MSCE Courses in London

Discussion in 'General Microsoft Certifications' started by olig23, Dec 9, 2009.

  1. olig23

    olig23 New Member

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    Hi Guys, I am newly registered here as you can no doubt see. Essentially, I work for an educational software business in Canary Wharf and the company have offered to pay for me to study for my MCSE. While I appreciate their faith and willingness to spend money on my development I think it is important to ensure this is the right course to be studying and that if I do go ahead that I am getting a good standard of training to make it worthwhile.

    At the moment I run the 3rd line technical support department but the company would also like to use me as backup network admin. It is a reasonably small office and currently things are under pretty much under the control of one person so i think they would like to remove all of their proverbial eggs from the one basket...

    I have some experience with the servers, but nothing official. I am aware many people recommend self-teaching, and I have set-up VMware of server 2003 on my home PC, but this being my first qualification I think getting some classroom experience might be a good thing. At the end of the day I think that if i am going to move onwards and make a decent career in IT I need to have something on paper which will open some doors and the Microsoft certifications seem like a good place to start.

    With that in mind I was hoping someone could answer a few questions:

    Is the MCSE too ambitious given my current experience?

    If so what is good place to start?

    For those courses could anyone recommend a good place to get the training in London, ideally outside of standard working hours?
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2009
  2. BosonMichael
    Honorary Member Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Classroom experience isn't really "experience". All classroom experience will provide you is a set schedule, (hopefully) access to an instructor, and access to equipment (most of which you probably have or can get on your own).

    What self-study will get you is your choice of the best training materials you can buy, studying on your own schedule (outside working hours, as you said), and studying at your own pace (not to the pace of the slowest or fastest student in the class), all for far less than a training course. If you need help that an instructor would normally provide... well, that's what these forums are for. In fact, several of the members here are instructors and authors who can help you as much or better than a single instructor in a training school can.

    True, you don't have to pay for the class if your company is paying for it. But let me tell you... if I were your supervisor and you told me that you would rather self-study than take an expensive training course, I'd A) approve absolutely everything on your self-study wish list, and B) be tempted to provide some of the cost-savings to you in the form of a bonus. Any employee who saves a company money is a treasure.

    How much experience do you have? Microsoft recommends 12 months of server admin experience in a multi-site, multi-server environment before pursuing the MCSE. Only 6 months of the same experience for the MCSA...

    With your first exam. :) I'd recommend pursuing the client exam first, either XP or Vista, whichever you predominantly use there. XP will be around for years to come, so that's always a safe bet.

    Sorry - I'm across the pond. :) Just do your research before getting in with a training provider. Plenty of testimonies on the forum, both good and bad.
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2009
    Certifications: CISSP, MCSE+I, MCSE: Security, MCSE: Messaging, MCDST, MCDBA, MCTS, OCP, CCNP, CCDP, CCNA Security, CCNA Voice, CNE, SCSA, Security+, Linux+, Server+, Network+, A+
    WIP: Just about everything!

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