MCSEs...

There appear to be a few companies offering MCSEs for around £300 on
the net.

Most of the sites I've looked at don't actually have any real solid
content about exactly what you get from them for your £300.

Anyone gone down this route with any success?

 

Don't waste your time, go for the real thing:

http://www.alumnaservices.co.uk/

 

Does anyone actually VALUE Minesweeper Consultants or Solitaire Experts
anymore?

 

Anyone offering "MCSE" is wasting your time, the whole certification
path was retired when win 2003 was phased out.

The modern equivalent is a MCITP: Enterprise Administrator
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcitp.aspx#tab2

I still reckon the best route for any MS certification is to use the
microsoft press books, and to build your own "lab" of machines to work
through all the options available under each of the technologies.

 

Ok, cheers.

I'm looking to get something under my belt asap - what's a realistic
timescale if you're willing to dedicate several hours a week to study
etc?

 

Nice.

Humm... I might get tested on what I've supposedly studied for though,
so I better actually try and learn something along the way that's
relevant to the bit of paper I'd hope to be waving at the end of it.

P.S: The GSX is all tucked up until the roads aren't so awash with
salt etc - have you fallen off your bike yet? ;-)

 

It's still languishing in the corner of the garage waiting for me to
fix it after the French incident. I think I've got everything to put
it back together apart from a right hand mirror so I might start on it
soon.

 

Going by your signature I'd say they do.

| | |
| Andrew Halliwell BSc | "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't |
| in | suck is probably the day they start making |
| Computer science | vacuum cleaners" - Ernst Jan Plugge |

 

An MCSE says you may have some competence with Windows 2000 or 2003
generation OSes and applications.

A degree in Computer Science just tells potential employers you're
probably allergic to daylight.

 

I've been working through the online MCTS courses in quiet moments over
the last year. It's excruciatingly dull to the point that I'm quite
delighted when I have real work to do instead.

 

Depends how much you work with the products already.

When I last did MS exams in anger they were the windows 2000 version,
and the only bit I really swatted up on was what various registry keys
did and which hives they were in. I could pretty much talk through
everything else in my sleep, and had configured every concievable
option under every part of the OS multiple times in my day job.

Now if I wanted to bring my certifications up to date I'd definitely
need to spend a few weeks working through the products inside out
after reading the books, as I've not needed to do dirty hands-on
configuration stuff in about 5 years.

 

I absolutely detest online web-based training. It's almost like being
stuck in a several hour long airline safety anouncement.

 

Good stuff.

 

*ding*

 

Whilst I did some practice at work in my spare time, I went on a two
week bootcamp in the US to do this. 8am start, 23h00-midnight finishes
every day. Got through it alright though [1].

[1] 'cos I was registered as being in France, I got half an hour extra
for each exam.

 

£300 would barely cover the cost of the exams , so you aren't going to get
much for your money.
Also the MCSE certification was replaced when the 2008 exams were launched -
Im not sure if you can still do the 2003 exams.

 

Jesus

--


Nige,

BMW K1200S
Honda Transalp XL600V
Yamaha R1
Range Rover Vogue

 

No, he was pretty sane, just the followers are nuts.

 

Heheh, at the time it was mentally tough, but I learned quite a bit from it.
It's more geared to administration and support of MS products and setups as
opposed to programming. It is a worthwhile qualification to have in the IT
world.

It's nice to have the extra letters after my name too, if ICBA.

 

No, it's just the IT industry's attitude that anything can be done if
you just put another few hours in the day.

And that if you don't know what you're doing at the started you'll
pick it up.