IT Certifications

[Rev Limit]

Hi All,

Hoping someone can help me out here as I know quite a few people on the forum are in IT.

Anywho, Ive been working in 1st line Windows (W7/XP) support now for a couple of years and want to start getting some certifications to bulk up my CV.

Im just not sure what to go for, It would ideally be something based around more indepth knowledge of W7, a mate of mine recommended MCITP as a good intro to MS courses.

Any help/advice appreciated

Cheers

Al

[remoh]

Rev Limit said:

Hi All,

Hoping someone can help me out here as I know quite a few people on the forum are in IT.

Anywho, Ive been working in 1st line Windows (W7/XP) support now for a couple of years and want to start getting some certifications to bulk up my CV.

Im just not sure what to go for, It would ideally be something based around more indepth knowledge of W7, a mate of mine recommended MCITP as a good intro to MS courses.

Any help/advice appreciated

Cheers

Al

Not my area directly, but years ago microsoft was giving away MCSE's with shreddies it seemed, every man and his dog had one.

Agents usually search on buzzwords on cv's and whilst the qualifications may have some sway, at your end of things, you need to ensure that you've got something different to the ICT visa workers that companies import ten a penny to do work like yours..

M

[ReaperCushions]

Good to have to get your CV in the door... after that pretty much useless compared to experience.

Its your call if you think the effort that goes into them is worth it

[Rev Limit]

remoh said:

Not my area directly, but years ago microsoft was giving away MCSE's with shreddies it seemed, every man and his dog had one.

Agents usually search on buzzwords on cv's and whilst the qualifications may have some sway, at your end of things, you need to ensure that you've got something different to the ICT visa workers that companies import ten a penny to do work like yours..

M

Thanks mate

I feel like although I have a good amount of experience, I need something on paper to back that up.

I am considering the W7 a+ course and then from there do an ms course or possibly network+.

I got myself ITIL certified last year which was a complete waste of time, so I need to be sure that the course I'm doing is the right one for me!

[bigandclever]

Rev Limit said:

Anywho, Ive been working in 1st line Windows (W7/XP) support now for a couple of years and want to start getting some certifications to bulk up my CV.

To what end? What I mean is, where do you want to be?

[Rev Limit]

bigandclever said:

To what end? What I mean is, where do you want to be?

I want to move onto a second line/more senior role in the near future.

I just figured that I would have more of a chance with a few qualifications, especially in terms of working in the city!

My issue is that the firm im with now is small and there is no scope for progression.

More important than that I guess is that I want to bulk up my knowledge!

Al

[theboss]

Al

Rather than simply thinking of qualifications to 'beef up' the CV I would suggest thinking of some products or technologies that you could try and learn about, it's never been easier to gain familiarity with new products as with the advent of virtualisation and extremely capable low cost hardware you can build a lab at home and start playing around with enterprise products on a scale that would have required a small data centre 10 years ago (when I started out).

For example if you want to get into a more Windows infrastructure focussed role, but progression is limited in your current job, get building a small server environment with AD, Exchange, etc., get a couple of good books, and learn how it all works. VMware and Citrix are also good product sets to get into.

Whilst this won't equate to commercial experience, it does show intuition, and in my own experience it's amazing how far a bit of technical proficiency can go in an interview even if you can't back it up with lots of experience.

Neil

Edited by theboss on Thursday 29th December 18:23

[monkey gland]

From what you've described then the most appropriate MS cert for you would be the MCITP Desktop Support technician track - which is made up of two exams.

See here for more information - http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certificat...

If you have any involvement with server work for your job then my recommendation would be to get started on the Server track instead, specifically the MCITP: Server Administrator certification. If getting away from the desktop support into more back end administration is something that you are interested in that is!

There's two ways you can approach the MS Certs - you can become certified in a technology with which you are already familiar - with a view to backing up your skills with an industry recognised certification, or you can aim to get certified in unfamiliar tech in order to get that next job and make yourself more marketable.

Microsoft certainly recommend that people only undertake certifications for products they have been working with for a good length of time, but I can definitely understand why people would want to get certified in technology that they were previously unfamiliar with in order to give them a leg-up career wise - just need to be careful not get labelled a "paper cert" - people who have certifications coming out of their ears but no experience to back it up.

You mentioned courses - would your employer pay for these? You say it is small and no room for progression so possibly not... If they wouldn't be paying for it then my advice would definitely be to go down the self-study route, especially since you have experience of the products already. Course costs for these sorts of certs can be pretty expensive as they are usually paid for by companies rather than individuals as they know the market can bear those prices. It can be many thousands of pounds.

FYI - the 70-680 Windows 7 Exam does cover quite a bit on the automated deployment of W7 which I think is a little bit out of order as I'd have thought lots of people taking that cert may only do desktop support and have no involvement with the deployment side of things but hey ho that's just my opinion.

For what it's worth I did the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator by self study using the official MS Press books, technet, and lots of labbing. It helps that I do a lot of what the course covers in my job.

Edited by monkey gland on Thursday 29th December 19:00

[Puggit]

VMware VCP or Citrix desktop stuff will do you a favour

[steveball]

VDI

[Kudos]

Those last two are what you want (i'm a CTO of a £200m global transformation project)

[remoh]

Kudos said:

Those last two are what you want (i'm a CTO of a £200m global transformation project)

I'd agree with that as well.....its the way all the clients I have had are going....

I would say try what I do, security but you cant do it well unless you've got the grass roots experience....

As protectionist as that would seem ;->

M

[monkey gland]

Puggit said:

VMware VCP or Citrix desktop stuff will do you a favour

steveball said:

VDI

Kudos said:

Those last two are what you want (i'm a CTO of a £200m global transformation project)

remoh said:

I'd agree with that as well.....its the way all the clients I have had are going....

It's as though none of you bothered to read the original post, just saw the thread title and went straight to reply.

[Rev Limit]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Well I think I'm going to go with the Desktop support MCITP course, through self study!

Monkeygland - can you recommend any study books? I've heard that the mike Meyers stuff is good (not Austin powers)

Also, if I'm going to be doing a lot of self study would it be worth getting a technet subscription?

Thanks again

Al

[Puggit]

monkey gland said:

Puggit said:

VMware VCP or Citrix desktop stuff will do you a favour

steveball said:

VDI

Kudos said:

Those last two are what you want (i'm a CTO of a £200m global transformation project)

remoh said:

I'd agree with that as well.....its the way all the clients I have had are going....

It's as though none of you bothered to read the original post, just saw the thread title and went straight to reply.

The OP is welcome to study further on in Microsoft courses, but it won't do him much in terms of his career. He's likely to keep finding his role outsourced to Bangalore that way.

If he wants to accelerate his career, then the information above will help out.

I'm really not sure what point you're trying to make?!

[Techn0]

Maybe look into learning some programming languages as well, in your spare time.

.net, C++/Sharp, php, mysql etc etc would be useful.


A friend was doing support roles like yourself, he learnt some languages at home and now earns very decent money and it was down to putting in the hours outside of work.

No expensive courses required and It can't hurt to have software development skills in your arsenal.

Edited by Techn0 on Wednesday 4th January 18:20

[monkey gland]

Rev Limit said:

Monkeygland - can you recommend any study books? I've heard that the mike Meyers stuff is good (not Austin powers)

Also, if I'm going to be doing a lot of self study would it be worth getting a technet subscription?

There are official Microsoft books for every CERT that cover the exam objectives (some better than others). http://www.amazon.co.uk/MCTS-Self-Paced-Training-E... I quite like them although I'd not recommend solely relying on them but look to supplement the study with other materials - there's some good video training packages as well from the likes of CBT Nuggets and Transcender.

