MCSE/MCSA

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Hello all

a little about myself:

I've been working in IT for 4 years now. Firstly a junior systems administrator working with my predecessor as on the job training, unpaid. After 3 months I got put into paid part time testing with part time systems. Within several months of doing software testing for my company I took my predecessors job and became systems manager at the age of 18 and have been a systems manager for the past 3 years. Still enjoying the job and it suits me and what I like doing.

Recently (July last year) I upgraded all our servers from Windows NT to Windows 2003 which was a great success (No previous training and very little experience with Windows 2003 before upgrading our domain + file server and exchange server)

I still havn't got any qualifications though and my boss has been hounding me for the past 2 years to get some and the company will pay for all my qualifications relevant to my job. I have been looking into MCSE/MCSA for Windows 2003 which pretty much follows the same things I do day in day out. Unfortunatly when searching for courses you can't really tell what course is best and what training company is utterly useless or value for money.

I've pretty much decided that MCSE/MCSA is the course to start with for me so next decision is training company. I have looked at a few, some don't seem to advertise their MCSE courses correctly and just seem to be a muddled up list of random courses not clearly defined and don't seem to have a starting place but they do say 'This will help get your MCSE' and others allow you to do the whole lot in one go or in a package.

So far I've tried self study, now I'm no good with just staring at a book for hours on end because 1) I get bored and 2) I don't have the will power to just read books as is and revise in that fashion. Most of the stuff I read in the MCSE books I have are things I do on a daily basis or have done in the past with the servers I setup at work.

Firstly I'd be really grateful if someone could advise me on how I should go about doing my MCSE/MCSA course if they've been in a simliar situation. From what I've found there are 3 choices:

- Self Study
- Computeach type study, self study with 2 day tutor and exam
- Fully class based teaching

I'm not really a self studier so purely self study isn't the way but would purely class based be a waste with many years experience? The half and half option seemed appealing to me but Computeach have variable reputations depending on which review site you read and you pay for all the 7 modules in 1 go so if you don't like the way you were trained to do the 1st module you can't change training centre (Is that normal?).

Secondly is there a list (couldn't find one in sticky or recent posts) of recommended training centres or could anyone recommend a training centre they've used or know are trustworthy in London?

Many thanks
Phil

 

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Hi Phil,

I am currently studying for my MCSE with a training company based in Newark called NITLC. Very good training company, havent had any problems at all. They offer workshops for some of the module that you have to do (been on a few now, very good indeed).

stuart

 

If you've already got the hands on experience, or the aptitude to get it then self study would be an ideal choice for you. You simply need apply and read up more on the things that you don't do on a daily basis.

For some people the idea of a training provider can be a help with the motivation, since its costing you a lot, but effectively what you will be doing is all self study only at extra cost.

With self study you know that you are guaranteed to get value for money, learning at a pace that you feel comfortable with, making sure that you know the material before moving onto the next topic.

Are there no colleges or universities in your area that offer MCSA courses? That may be a good route to investigate as it won't cost the earth, and as it's delivered in an academic format is usually quite good.