Certs to come back after 8 years away?

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So, I'm 43 years old, and have been out of the corporate IT game in London for about 8 years.

Prior to that I had spent about 10 years at a big bank in the Microsoft world doing 2nd/3rd level support, and occasional project roles/implementations. I had done NT4 MCSE courses but never sat the exams. I had administered to varying degress NT4 servers/workstations, Exchange 5.0/5.5, IIS 4, Proxy Server (V2?), SQL 6.0/6.5. I left just as Active Directory in W2K was coming in, but did do a small amount of training on it.

Now, I'd like to return to a similar role, but I don't want to waste my time studing somehing like a Windows 2008 MCITP:SA or EA if it's going to be seen as a 'paper' qualification and not help me land a position.

I don't really want to go back to a low level desktop support type role if I can avoid it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

Let's just say I wasn't in prison! Yeah, I know the absence is gonna take some explaining.

I'm a great believer that if you have deep experience in IT concepts and fundamentals, the ability to find out/teach yourself what you don't know, and experience in a high pressure working environment it shoud count for something?

I'm just wondering whether employers will see it that way even with an MCITP etc.

 

Ill be interested to see what replies you get to this to be honest.

You might be better off starting with server 2003, that way its a smaller step up from Nt4 (ok missing 2000 server), lots of companies are still using it, and then you could look at gaining work for a company that is XP/2003 based (there should be plenty out there for another year or two).

The alternative is starting from the bottom again, which could be tricky as some employers may see your previous experience and think you are using the role as a stepping stone (which in fairness you will be), in which case probably the windows client exams would be a good start..

Agree with sparky though, employers will definately be interested in why you left IT for 8 years and decided to return, obviously we dont know the reason so you may need to practice your answers for this for interview purposes, but at the end of the day if you can demonstrate you have not lost the touch then i dont see why you shouldnt be employable (that was meant to sound more positive than it maybe did haha).

Good luck

 

AD and Windows/Exchange 20xx is quite a different beast to NT4 and Exchange 5.x...

But not impossible to pickup with previous high level IT admin experience.

 

Out of interest why did you leave IT and what made you come back?

 

Well nothing is impossible when it comes to landing a job that's of interest to you. However, technology changes fast and hence youtbiggest challenge would be to learn fast as ultimately experience is what counts.

I suppose you can try looking and applying for 2nd line contracting server roles and see what comes up. Best of wishes and keep us informed of your progress.