There may be better things to spend your money on than a technet subscription IMO, for instance if you're doing the lab exercises in the books (definitely recommended), then you'll probably be doing it in a VM so you can just keep reverting the snapshots on a trial edition of Windows products - since you can download eval versions for free.

Puggit said:

I'm really not sure what point you're trying to make?!

Sure VCP is great and all, but I'm not sure it's good advice to recommend forking out a load of money for their mandatory course given the OPs expressed interests/experience. Firstly it might be quite difficult to pass without having used it in anger before, and having it on the CV may get some interviews but if there's no demonstrable industry experience to back it up I'm not sure how effective it will actually be.

[bulldog5046]

Just my 2 pence but i hope it will help you find some direction.

I'm 23 and earning very high salary for my age with no formal qualifications.

I've also been forced to change jobs twice in the last 4 months so dont be discouranged, the work is there.

frankly, everyone and their nan has microsoft certs on their CV, anyone worth the time wont give a toss whats certs you have. i'm not opposed to getting them, i actually want them i just dont want to pay the cost to get them.

If you want to move into a senior role you need to find a company that will help you through the stages. I was lucky, the company i started with took me from 1st line through to 2nd and then onto infrastructure support as i showed so much interest constantly and always wanted to push harder, i never stopped asking to be pushed further. At this company i never made any decent money, it was very poorly paid for the work i put in but it gave me all the experience i needed over 5 years to get me to where i am now.

I left there in search of money and more prospects and fell foul of a horrible company that fed me loads of bullst in the interview to get me in, i got the money i wanted but at the cost of doing anything interesting and being treated like a complete .

i lost my job there after 2 months and i've just increased my salary again and started a job with an accountancy, they are throwing money around like nutcases, its got everything i need and want.

If its possible where you are then get stuck into everything you can, and projects, anything to do with VMware as its a massive thing right now (heck, teach yourself at home if you must! its cool stuff!). Citrix is good to have a base with, not everyone uses it though.

If there isnt anywhere for you to go in your current position then move, find a company that can give you good prospects and ways to move forward at a faster rate. Dont let anyone tell you your not worth what you think you are or that your not good enough.

EDIT: oh, and an important bit. record everything good you've done to use on your CV, projects, implementations etc.

Edited by bulldog5046 on Friday 6th January 21:25

[Rev Limit]

monkey gland said:

Rev Limit said:

Monkeygland - can you recommend any study books? I've heard that the mike Meyers stuff is good (not Austin powers)

Also, if I'm going to be doing a lot of self study would it be worth getting a technet subscription?

There are official Microsoft books for every CERT that cover the exam objectives (some better than others). http://www.amazon.co.uk/MCTS-Self-Paced-Training-E... I quite like them although I'd not recommend solely relying on them but look to supplement the study with other materials - there's some good video training packages as well from the likes of CBT Nuggets and Transcender.

There may be better things to spend your money on than a technet subscription IMO, for instance if you're doing the lab exercises in the books (definitely recommended), then you'll probably be doing it in a VM so you can just keep reverting the snapshots on a trial edition of Windows products - since you can download eval versions for free.

Puggit said:

I'm really not sure what point you're trying to make?!

Sure VCP is great and all, but I'm not sure it's good advice to recommend forking out a load of money for their mandatory course given the OPs expressed interests/experience. Firstly it might be quite difficult to pass without having used it in anger before, and having it on the CV may get some interviews but if there's no demonstrable industry experience to back it up I'm not sure how effective it will actually be.

Thanks mate, Which VM software do you use? Windows Virtual PC or ESXI/VMWare?

[monkey gland]

Rev Limit said:

Thanks mate, Which VM software do you use? Windows Virtual PC or ESXI/VMWare?

I use VMWare workstation on my desktop machine. It's pretty decent. Also have a server which runs ESXi 5 and Hyper-V. If you've got a spare 64bit machine you can install one of those bare metal hypervisors on it, but the easiest and quickest way of getting up and running would be to use VMWare Workstation.