It Qualifications

[anzo]

Just a quick question for now; has anyone on the forum done the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer OR Administrator course?

Edited February 25, 2008 by anzo

[rocks370]

i started my MCSA course but started working full time for an IT support company and dont have time to study now.

Learning alot of stuff working on different servers for work.

[tomturd]

Haven't myself. But I like the advert where they offer it (for a fee I guess) and claim there is a 95% pass rate. To me that sounds like its piss easy. Would be interesting to hear from anyone who's actually done it..

EDIT: just thought I'd have a browse around the net to see how you earn one of these. Seems like you can do a 30 day course. There's an interesting article on 'the register'.

This kind of quote really annoys me

Integrate with networking components and disparate systems for end-to-end management

Why didn't they just say 'Learn how to set up and manage a network'.

Create an upgrade strategy for legacy hardware

Meant to say 'check if theres new drivers available, if there is, install them, if not upgrade the hardware cos it'll be out of date anyway.'

Reminds me of being in meetings when I used to work for a rather large FTSE 100 company where everyone just spewed bullshit for 20 mins and achieved nothing apart from 'going forwards.. we'll just do our jobs yeah?'

Rant over..

[UrbanPoet]

An MCSA/E is not a guarantee into the industry. If you're new to IT education then the CompTIA A+ and Network+ are a good bet, just don't expect to walk into a decent paying job straight away, even if you DO have an MCSA/E. Expect 14k to 16k...

Experience > Certs, everytime.

Check out: CertForums

[F-Stop Junkie]

It all depends if you've got The Cert of the moment. Some CCNPs I know in London are made very good offers, but it's backed up with many years experience in large network environments. Similarly the voice certification is worth having at the moment, but it'll become commodity in time.

Some of the course content is very worthwhile, it's easy to be sniffy about 'just doing your job' but when you're dealing with designs from a clean sheet of paper then knowing what you're doing from the start will ensure a correct implementation. Same with knowing upgrades, working with tested code versions and so on. You can't f**k about with this stuff when you're dealing with work that if it goes wrong could kill the business in a whole country. I'm not saying that for dramatic effect btw, I've been in that situation.

Yes, some of it is nonsense, or stating the bleeding obvious, but some of it is VERY worthwhile!

Get a good employer, they'll pay for training and certification.

[tomturd]

Chris, is it the stuff you'd likely learn in Uni (the stuff on the course I mean, not stuff that you learn in the work place)? I remember (well, as I'm about to reveal, I don't actually) learning networking to a silly (IMO) degree, down to packet routing techniques and all sorts (that I don't in fact remember - apart from BGP which did my head in and therefore sticks in my mind). It seems there are companies offering this training in 30 days, I don't really see how you can really learn that much in 30 days.. Otherwise I'd be quite gutted that I spent 4 years doing something I could have learned in 30 days (I heart brackets)

[anzo]

I already work in IT and maintain the computers and servers. They will be paying for the training though I assumed Microsoft Certification would be the way to go?

I could have sworn I've seen MCSA courses including the CompTIA A+ and Network+ certificates or certain course providers offer them in a package? I've been working on servers for the past few years though I want something on paper to verify it.

I can't believe how much of a rip off some of these courses are, can anyone recommend me a good course provider?

It seems there are companies offering this training in 30 days, I don't really see how you can really learn that much in 30 days.

Completely useless courses. Sitting in a big room with loads of other students, force-feeding information which you'll never remember. A really impersonal teaching method and you'll most probably leave more confused than when you first came.

I hate these type of courses. The teachers are obviously in it for the money and not the passion; and the teaching really shows that.

[F-Stop Junkie]

Chris, is it the stuff you'd likely learn in Uni (the stuff on the course I mean, not stuff that you learn in the work place)?

Some of it is, some of it isn't. A lot more universities these days are doing routing protocols, the 7 layer model, etc... These will only give you so much though, as a lot of the concepts that come up in specific courses/exams are specific to certain companies or products. If you take a Cisco course, the inital ones cover a lot of the general network information, but then also cover how to configure the products, how best to set them up, and also cover non-standard, Cisco-proprietory protocols like HSRP (I think) and EIGRP.

The exams are not quite half and half, but the pass mark is up around 85%. If you know BGP for example, but have no idea how to configure it, then you won't pass the exams.

Some of the stuff that comes up as well is sales type stuff. "Which of these is NOT protected against by Acme SuperProtect? a) Ping of Death, trojan attack, c) Death By Chocolate"

I've done some courses with Knowledge Tree, and some with Global Knowledge. 5 days, pretty intensive, not cheap but you come away knowing the subject and you have practical experience. You still need practise though before you can take exams, or have a very good knowledge retention!

If you're doing it for career reasons, have a look through job adverts and see what people are asking for. MCSEs and the like are ten a penny as people do courses that will just get them through the exam. You'll see a lot looking for Prince2 project management (with salaries to match!) because the Prince2 qualification is hard to get and there are few looking for jobs with it.

Get the bits of paper, because those might get you in the door, but experience will count for a lot. A MCSA with 5 years experience will get more jobs than an MCSE with no experience.