Prince and ITIL the hard way?

[Davie_GLA]

Afternoon all,

I really want to get these quals, but my company won't pay for them and i can't really afford to do them, so i was wondering if it's possible to achieve via books.

Has anyone done this, and if so what books did you use?

Can i do the exam without the courses?

Thanks in advance and sorry if it's been covered before.

David.

[fullbeem]

pay for it on a credit card then quit ur job for a better paid one so u pay it off

[Davie_GLA]

That had crossed my mind..

[Munter]

I might delay ITIL for a bit and see how V3 gets on. I have a feeling releasing this version might have killed it off as people were still working to implement V2 when it was released, and now they are resisting sitting more exams etc for the hell of it.

[AAT1981]

Davie_GLA said:

Afternoon all,

I really want to get these quals, but my company won't pay for them and i can't really afford to do them, so i was wondering if it's possible to achieve via books.

Has anyone done this, and if so what books did you use?

Can i do the exam without the courses?

Thanks in advance and sorry if it's been covered before.

David.

I was in the same position, I paid for PRINCE2 and then my company needed a Project Manager (lol)

Was a good bargaining tool for a pa rise, do it and dont look back.

Wait for ITIL, it would be worth doing this at a later date.

[Davie_GLA]

OK, ITIL seems to be a grey area at the minute then, *jeez i'm already speaking the lingo..!

PRINCE2, what did those that have done it pay? In fact that might be a silly question as i guess it will vary.

I'll call some training places tomorrow and see wants to get me in some debt.

After getting the qualification, will it help with securing a PM job, even at entry level?

Thanks,

David.

[Davie_GLA]

OK, some prices for Glasgow the foundation AND practitioner is about £1800, wih foundation only being about £500.

is NOT doing practioner a false economy?

[WannaNiceCar]

Keep looking around, you should be able to get it cheaper - I am on the course at the moment (Just passed the Foundation exam today - woo hoo!!!) I'm fairly sure that my co. paid about £1000 for Foundation and Practitioner on a kind of "pay now, train later deal!"

It is a very intensive 5 day course for both - 7 hrs in classroom followed by at least 2 hours of 'homework' each night - and reading the official OGC book on it's own just doesn't make sense of all of the information that you need to learn.

Depending on how well you can 'soak up' information in a single week - you may benefit from doing the foundation after the 1st 3 days and then have a week's break (no more, or you will probably just forget it all!!!) and then do the Practitioner after having a chance to let all the information sink in and revise a bit (lot!). Personally I wish I had been able to do this as my brain feels about ready to explode! Most training companies don't advertise that you can do this, but the chances are that they will allow you to if you request it.

HTH

[plg]

If your ambitions are to work for one of the big IT houses then ITIL is a given; Prince is useful in public sector and some private sector clients. Depends on where you see your career going.

A blend of skills is always useful; good project management (with some tough projects on your CV), financials (to a P&L, forecasting level, good risk management capability and more importantly an ability to present and manage customer relations and that is a route to a good wage, with client facing abilities that are valued, and that can't be taken offshore.

Good customer skills, an ability to both project manage the numbers AND the soft management skills AND show leadership when needed will balance out against any deep technical skill, though it's good to have them in your back pocket, even more so if you genuinely find them interesting.

Good long term opportunities are in high value sectors: life sciences, professional services, finance (selectively). I'd avoid IT within manufacturing and retail at the moment.

[plg]

Ohm and be careful with the paper qualification - crash courses are all very well, but experience and recent track record are key - so when you get the skills and qualify, how do you build up the short term experience to add to your CV?

[MuffDaddy]

ITIL, I passed with three days in a classroom, but I'm 20 years in IT so it was just putting together what I already knew. PRINCE 2 took a bit more effort. Both of these were only on my CV to open doors, I'm not sure how much I actively use either in my day to day role.

Where are you?

There is a decent training company for PRINCE 2 in Bristol, reasonably priced, good pass rate too.

www.bmc.ac.uk

[Davie_GLA]

Thanks all,

I'm in Glasgow, there are a fair few companies around as you can imagine, some more expensive than others.

My background is predominately support from 1st to 3rd line including some bespoke stuff.

My current role is more client facing and project biased, my title is 'Technical Consultant' and I am responsible for all aspects of every project from conception to sign off. We sell a document management system and have contracts with the NHS and some big manufacturing companies.

If I'm brutally honest I am bored stiff. Not of the industry, but just of this particular company, I think I want to get back 'on the tools' as it were but fear that having been here 4 years and not really involved with the front line technical stuff as much then a potential employer would take that as a negative.

I suppose that I'm afraid that I've forgotten everything I've learned over the 11 years I've been in IT, which I suppose is synonymous with not keeping my finger on the pulse of new stuff due to not using it in my current role.

Anyway, I'm beginning to rant. I'm off to re do my CV again and see what pops into mind.

David.

[Munter]

With a lot of support experience and a desire to move to a more hands on role, you might want to consider doing the VMware VCP qualification. Not terribly cheap but it's a new and desirable string to your bow.

[Davie_GLA]

VMWare until last week was on the list as well, but again with no opportunity to use it I cannot relate to it.

I have experience of virtual technologies, but none of the new stuff. I was also told that without practical knowledge of the VMWare stuff then i would not pass the exam.