ITIL

goalie2

Hello Folks,

I am stuck in a bit of rut in work terms. Have 13 years expeirence mostly doing jack of all trades master of none at remote sites for multi-national companies.

I have gained a lot fo exposure to various area (hardware, software, networking, budgeting, validation, helpdesk) and I think it is time I need to nail down one area and stick with it. I am intrerested more in the management route and specifically in the area of helpdesk/service management/IT Management.

Would the ITIL courses help me get a head start into that area?

boobar

Yes,

I think ITIL would help. It is regarded as a best practice service management framework.

I have completed some training in this area myself and found the training to be very useful.

The Foundation Certificate will give you a broad overview of ITIL.

After that there are 5 core areas that you can become certified in:

Service Strategy
Service Design
Service Operations
Service Transition
Continual Service Improvement

After that you can complete the Expert Certification called:

Managing Across the LifeCycle

Obviously if you wanted to be regarded as well qualified in the broad Service Management field, Expert Certification is what you should aim for.

If you're starting out and looking to gain some experience in this area I would recommend Foundation Certificate and Service Operations. These two would be most relevant to working on a Service Desk on a day to day basis.

Best of luck

Moonbeam

Yes but I am not sure how much help.

I did the foundation course and alot of it is common sense but it is useful to know the terms and stuff that they use which are very similar to Prince2.

Do you hold a primary degree? Is a management post grad an option?

goalie2

Thanks for the replies folks.

Nope I have a Diploma in Computer Systems Management from IT Carlow which is now Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems Management. At the time the Degree option was not there and I never went back to finsih it off.

Can I do the foundation course without having to attend classes and then do the exam online?

boobar

goalie2 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies folks.

Nope I have a Diploma in Computer Systems Management from IT Carlow which is now Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems Management. At the time the Degree option was not there and I never went back to finsih it off.

Can I do the foundation course without having to attend classes and then do the exam online?

I think you can, but to be honest there are benefits to completing the course through a class. I found the discussions with others to be one of the most helpful aspects of the training, but some people seem to be able to get by through a distance learning approach.

Service Management is quite a "dry" topic, so I found the class element to be a much more interesting way of completing the certification.

Just like a previous poster said, the foundation course will focus on the terminology, in my own personal view, I think the Foundation Certification on its own won't give you a true understanding of ITIL and how it can be applied.

druidhill

Can you bring your qualification up to Honours degree level? It could help you going forward.

With your experience in helpdesk (as you mentioned), you should be okay do self-study for the basic qualification. I tried to self-study this and ended up ditching it as it was mind-numbinly boring and so many similar terms to learn just for the sake of the cert. At the time, I remember thinking it would be of great benefit if I had exposure to that area in a large organisation, and quite straight forward to achieve if that was the case (you could easily apply it to what you've done in work and it would make a lot more sense).

Also, if this is the path you want to take, I would imagine a lot of employers would expect you to have the foundation cert already achieved before you begin looking, especially since you have that number of years of experience under your belt.

I'm pretty sure ITIL has been updated recently, so make sure you are studying to new syllabus.

goalie2

If I did an Open University degree would that count the same?

goalie2

Ok guys, I finally found a course that I could by distance learning http://www.dcu.ie/prospective/deginfo.php?classname=IS&degree_description=Diploma+%2F+B.Sc.+in+Management+of+IT%2FIS. I guess this would help in the greater scheme of things?