Any Mcse's About

[nouggatti]

I'm thinking of doing self study for an MCSE, it's to give me the knowldedge I've managed to avoid gaining over the past ten years along with the qualification.

 

Any thoughts? What I am looking for is decent knowledge of networks, clusters, dns, dhcp, ad and vpn's, etc.

 

At the same time I will be doing standalone study on various other areas, including VM, and security.

 

I'm interested in hearing anyone's experience of doing the self study for MCSE if anyone has

 

Thanks

[Wendbert]

Allan No.1 has done a lot of self study for his MCSE but he goes on holiday in 2 days so probably won't have time to answer if I ask him

[Dizzycharm]

I'd love to be able to reply, but I haven't got a clue what MCSE is. Sorry. But if its what you want to do, go for it

[nouggatti]

Wendy, I'm thinking of doing this during Jul/Aug, as Aug is holiday month in work so I can take time off then to do the exams, so no major rush.

 

Thanks

[phoebejo]

Ian is doing it now. He's done some of the exams and is currently studying for another. He's in the shower right now but I'll pick his brains in a minute.

[nouggatti]

I'd love to be able to reply, but I haven't got a clue what MCSE is. Sorry. But if its what you want to do, go for it

 

MCSE is Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, it's a qualification that basically says you are a techy Microsoft person I kind of deliberately posted the acronyms so that people who knew them would recognise them, sorry

 

 

 

Ian is doing it now. He's done some of the exams and is currently studying for another. He's in the shower right now but I'll pick his brains in a minute.

 

 

Thanks Cheryl!

 

P.s. Hamish says to Henreeee

 

Deer Henree,

 

I iz goen true me wardroob and I haz found loadz of stuff, it's leaven dis weekend!

[Jacobean]

I'm sure Martyn learnt that from the books and then just did the exam. He has problems with trainers and ends up asking them questions he can't answer. He's self taught on all things computer. From what you said on Cheryl's post about gifted children yesterday you should be able to breeze through it. Can you get your hands on a copy of the manual to have a flick through and see what you think? Martyn's done clusters etc too. I can't ask him at the moment.

[nouggatti]

I'm sure Martyn learnt that from the books and then just did the exam. He has problems with trainers and ends up asking them questions he can't answer. He's self taught on all things computer. From what you said on Cheryl's post about gifted children yesterday you should be able to breeze through it. Can you get your hands on a copy of the manual to have a flick through and see what you think? Martyn's done clusters etc too. I can't ask him at the moment.

 

Spot on Michelle!

 

I can buy the self study kits on amazon for half nothing, then study, do the exams, and claim the exam expenses back from work if I pass and boss approves the expense.

 

That's my reasoning lol I've no formal training in IT at all, apart from ITIL, and I'm now at a point where I manage quite technical teams and need to catch up.

[phoebejo]

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm it goes something like this:

 

Which MCPs are you taking? He's done the Microsoft Windows XP Professional exam and now he's doing Comp TIA Server+ which is much easier. Cybex are the best manuals. Ian has downloaded the PDF version of the books he needs, can email them to you if you give me an address. He says they are the hardest exams in the world ever, not just because of the content but also because of the trick wording used by Microsoft. He says not in a month of Sundays will you ever ever pass all the exams in a month

[Jacobean]

Martyn says if you knuckle down and make sure you spend the time reading the book then yes you can do it in a month. He says they run boot camps abroad for this where people do the whole lot in a week. 6 exams. He says that admittedly they work people hard and they are there until 8pm at night.

 

So if you're like him and can teach yourself by reading and put the time in you can do it.

[murtle]

I started doing them and then changed direction in my *career* (ha ha to career)

 

But, if you have some base knowledge about things, a good ability to learn and remember things then you can rattle them off. Look for your nearest exam centre and see when the exams are and plan your study accordingly, alternatively try the boot camps, I never had the opportunity to do the boot camps due to cost at the time, but if I had I would have gone down that route.

 

Good luck with them, you'll always have new stuff to learn after doing them, and you need to keep them up-to-date which means constant learning and retaking of exams, it's not (or didn't used to be) a case of taking them once and holding the MSCE for life.

 

[Godin]

H did his 10 years or so ago in NT4 and said it was a waste of time really, at the time he was a Network Systems Analyst he's since gone on to do ISEB and CPC and is now a Load & Performance Test Consultant

 

As for the exams he found them very easy and sat 2 in one day and like Jacobean's Martyn he did all study at home then just sat the exams, I think he still has all the books in the garage TBH

 

H has never kept his up to date because he doesn't need it, same with his Lotus Notes and SAP quals I'm sure he'd be more than happy to advise you though, he's not in til after 8pm so I'll ask later

[nouggatti]

Thanks everyone

 

I was chatting to the boss about this this morning, and turns out that he faced the same issue in a previous job!

 

He went out and bought a pile of dummies books to get the knowledge he needed, in terms of a good grounding in areas he was unsure of.

 

So for the moment that is what I will do and if I want to move on then I will.

 

Work will actually pay for any study I need/want to do which was good to hear