Hi all! New young member with career in IT

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Hi All,

My name is Ryan as you may have guessed, I live in the north west of England, 20 years old and have been working in technical support positions in IT since i left school.

At the minute my Qualifications are:

IT Practicioners cert
E.C.D.L
NVQ Level 3 - Business administration.

I have 4 years experience in desktop support (xp)

and about 2 or 3 years experience in areas of server 2003 (active directory, group policy etc)

Any ideas what qualification i should get next in IT? Ive been looking at MCSE as its the top one out of the 3 (MCP, MCSA, MCSE)

Any ideas / thoughts?

Cheers

Ryan

 

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Hi there and welcome

 

Hi and welcome to CF!

Harry.

 

Hi and welcome to CF

NB

 

Hey Ryan,

MCSE's a good one to aim for - but how much 3rd line/design/consultancy experience do you have? Sounds like you're very much in 2nd line. Not that that's an issue, we've all either been there or are still aiming at it But you may want to consider the Server 2008 route if you've realistically got a couple of years to go until you're solidly in the 3rd line arena, as it may be more relevant and less widespread (i.e. might make you look better) than MCSE 2003 (yes I've got one, yes they're very good, and 2003 will be around fro a long time. But 2008 will overtake 2003 at some stage). If this is even what you want to do - plenty of people are happy sticking it doing desktop support and actually being able to turn off from work at night!

May as well do the MCTS: Vista either way as it's useful in either the 2k3 or 2k8 route or for desktop work. Depending on your hardware skills and other interests an A+ or even a linux+ might be useful. Or get involved in networking and look at Cisco perhaps, again if that interests you. At 20 years old I don't see the harm in getting some basic experience 'across the field' so to speak.

 

You've been doing desktop support as a job since you were 16? If that's true, that's great - there's a bunch of people in their 20s and 30s who would love to have gotten their start that early.

If you've been supporting XP for many years, the MCDST would be easy for you to pick up, and I'd recommend doing so. Depending on how much server knowledge you've picked up over the years, you may be ready for the MCSA. But don't overlook the lower-level certifications, such as the MCDST... if nothing else, they look good on your CV, and they'll help you get your "feet wet" in certifications.

 

Many thanks for the replies everyone

To the person who asked if i had been doing IT support since 16, the answer is yes, i left school and went straight into a Modern Apprenticeship studying NVQ Level 3 Business administration and some basic IT Qualifications. In my place of work at the time i was an ICT Technician working for local government in a learning enviroment.

To all others, (sorry for being ignorant with no names)

I stumbled accross this site because computrain-uk contacted me about the MCSE course, but after reading a few topics on here, ive decided to do a self study rather than go with them and pay £2700

Basically i want to get through the course as fast as possible (MCSE), but without rushing it obviously.

Has anyone else done MCSE? if so how did you find it difficulty wise

Also, are you guys on here from time to time to help if i get stuck with anything?

Cheers,

Ryan

 

Hi Welcome

The MCSE is quite a high end cert and is a difficult one to go for as your first set of exams, I agree with BosonMichael on this do the MCDST to get your feet wet then go for MCSA and MCSE after that.

And your right to self study places like computrain will rip you off.

 

greenbrucelee,

How much do you think it will cost for the MCDST

Study materials + Exam fee's

 

Well the two MS press books you can get from a bookstore for £80 or from Amazon for cheaper they come with a 15% discount voucher for each exam and the exams cost about £88 each if I remember correctly.

With your knowledge and experience you probably wont need anything else.

Computrain would probably charge you twice the amount you will spend doing it by self study.

 

Sound,

so with the exams, where would i take them, local college, online?

How many exams is there with MCDST?

 

There two exams 70-271 & 70-272 you register your details with prometric.com on the site you will find your nearest test centre and you book the exams when for when it suits you. You pay with a debit/credit card or voucher code or both then sit the exams.

 

Ill have a look now

nice one dude

 

Hello, good evening & welcome.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome to the forums...

 

Hi and welcome to CF.

Don't set your sights too high just yet, the MCSE is no walk in the park.

In 2001, I was led to believe by a salesman that i could do it in 6 months, that was utter nonesense. To this day i have never heard of 'anyone' passing the 7 exams required for MCSE in 6 months. Some very bright, talented and focused people can do it in one year. For me though, having already been working as a nework admin for 7 years, it took *three years* to pass all the exams. This is by no means unusual.

 

ouch

 

Uhm, not really "ouch".

Because of the adverts from training companies about 'Get your MCSE in x weeks and you could be earning the Average IT wage of HUGE ammounts' I fear that people see the MCSE as the 'I have to pass it quick so I can earn lots of money/move up to a position I have no hope in hell of doing any good at if I pass my MCSE that quick' Cert.

I've been working away on and off (mostly on) since mid/late 2005 towards my MCSE. Sure, it was a mistaking aiming that high as I hadn't even passed my A+ N+ or any Microsoft exam, but I stupidly still went out and bought all the training materials for it...... only to realise that I'd bitten off more than I could possibly chew. (And yes, I'd been 1st line with a little second since 1999.)

Obviously I had to go back to basics with the A+ and N+ before I could start out on the MCSE track, which I swiftly gave up on in favour for just attaining my MCSA.

After moving jobs last year and getting into a 2nd/3rd, I found myself doing more server/networking/AD work, which obviously gave me more experience in some of the things that would ultimately come up on the MCSE, so I then, 3 years later, actually started on my MCSE.

So putting it in short, if you want to pass the MCSE in a short ammount of time, with limited experience of the content that will actually come up on the exams, then you are asking for trouble. If you're happy to build MCSE exam passes as your career progresses (ie experiencing AD and taking the AD exam in the MCSE), and go out of your way to learn new things that you have no current knowledge of, then still pencil a couple of years for your MCSE.

 

Sound advice

I've decided to start with MCDST, after reading through the material for the first exam, without sounding cocky, i know most of it, just the odd area that ive not come accross in real practice that ive had to read up on, so with this in mind im booking my first exam tomorrow and hopefully the other exam shortly once ive read through it all and learned any new areas

would you reccomend doing MCSA as a pose to MCSE for my next qualification?

i currently work in a primary school managing the computer domain, i do all aspects except for SIMS and disaster recover (although i know how to restore individual files from backup tapes0

because of my financial position, im looking to get out of there as fast as possible (progress with my career) as im already at the highest position i can get there and ive been working there for nearly 2 years now

ive been for a few interviews but had limited success because i have no majour qualifications in IT, hence im on here

any suggestions and thoughts are welcome