HELP! e-learning/home study/home study HELP!

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Dear experts

Please excuse me if I posted this in the wrong forum, as I am a newbie. I am based in the UK and have been for numerous interviews with companies/agencies offering courses for anyone with no experience to become a network engineer/we designer.

The last one I went to see asked £2995 to study towards a MCSE. They all provide you with study material to study at home and some goes as far as CCNA level. (Even more money up to £6500)

I know that certification does not mean that your interviewer will be impressed. They can be impressed only by knowledge. They are so capable to know that candidate have knowledge or just certification.

So my question today is. If I buy all the study material myself, pay for my own exams, would this be a wise thing to do as they are offering home study anyways and its not that I will have to go to any classes when registering with them.

Also. Some of the exams/skills they call it, as networking got different paths require that you attend hands on training/work shops. If I study at home with my own study material would I be able to any of these practical workshops anywhere else or did anyone on this site ever got their certification OR experience without having to register with these collages/companies.

I do know that once you passed your exams that you can get some experience via a virtual lab/networking site. (Dealing and troubleshooting real live networks) But would this be enough to convince any employer to hire me?

Well done to all who contributed to this site as I have read some of the forums which I think is really helpful and this made me also think that I can get my certification without having to pay large sums of monies where I could have done it myself.

If anyone out there is able to advice me please respond to this post or email me at [email protected]

Thanking you’ll in advanced.

Kind Regards

Donovan21

 

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Hello Don and welcome to CF. First I like to say, if I was you I would remove your email addy and ask people to send you a privy instead. There are bots that scan sites for email address and then will start sending you spam mail.

As to your question. Invest that kind of money in yourself not in those home base study course. By the books you will need, and use the rest of the money to build your own network. You can do it for alot less then that I belive. Well cisco, you can run into some big money with some of those routers, but there are sites where you can buy use stuff. Then if you run into a prob, just post here. There are plenty of experts here to help you out and walk you though things. Good luck.

 

Greetings, Donovan.

First of all, while knowledge is impressive, experience is more impressive. If you have no background or experience in IT, you can earn all of the certifications you want and still not get a job.

There's an interaction between education and experience. You can start out by earning some entry level certs. I usually recommend the A+ and Network+ for beginners. Before moving on to other certs, try to secure a job at a help desk or doing basic desktop support. As you gain experience, start studying for other certifications.

I promise you that you will not be able to pass any of the higher level certification exams without first getting some experience in the profession. It's not just what you've learned in a book it's what you've done.

My advice is not to give some training provider thousands of pounds to get you through various certification exams. Even if you pass them all, passing tests is no substitute for doing the job. Start at the beginning and work your way up.

 

I agree with whats been said. The basic certifications like A+, Network+, 70-270(XP) can be done through self study. Buying the books and booking the exam will cost you a lot less then going with a school like you mentioned above.

Also keep in mind that a lot of schools guarantee jobs after you graduate but like many members here will say that its not so true. Maybe there are a few, but its not a guarantee.

 

No... they can be impressed only by real-world experience. Knowledge is nice... but without practical application, it's not very useful. You can know how to format hard drives by reading about it in a book... but it's a whole different ballgame when you're asked to do it with a CEO standing over your shoulder, expecting you to salvage data from the drive first.

Read the other posts in this forum... most people advocate self-study - even some of those who have used training centers in the past.

You can get hands-on experience with a home lab... no idea whether there are any workshops anywhere in your area...

As someone who has been responsible for weeding through resumes and assisting in the hiring process, I can tell you exactly how much weight most employers give to training classes and workshops... zero. Even degrees and certifications are used simply to give candidates an advantage over people with similar experience levels... experience is what employers are looking for.

Don't misunderstand me - knowledge is great, certifications are great, and degrees are great... but experience is what employers look for... and you can't get experience until you get an IT job. And without experience, you do that by getting an entry-level IT job. Entry-level IT jobs don't require experience. Certifications can certainly help you to do so, as long as the certifications are relevant to your skill level. For example, it wouldn't do you much good at this stage of your career to show up to an interview with an MCSE certification... you don't have the experience to do the job of an MCSE.

I'd recommend that you start out with the A+. This should be enough to get your foot in the door somewhere.

Best of luck!