Too soon....or just right time?

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So, I recieved my MCSE books today, and i'm planning on starting studying for my MCSA. I plan to upgrade to MCSE some time at a later date, but I don't imagine i'll do that for a long while yet.

I graduated from uni in May of this year, and have a year's experience under my belt when I performed a year's university work placement for an IT consultancy. I started in my new job only about 6 weeks ago for a year long contract position with plans to go permenant after, but weather I choose to stay after the contract is up, we'll wait and see.


Alot of my experience is in support and general network admin/maintainence but i'm really wanting to steer myself solely in the direction of Systems Administration hence my decision to take the MCSA. MCSE would be no good to me as I can't see myself being in a network design role for a long while yet. lol and I feel that the MCSA is the right certification for me to go for in terms of progressing in my new career.

But, given the fact i'm 23, with only a year and a month's worth experience under my belt, is it too soon for me to begin studying for the MCSA, or is it the right time?? I'm really eager and looking forward to soaking up as much knowledge as I can to further increase my understanding of networks & network administration (sad I know) but i've just thought to myself if its too soon.

Any advice someone can give me perhaps? Or am I being an idiot by wanting to try and certify myself quite early on?? Cheers

 

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welcome Sisko to CF! You know am still to figure out whats too soon and whats not... Why put off till tomorrow what you know you can always do today?? The answer you personally get from that question is then the right thing for you. Good luck

 

Hi Welcome

Microsoft reccomenend 6-12 months in an Admin role for the MCSA they recommend 12-18 months in a 250+ multi user multi server environment.

Having high end certs without the diesired experience can harm your employment prospects as employers expect you to know what your doing with no training needed.

You should look at the A+,N+ and MCDST

 

The "right time" is when you have appropriate experience to meet the required candidate profile for the certs being studied.

If you look at the page here it shows under candidate profile what MS expect of you in terms of experience before you consider taking the certs for MCSA. You can find the links from there for other certs I'm sure.

Think of it this way; if you regard GCSE's as confirming you can recall factual information, your degree that you can apply study to topics in-depth and analyse, then the certs are a confirmation that your work experience has reached an appropriate level of knowledge from a vocational viewpoint i.e. you know your stuff and can apply it in work situations.

 

Firstly - hello and welcome to the forums! You may want to introduce yourself in the appropriate section, but meh.

Right. Well my opinion is that you need to be careful with regards to how quickly you obtain certifications. Gain too many too quickly and you'll become overcertified for the position where you're working. In addition although you have the 1 years work experience from University that isn't going to cut the mustard if you're instantly going to try and jump into more of an advanced role.

My advice would be to aim low and achieve certs from the ground up. Start off with the lower end of the scale - CompTia's A+, N+ and Microsoft's MCDST. This will give you a good base with which to work from. As you're gaining these certs you'll also be gaining experience in your current role (you'll be surprised how much you learn from real-world problems when compared with study material) which will help you obtain new higher paying jobs.

A Good Working Manner + Experience + Qualifications + Luck = Better job prospects

The best of luck to you!

Qs

 

Oh yeah, I know that thing's are not as clear cut in the real world as they are in the classroom. The year I spent working for that IT Consultnacy was a good grounding to get me experience but some of the problems I dealt with were real crackers I must admit, I did prefer the admin side of things with the servers to the support side, but, support is the best area to start in for an IT career and I've learned alot during the time I spent there

 

In all honesty I prefer support too. *shrugs* It's not half bad when the end users are really attractive young women too.

I'll move into the whole server side of it when I gain more experience. Slowly slowly catchy monkey and all of that jazz.

 

I just had a talk with my boss regarding what he thinks would be the best choice for me. He said that by all means I could go for the MCDST certification if I wish but given the enviroment that our company is in (its an oil & gas support company, with a fleet of accommodation rigs/vessels), given this sort of enviroment, he says its inevitable that i'm going to be doing work on the systems admin side of things and actually said there would be no harm for me starting work on my MCSA, he actually encouraged it as it could give me a good grounding for when he does begin to introduce me to the systems side of things.

At the moment I'm just in a support role to get my feet under the desk and familierise myself with their network. But there's defo alot to learn, and i'm defo eager to start soaking up knowledge

 

Then do the MCDST. You'll get a cert, more of the knowledge you desire in your current support role and it's an elective exam for the MCSA.

Win, win scenario.

Qs


PS - Link for reference if you fancy a read - http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcsa/windows2003/default.mspx

 

Well I couldn't resist last night, so I began to read the beginning of the 70-290 book. I'm not going to go charging into it and rush through it, i'm wanting to break myself in gradually, read things carefully and make sure I understand what i'm reading. I think it'll be good for me as it'll hopefully prepare me for some of the jobs i'm going to be doing soon here at work

Knowing me, i'll read some more tonight

 

Welcome Sisko, I take it from your qualifications that your another RGU graduate of the CNMD. Best of luck to you

 

Indeed yes this is true And you?