Microsoft Certification

[Proton]

A question for anyone out there who has completed their MS certs recently. By recently i'm speaking within the past year. Out of work atm looking at a career change and wishing to pursue a career with computers as a tech. Strong background in computers ex-military member 13 years of service outstanding job skills and knowledge. Placed a deposit down on taking an 11 month cert course at a technical institute and yes very expensive wondering if this will be money well spent? The course content will consist of the A+ N+ MCP MCSA MCSE route. Is this a good route? Will it assist me in finding a career in our competitive job market? Are people with these creditentials still sought after as this is a relatively old cert that i remember dating back to 1998. Is this a wise decision or should i pursue basket weaving 101 and forget the tech market? Any comments or suggestions on a personal level both positive or negative would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[confus-ed]

Welcome to WD forums proton.

The key with the IT job market is experience plus certs & that's kind of a catch 22 situation, your intended qualifications are certainly saleable (but I'd question the validity of doing both an MCSE & MCSA {as they overlap much - look up the differences here MCSA or MCSE: Which Certification is Right for You? briefly MCSE is for planning & installing, MCSA is for running of }).. what you may find however is that you are just one of many with a fistfull of certs & no recent experience, like lots of folks find themselves

On A+ specifically, despite its age its still a well respected 'starter' qualification (though in some ways its superior to supposedly 'better' qualifications as it isn't just 'Billy's way' but a basic understanding of the inards of a pc)..

Personally as a 'sometimes employer' (I do job interviews for my clients prospective positions etc) I'm happy taking on 'inexperienced' folks (so maybe no provable work history directly connected) as I know you can learn much at home (depends on the type of roles - I'm certainly happy with say pc engineers with just certs), however others mostly aren't as there's a big fat pool of out of work techies for them to choose from most places (I'm in the uk so have no real knowledge of your local market )

[Humilliation]

I've been unemployed for almost a year now. I can honestly say that the IT field is flooded with techs. For the past 8 months and about 200 interviews, just about every place I've done interviews with say that they get hit with any wheres around 2000 - 4000 resumes within the first week of them posting their ad for help in their IT Dept. But then again every prospective employer gets flooded with applications for employment once they post their ads for help. The market is flooded with UE people, or people who want to change their careers. When schools who advertise their classes for the IT field run their ads, it's not because there's a demand for IT people, it's because their classes haven't been filled and the schools trying to drum up business for themself. And then the person who just forked out a small fortune for a promising career in the IT field gets to do the exact same thing I get to do right now and that's to hurry up and reply to these ads and then wait for a response from a prospective employer who may never reply.

After being out of work for almost a year I can honestly say "Welcome to Burger King, can I take your order?"

[jstut]

Hi proton, Good question....I'm in a similar boat, and hope to get a lot more feedback from the thread. Thinking career change as well.
Been a Finance Systems Analyst on an old system getting ready to go Bye-Bye. Looking for Act 2. Love PCs, and would rather do something I like, than something I don't like.

[DVader]

I did the whole tech school thing and got my MCSE. I can honestly say I will probably never do it again. I don't know what school you will use but the one I used was terrible. I used their classes and study materials for my first of six tests exclusively and failed the test miserablly.

My school basically made you read the book, watch a video or computer based training and them write down stuff like what was the frouth word on page 317 paragraph 4. Occationally youd get to install and OS and configure it a bit. I had to retake it and get books and study aids from different sources to pass the rest and retake the first.

My advise is to look at the overall total cost of the school and compare that to doing the cert yourself. Also, talk to actual students who have been there awhile and see what they think of the school. I think you will find it better to do things on your own. This would take disipline on your part making yourself study and go register and take the tests.

Alot of the course books can be checked out a a local library for free. Your tuition would go to buying computers and networking equipment to practice installing and configuring, you don't need the latest and greatest, just something that networks easily(with a few exceptions most businesses only use the computers to run MS office, Email and get to the internet). If you and some friends got your certs together this would also lower the cost of equipment as you could share. You could even sell the equipment when you are done to recoupe the cost. The only real cost to plan on whould be to pay for the tests themselves.

In my case, if I'd of did it myself, judging from the amount of money I spent on the school, I'd of been able to purchase at least 4 computers and network gear, bought all of the books and study aids, paid for the tests and still of been thousands of dollars under what the cost of the school has been. The bottom line for me, I paid thousands for schooling that never really even helped me get my certs. Didn't have any computers to show for it, and didn't get any books to keep that I could of possibly refered to, to help me when I got a job.

There where three good things about me going to the school I went to. One, the cert tests were paid for in your tuition(at least the first ones, if you failed any you had to pay the next time). Second, there was a class on resume writing and job counseling that I found quite useful that you got at the end of the schooling. Third, for the people doing hiring and don't know how crummy the school really was, it looks good on a resume.

[Pinnacle]

. . . A lot of the course books can be checked out a a local library for free. Your tuition would go to buying computers and networking equipment to practice installing and configuring, you don't need the latest and greatest, just something that networks easily(with a few exceptions most businesses only use the computers to run MS office, Email and get to the internet). If you and some friends got your certs together this would also lower the cost of equipment as you could share. You could even sell the equipment when you are done to recoupe the cost. The only real cost to plan on whould be to pay for the tests themselves. . . .

I agree with this idea, but whether or not it works for you depends on how motivated you are. If you have the discipline to study each day, I think your tuition money would be better spent building a home lab. I have a home lab that has servers ranging from PPro 200 to PIII 1.0 GHz. While none of my equipment is state of the art, the concepts I use playing with it relate directly to what a technician will see in the real world. If you decide you want to spend some big bucks on a formal education, I would suggest going to a four year university over a tech school. My reasoning for this is that my employers want canditates to have a university degree, but they may not care what the major was. In my case, I am a technician with a marketing degree. My employer puts more weight on getting a degree than what you get the degree in. Good luck.

[bbtech6650]

Hi proton, Good question....I'm in a similar boat, and hope to get a lot more feedback from the thread. Thinking career change as well.
Been a Finance Systems Analyst on an old system getting ready to go Bye-Bye. Looking for Act 2. Love PCs, and would rather do something I like, than something I don't like.

I personally think that you might have an easier time, being a person with a finance background, getting an a job in the it field.

[cyberhh]

I have to say that the MCSE has really helped me in the field. There are still a lot of hiring managers that look for a specific set of requirements and that is all - but you still need the knowledge and expierience to back it up. I will admit that I did learn quite a bit in the classes and would not trade it for anything, but it is SOOOO much more important to have experience to back it up.

If you are planning on working for a reseller / VAR / system integrator the Microsoft certs carry a point value when it comes to re-certifing for your partner level, so to a Microsoft Partner MS certs can be VERY important (a good way to get an entry level position with a Microsoft Partner.)