Is this worth the $$?

Looking at this school here in San Diego. It has been around for quite a few years. For $23K I will be able to get the following certifications:

MCSE
MCP
CompTIA A+
CompTIA Net+
CompTIA Server+
CCNA
LPIC

There are 3 practicums in the following areas: CompTIA, Microsoft, and Linux.

Exam costs are included and I may take each exam up to two times. The school has close to 600 or more computers. A kick-*** server room for the networking and server courses. From a "first" impression point of view The facilities were remarkable and up to date. A maximum of 16 student in any class. Individual course Cds for home study.

Bill

I have seen the MCSE course (alone) go on special for around $5k round here, normally closer to $8k if I recall, and that is not including the exams. I think I would have had to pay separately for each attempt.

Don't take my price recollection as golden by any means. I barely recall what they were, and I never went into it.

Are these accelerated courses, or are they designed to go at your pace? The reason I ask, to pay 23k for a crash course on networking isn't the way to go. There are some community colleges that would be better suited for what you need. You have more time to actually learn the material, and typically things don't cost that much. Then what you do is get a job in the field while you are working on the Cirts, and you can gain job experience along with the cirts. This is golden…

I agree with Ya_Know.. the important question is if they are an accelerated course or if they go your pace..
If they are crash course.. i think thats a lot of money you are paying there... here in Fort Lauderdale they have a bootcamp for MCSE.. it is $5k and you stay in a hotel for 2 weeks.. you breathe, drink and eat MCSE stuff... you can re-take the classes as many times as you want.. and tests are covered.. but if you fail the 1st time you have to pay for re-taking the test..
how much knowledge you have with computers ? I dont think there is that much of a need to take classes for A+ and Network + certification.. you can just read the books and take study tests.. i used this site... 90% of the test for the A+ cirt. came from here.. I am working on Network +.. but i can never get the time to sit down and study..
but then again.. if you have the time and money.. and thats what you really want to persue..go for it..
good luck :) :)

The courses last from 9 - 12 months in total. Full-time 8 -4 Mon - Fri and they are open on Saturday if you need more study/lab time.

Bill

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Bill in SD, CA
The courses last from 9 - 12 months in total. Full-time 8 -4 Mon - Fri and they are open on Saturday if you need more study/lab time.

Bill

---

Hello fellow San Diegan. Ummm is the school CEI (Computer Education Institute)

It's Microskills

Bill

Honestly, after thinking about it, $23k at a public college would be better spent going for a degree rather than a bunch of certs. Then while in school, you pick up that tech job to have experience to couple with the degree. IMHO, that would be a wiser way to spend the money on education.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Cleetus
Honestly, after thinking about it, $23k at a public college would be better spent going for a degree rather than a bunch of certs. Then while in school, you pick up that tech job to have experience to couple with the degree. IMHO, that would be a wiser way to spend the money on education.

---

Yeah, $23k is too much for a stack of cirts. Most places look over cirts for the degree. I myself would hire the other way around, but I guess that is why I am not yet in management.

Check out this thread before you spend any amount of money.


http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin...435#post361435

Quote:

---

Originally posted by smoke wolf
Check out this thread before you spend any amount of money.


http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin...435#post361435

---

Valid point, I didn't want to bring it up, but typically I try to discourage anyone wishing to get into this field. If you are starting fresh, there are allot of other options for you. 6 years ago IT was the way to go. Schools were never completely full, and there were not enough candidates for the many available well paying jobs. Now things are just the opposite, people are filling up the schools, and the job market is not growing. In fact it seems as though it is shrinking!

I like to bring it up. I feel that one of the reasons (not all of them) that the IT field is no longer anywhere close to where it was, is the influx of unqualified people asking for outrageous wages. It ruins it for everyone.

HR managers end up getting a bad taste in their mouth over paying so much for someone who is supposed to be qualified (I mean who can blame them, on TV it says that with the certs you too can make $$$$$).

Example: I hired a CCNA fresh out of school. His first (and last) assignment was to go fetch the cisco router from the other room (there was only one in that room) and prepare it for configuring. He returned about 20 minutes later and asked me to show him which one I was talking about (remember there was only one). I thought I must have been mistaken about the solo fact, so I got up to assist. Sure enough there was only one and in fact had the big cisco logo showing plainly in front. I asked him why he could not find this router and his reply was that he had never seen one. Seriously the school he went to had no hands on program, it was all computer simulated. That was the quickest employee we had here, it took him longer to fill out the paperwork than the job laster.

They become gun shy and wery about hiring more of these individuals. They end up lower the salaries and the open jo slots (making those who are left do more for less).

