Career in IT

[jackpot]

Looking for a change in career and have been looking at courses that may help.

Microsoft cerified professional certificate (MCP)
Microsoft certified systems engineer certificate. (MCSE)
Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)
Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA)

These are accredited by the Institute of Information Technology Training (ITT)


These are couses i have been looking at but wondering are they any good and will any of them put me in good stead for a job in IT once i have qualified.

 

[Igorian]

If you are not in an IT related environment already, you will find any of the MS Certifications difficult to complete, and they can be expensive.

What is your background? If you are a pure beginner, I would recommend that you look at A+ and N+ as a starting point. These are entry level exams which can lead to an IT career. Once you have gained employment, and are actually doing the job, then look at the MSC path that suits you. You may even decide that none of them are for you. There are plenty of other paths, such as CISCO and CITRIX to name but two.

 

[jackpot]

Not got an IT background. Know the basic and a bit more. Done a year of IT at A-Level. .

Spoke to lady who rang me from the company (Advent Training) and she said as long as i know the basics.

Its a home / online course to be done in my own time whilst in my present job and once completed they say they help and often find you a job etc etc.

How much are these courses.

 

[JohnD]

... Spoke to lady who rang me from the company (Advent Training) and she said as long as i know the basics. ....

Do you mean someone from a training company is trying to get money off you? A bad sign. Don't believe them if they tell you it will enable you to get a well-paid job. You are unlikely to get anything except perhaps an entry-level position unless you have a year or two of commercial experience, no matter how many certificates you can wave at them.

I would ask around your local colleges for Evening classes.

 

[suffolklad]

be careful a friend of mine started an online course in IT , cant remember what but i know the company went bankrupt and he lost his money he paid and didnt get a certificate or nothing . id be careful about parting with money before you know what you are getting for it.

 

[2scoops0406]

Microsoft cerified professional certificate (MCP)

These are usually one week courses taken in any one of a number of subjects. Just one of these on their own isn't much use really. The cost is about £1000 - £1500

Microsoft certified systems engineer certificate. (MCSE)
This consists of 5 compulsory and 2 elective MCP's, so that's a total of 7 individual MCP's, this course is usually done over 3 - 8 weeks, and can cost around £4,000 - £5000


Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)
Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA)

These 2 I'm not sure, but I don't think they're as involved as an MCSE


Now, you might well think that if I go ahead and spend the vast sum of £4,000 to £5000 everyones going to be lining up to employ you. Sadly this isn't the case, you still need experience. I've seen some of these training schemes whereby they claim to guarantee you a job after successful qualification, I know nothing about these companies, but I would strongly advise caution.

Alternatively you could think about going down a software development route, but again as a word of caution, a lot of these jobs are being outsourced to the likes of India, Singapore and Romania where labour costs are much cheaper.

For my mind doing a full MCSE with only a little knowledge is risky as firstly it costs a lot, it might be a bit overwhelming, meaning that you might fail (yes you have to take and pass exams, the pass mark being around 80% ) and it doesn't guarantee you anything.

If I was you, I think I'd use the internet and trawl around some of the IT job shops, be prepared to start at the bottom, but hopefully you should get some training, and in a few years you too could be as cynical as me!! Best of luck.

 

[Igorian]

There is no doubt that MS certifications are good to have, however, unless you are actually working in the environment, you WILL find it difficult.

Do a Google for MCSE practice exams and try a few before you part with your cash.

Don't rely on advice from the people you are buying the course from.

Don't be afraid to approach some IT companies for advice.

MCSE qualifications are not for life and will expire as soon as an O/S is unsupported. This happened with NT and a lot of people were caught out when they thought they could just do the new tests and found them vastly different from the previous versions.

A+ and N+, although basic, do cover a lot of ground and are life qualifications. They are also reasonably cheap.

I doubt many newbies (or pros for that matter) will be able to cover all aspects of the MSCs and pass all the exams within 7-8 weeks. The questions are multiple choice, however it's not a case of just selecting 1 obvious answer from a list of 4. Some require you to select 3 from 7 for example. If you get two correct and 1 wrong, the question will be marked as a fail. A lot of questions are based on real-life situations, which you won't get from a book. I did the courses at a local training centre and believe me, they are not easy. They are also pure MS and don't take into account that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

I don't want to put you off, but be aware that you have a very steep learning curve and you really need to have the resource to setup a Domain with a couple of Client or better still work with in a live environment.

 

[jackpot]

Thanks guys. Im not going to rush in, i just wanted some advice.
The training company is 100% genuine as they are approved by Microsoft themselves (On Microsoft website).

I could not afford it anyway so wont be going ahead with it. Was just looking for a change of career and to learn something whilst in my present job. And looking what i could do. Work shifts so cant do night school etc.

Basic courses are to simple for me. Nearly done IT at degree level before i changed my mind on what course to do. Oh well looks like life will continue in my present job.

 

[Igorian]

I would still look at the A+ & N+. When I say basic, I really mean industry entry level rather than some noddy course. They only last a few weeks and the are industry recognised. I mean no disrespect, but you might be surprised by how much you don't know.

 

[coulterb]

Jackpot, i looked into something similar a while back (actually about 8 years ago lol) so here's my two cents worth.

IT profession reminds me of the old advertisement years ago - can't get a job without experience - can't get experience without a job. It seems best you can hope for with little or no experience is a low level support helpdesk job and then work your way up from there.

If you have half a brain and a genuine interest in computers then i wouldn't bother paying thousands to the likes of computeach or skillstrans etc. Just buy the study books of amazon or the likes and study yourself. There are a wealth of forums online where you can ask questions if you get stuck. You can also get loads of practice exams online now as well. Also with a half decent computer and the likes of VMware or MS Virual Server you can get a lot of experience in a virtual network on one computer.

I did home study years ago on the NT4 MSCE and found it easy enough to pick up but then windows2000 came out and i couldn't be bothered with the thought of having to buy a whole new set of manuals, sitting upgrade exams etc.

Don't know if this could be used as a guideline or not but...
I'm pretty into my IT and stuff but have long since forgotten the nitty gritty like IRQ setting, parts of a printer etc. but i was thinking of resurrecting my pursuit of IT qualifications so i decided to do an A+ practice test without any swotting up at all - I passed!
A+ is quite basic and probably a good place to start but like a few other posters have said nothing beats experience really.

 

[mike++]

unless you have a year or two of commercial experience

- Yes, JohnD, that old chestnut. I've got 12 years Delphi experience, 8 of which with apps in the field, and i bet i couldn't get a developer role for more than 20k.

Most if not all commercial developers are now in India. I believe that all the true nitty gritty head-scratching code development days are dead in the UK.

Maybe not for realtime apps, but windows apps i think so.

 

[JohnD]

March 2007 was a long time ago, I'd forgotten all about it.

 

[mike++]

i must admit i do not look at the dates of posts!

 

[2scoops0406]

Not entriely true, a lot of work is outsourced to india but even Romania Singapore, Mexico etc. However this kind of off shoring is only cost effective for large companies with large teams of developers. There are loads of smaller outfits, especially in the City of London (whicjh I realise is not convenient for a lot of people) that requier small teams of developers, for which outsourcing is not cost effective.

So while I agree a lot of the work has gone abroad, not all of it has. For instance I'm back as a developer here in the city (contract mind you).

Unfortunaely for this kind of role, recent relevant experience is essential. You cannot possibly hope to go on a course and do the job, it simply doesn't work like that (not wishing to "big myselfup" you understand )
.