Microsoft exams

Raiser

Hi All,

Working in IT support for a few years now and tired of talking to idiots about how they spilled tea/milkshake/water on their keyboard and putting up with their typical ignorance & bad manners on the phone.

Have a 1st Information Sys. Degree and a few years IT Support experience - any suggestions on moving into a more senior & better paid role - Network Admin. or something?

Have always thought that Microsoft Certification - MCSE etc. would be a good step in right direction for when job hunting and so on - anyone got any advice or experience?

Thanks,

Raiser.

romperstomper

Personally think that Cisco is more relevant from Net Admin POV (I'm a current MCSE and i was amazed at how FEW doors its opened). In reality work experience is still the number 1 criteria. Get in somewhere in a junior role and learn the ropes. Scripting is a big part of Net admin so if u start with bash and then move on to python that would be an advantage

shoegirl

CCNA really opens doors. For me it totally changed the kind of calls I got from agencies and jobs. Basically I stopped getting calls from agencies asking me would I take a job paying 12k less than I was currently earning! I noticed basically the kind of salaries that companies were talking about went up between 5 and 10k. In the end I got an offer paying me 6k more than my base salary in previous job - much more interesting position.

MCPs are ok but NT MCSE is really lowly regarded. Most people I know who did them basically memorised brain dumps. The majority of them are poor knowledge and experience and one or two are so incompetent they are practically useless.
2000 certification is better thought of - MS changed the exam to make real knowledge of the products required.
XP and 2003 better again - I now work in a very large multinational and monitor servers. Almost all are now running 2003. 2000 is still common in companies who upgraded a couple of years back.

Other useful certs:
LPI Linux certs - nice and cheap to do
Red Hat - HUGELY good at the moment, if very tough
Checkpoint - quite popular at the moment (a lot of comapnies are using the Nokia firewall which is based on the checkpoint solution)
CCNP - hugely popular, generally preferred with experience though

Raiser

Thank you both for your replies - Seems the Cisco route is well worth pursuing - whats the best/quickest/cheapest way of getting certified? Am located in Limerick by the way.

Karoma

Raiser wrote:

whats the best/quickest/cheapest way of getting certified?

Self study.

Then,test centres =
Limerick Test Centres

VUE:
Procad Technology
4 Upper Hartstonge Street, Limerick
Phone: +353 - 61 - 313030

Prometric:
HSI GROUP
6 Quinlan St, The Crescent, Limerick
Phone: +353 - 61 - 317822

Orion

shoegirl wrote:

Other useful certs:
LPI Linux certs - nice and cheap to do
Red Hat - HUGELY good at the moment, if very tough

I'd be interested in one of these- I've very little Linux experience atm. Any ideas where to start?

Gaz

Well for the CCNA i did a night course , totally over priced and not worth it.

Get the books and get some software router sims to practice on. Then you should be ok to pass the exam, make sure to learn ip subnetting inside out though , i found that to be a total headache as i hate maths !

I originally wanted to continue with the Cisco path but decided against it as unless you are working with routers everyday you forget the stuff very quickly. The CCNA is definitly worth having, even if its only to get into an interview.

Personally im now doing computer science in the evening, total pain in the arse mind ....

Do the CCNA and a few MCP's, this will get you into an interview then if your lucky the job will provide all the expierience and training you will need for you to continue on your career path.

fletch

I have some Micrsoft Certified vouchers here goin cheap if anyone is interested

Raiser

Thanks for all of your replies. Time to start shopping for books and booking exams......

dalk

damn new years resolutions! ... i have to get some new qualifications too :rolleyes: So am in the same boat.

well good luck!