the best are the official MS ones are the best, and most expensive. There are also courses run by many of the testing centres to get you to the required level for the exam. About £1200 is about normal.

MSCA is the one you get if you complete (7? someone will correct me) of the MSCE level accreditations.

CCNA is a tricky beast. Not to be confused with a light weight 'computer' course, it's a proper mental workout. Even though you have tools to sort subnetting and masking and so on, they expect you to be able to do it all off the top of your head. This is one of the specialist subjects you do after you've done the basics. When I did one, it was a 2 year evening course.

HNC / HND in my opinion is the forerunner to anything at all. It will give you a proper understanding of all things IT-ish and is received very well by employers. Not because of what it is, but the method you do it by. You essentially fund it yourself, and give your own time for the course in the evenings. A HND can then be topped up to a degree if you wish, but by then you'll probably have had enough for a while. Not quick though, it'll take you 2 years minimum.

Linux stuff can be a bit more wooly, most of the blurb I wrote about the MSCE above is similar, except it's never out of date!

Good ideas above in the thread, nowhere.elysium has highlighted a good call. Mac technicians don't really need to show credentials, but they must be able to 'do stuff'.

[RichieZX6R]

[dogbot]

And I didn't say you had, was merely passing comment generally...

Fuck me, people here are touchy.

[MarkJ]

[RichieZX6R]

[DanceLikeAMon...]

Thanks guys.

Hmnmm.... the problem with doing something like the MAC stuff mentioned is that it would take so long to be at a level where I could sell myself as an "expert" that I could be at risk of running out of money, and if I'm going in at the bottom then I'll have wasted a lot of time and cash.

Same issue with doing an HND, it's a long time to commit with no guaranteed pay off (I've got a business degree, but that doesn't open many doors in IT)

That was the reason I was looking at the Microsoft stuff, because it's relatively cheap and quick - but obviously pointless if it isn't going to get me a job at the end of it!

So confused now

[duhawkz]

CCNA - can be got in a short period of time by doing a bootcamp it cost about £2500 - try www.qa.com

Microsoft Exams are £88 each or can be bought in blocks a little cheaper but obviously there a big outlay at the time.

I have done serveral MS exams through a mix of home study and course paid for through work, there pretty easy but the books are a bit mind numbing are a while espacially if you have an understanding of the subject to begin with.

The CBT nugget/ train signal type videos are useful too - torrents are your friend

having any qualification won't automatically gaurentee you a job as a lot of employers are looking for experiance as well, but they certainly won't hurt your chances.

I'm sure most people who work in IT will know or have have heard of some "paper" MCSE's etc people who have got the qualifcations by using brain dumps etc but don't have a qlue when it comes down to doing it for real.

you sound like you have a bit of an idea when it comes to IT try looking at getting a 1st line/tech support type job and using it to gain some experiance and an idea where you want to go with your career, you can study in your own time and move on when your ready
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[DanceLikeAMon...]

Cheers. I've applied for a few 1st line support roles to keep the money coming in and to hopefully lead onto something else, but because they are such unskilled jobs I'm up against hundreds of other folks. I've worked 2nd line support for about 10 years now so you would think that someone would see my CV and grab me, but I think they'll be worried that I'm just using it as a stepping stone (which I would be )

Ta for the info about the CCNA - but I've never managed to get my head properly around network stuff (probably because I don't find it very interesting) so would probably just be chucking the money away. Might look into the entry level course though, just for something to do.

Nowhere.elysium is kindly sorting me out with some info re the Mac stuff, so that is giving me plenty of thinking, but keep the ideas coming mates!

[robbyb]

I became a Citrix Certified Administrator for Xenapp 6 last week
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[duhawkz]

[DanceLikeAMon...]

[nowhere.elysium]

[robbyb]

[bazza]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[nowhere.elysium]

[duhawkz]

MCSA is 4 exams
MCSE is 7 exams

VCP is the one to have a the moment but you have to do the offical 5 day course before you can sit the exam, the course is £2600 +VAT work paid for my course though

Reminds me I really need to get that exam passed
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"The guy is a worthless cunt and I honestly believe I would be a slightly happier person if he died." - Chris-Red

[Chriss]

[duhawkz]

[bEN_]

I'm at a no mans land with IT quals, only a few years experience with different forms of IT support depending on who i was working for , also a master of nothing

looking through job sites at the moment, alot are saying the microsoft one is preferred but not essential, which tells me half the time it isn't worth bothering with, so what is

my plan is to just gain more experience instead of actually getting qualifications.
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