I have had to rearrange our hiring policy. Now we only hire temp workers for 4 weeks. During that time it is a testing period, if we like you we then offer a full time position. If not at the end of the 4 weeks, I am sorry but there are no new assignments to give and we will keep you in mind if any more temp positions open up. These are at min. wage even.

BTW, you would not believe how many "CERTIFIED" people we have had to let go within 2 days of offering them a temp position. And we even have simple labour jobs (such as cabling, delivery, etc) that is availiable.

My advice, be realistic. If you know your stuff and have experience, thats one thing. If you are just starting and considering schooling, understand that certification does not equal $85k per year.

I had a welder come in and ask for a job just last year. I asked him why he left welding and he said he was looking for more money. He was even a certified underwater welder. I almost cried when he told me what he used to make (close to $100k a year).

I popped $5k for the full CNE course back in '92. I had several years of experience in networking, programming, and PC hardware. At the time it was the best thing I could have done. Three weeks after getting my cert I found a great job and I've never looked back.

At the time CNE meant something. Today certifications are a dime a dozen and they don't mean squat. I hear people bragging about their A+ and other certifications all the time. Its all I can do not to laugh at them.

I haven't been following certifications for two or three years but last time I checked the only one I still thought was respectable was CCIE. If its still the same, Cisco puts you through a lot of difficult real-world lab work and troubleshooting before you can get one of their higher end certs.

Toss in some Unix administration and you had a ticket to a high end job.

I'd have to say that's too much money. Unless you know people who can and will get you a decent job once you're certified, you'll be lucky to find work.

Go back to college and get a degree.

I used to have an employee that also took the Full CNE course back in the earlier 90's. I would give my left *%^ and 10 brand new MCSE's for him. He now works for a local TV station, good thing we still have a relationship with him though.

Yep, my college degree, liberal arts at that, opens more doors than the certs do these days.
The best was a couple of years ago, at my last job, we got a ccna fresh from school. Decided he wanted to run a debug on a live router..the main production router for the entire company...10000 people...hehehehehe...whole thing went down...lucky bastard kept his job and would even give us attitude when the pc group would give him hell about it every chance we got. Then we got a MCSE who couldn't change the computer name, didn't even know where to look, couldn't tell me how much memory a pc had, he spent his time and cert changing out mice and keyboards!!!

23 thousand would buy a great lab and a lot of books.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Cleetus
Yep, my college degree, liberal arts at that, opens more doors than the certs do these days.

---

Wait a minute; Cleetus went to college…Now I feel stupid!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Ya_know
Wait a minute; Cleetus went to college…Now I feel stupid!

---

With two equally useless majors at that!!!!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by silencio
23 thousand would buy a great lab and a lot of books.

---

true but I doubt that PHEAA sallie Mae and AES would lend you the money to buy all the stuff :D :mad: :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bill in SD, CA

Looking at this school here in San Diego. It has been around for quite a few years. For $23K I will be able to get the following certifications:

MCSE
MCP
CompTIA A+
CompTIA Net+
CompTIA Server+
CCNA
LPIC

There are 3 practicums in the following areas: CompTIA, Microsoft, and Linux.

Exam costs are included and I may take each exam up to two times. The school has close to 600 or more computers. A kick-*** server room for the networking and server courses. From a "first" impression point of view The facilities were remarkable and up to date. A maximum of 16 student in any class. Individual course Cds for home study.

Bill

---

I'd take the advice that everyone else is dishing out, go for the college degree. Certs are only nice if you have years of experience behind you. Besides, you can always go for a cert while working for a company that's giving you experience in the field you're trying to get a cert for. I've been bouncing around from one company that's gone bankrupt to the next. I've just about run through them all except the big companies, companies which require BS degrees in computer science. It's become a tough market to get employment doing, that's why I'm thinking about selling my house and moving where houses are cheap and anual property taxes are cheaper then what I pay for just a quarter. So if I really had to, I could survive pumping gas. Go to college, ask if the college has an internship (they send you off to a company that will allow you to play on their equipment and not pay you, they'll even teach you stuff + hands on) some companies, if they like you, will even hire you if they liked what they have seen from you when you were doing the internship.

I paid about $9000 and spent a year getting my CCNP about 2 years ago. It was worth it since I got a better job. The rest of certs (MCNE and MCSE) I just got through work experience and home lab. It is cheap to buy the books or videos, set up a lab and learn it. My advice, get a degree, basic certs and then a job. The basic certs I mean is A+ and Network+ and the degree should be a 4 year if you can. Then while working and gaining experience, work on your certs. In five years you will be ready to go with a degree, certs and experience. I would never go for the MCSE without experience, you could look like a fool when starting. Also, the best way to pass the cert test is through experience. THanks! :eek2: