Good afternoon everyone (I'm trying to paraphrase Hello All)

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hello to all, I signed up earlier today and I've been posting here and there so it's probably polite if I introduce myself.

I've no career background in IT other than as a hobbyist and enthusiast, and for the last couple of years, as a part-time repair guy and builder of home systems. I work in Regeneration for a city council, but I had a "Road to Damascus" moment a few months back, and realised that the only parts of my day job that I actually enjoy are IT related - including a lot of what amounts to 1st/2nd line support for colleagues. For better or for worse I decided to jump in at the deep end and signed up for an MCSA package, on the basis that it might or might not allow me to change career, but in any case it'd be interesting.

The good news is that I'm enjoying it immensely, and managed to pass 70-270 on Monday. I've started looking at 70-290 and 70-291 and am finding it fascinating - I work in a huge enterprise environment, but I'd only a hazy idea about large networks, servers etc. (except for my little WHS at home) so it's really satisfying to be filling in the gaps. It looks like I'd do well to set up a test domain to get some practical experience of Server 2003, so my creaky old Athlon 3000+ might have to be temporarily reassigned

I've not chosen an elective yet, but I need to make my mind up soon if I'm going to get it passed before my course expires next Feb. I'm considering Exchange, or maybe Vista, although I get the impression that a lot of firms will skip over Vista and wait for Win7 - perhaps I'm reading the wrong articles though (in the same way that I was wrong about 70-291 not looking too hard ).

Anyway, nice to be here, I'm very impressed by all the resources and knowledge sloshing around - I'm sure I'll be visiting often.

P.S. Thinking about it, I'm not sure whether a WHS will work in a domain - aren't they workgroup only? I'll have to look it up, but in the meantime, any advice would be appreciated.

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi Welcome

Sounds like your commited and you actually know what your doing just be careful though as having high level certs without IT job experience can go against you when looking for jobs. Start looking now.

 

I've got an appliacation in now for a 2nd line job (fat chance ), and in fact I'd been applying for jobs for a while before I signed up - no interviews though, so I decided a qualification might help. If I'd done more research I might have gone for MCDST instead, but there you go. With any luck the 70-270 might get me a foot in the door - particularly as our in-house IT is huuuuge (we've got 25,000 users) and they only appoint internally, including from Council employees.

 

Well you could have a good chance if you get in with the right IT people, quite often it's who you know that will get you a job.

 

You may want to consdider the A+ and Network+ as the elective for the MCSA. It's extra work (and cost) compared to doing something like the exchange exam, but they are a great starting base and also the Network+ will help with aspects of the 70-291.

The MCDST can also be used as the elective and is another very good one to start out with.

As for org's skipping Vista and going straight for W7, yup I'd defo agree that many will be doing that. We will certainly be skipping Vista and going with W7 where I work. We have used Vista on a small number of machines, but the vast majority will be migrating from XP to W7 over the next couple of years.

 

Hi & welcome to CF

Congrats on passing the exam!

NB