Are these qualifications worth going for?

Guru · 28 Jun 2007 at 22:47

MCSA

MCSE

and

CCNA

Anyone any views or experience on these or the type of job opportunities available to me if I go for them?

Cheers,

G

oddjob62 · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:00

Are we talking about JUST the qualifications, or do you have relevant experience as well?

Oblivious · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:00

No opportunities and no point if you haven't got the relevant experience to back them up.

Microsoft have changed their qualification structure recently anyway, and CCNA is ten a penny.

Guru · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:14

A company has offered to train me up with those qualifications and start me on 20k so I can get some experience.

riddler · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:16

sounds like a decent offer :|

** what company is that?!?!? **

Rotty · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:16

the Cisco certs are the much better bet though CCNA really ought to be used as a starting point towards the higher ones

Guru · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:20

riddler said:
sounds like a decent offer :|

** what company is that?!?!? **

Not sure if you are being sarcastic as the ":|" confuses me, but I think it sounds like a good offer providing I can secure it

I can tell you more on Monday hopefully

The offer is provisional, I have an interview on Saturday

Wish me luck lol

riddler · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:21

i had an interview for a similar posistion...

18k train me up

didn't get it though! learnt a lot from the interview though

utajoker · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:22

hope its not one of them things were u pay them £5000 and they train you then garentee a job, my friend went for one of them, had 3 training sesions then never heard from them again

oddjob62 · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:24

Guru said:
Not sure if you are being sarcastic as the ":|" confuses me, but I think it sounds like a good offer providing I can secure it

I can tell you more on Monday hopefully

The offer is provisional, I have an interview on Saturday

Wish me luck lol

I'm pretty sure he's not being sarcastic.
the MCSE and CCNA are decent quals if you actually understand and can use all the knowledge that they require.
I have known a CCNA who have no idea how to reset a cisco router password, and an MCSE with Messaging who had never heard of Recovery Storage Groups.

Best of luck. Sounds like a good opportunity.

Guru · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:26

utajoker said:
hope its not one of them things were u pay them £5000 and they train you then garentee a job, my friend went for one of them, had 3 training sesions then never heard from them again

I don't know tbh, it was from an ad in the paper so I suppose that could be a possibility, but I will be telling them to **** right off should that be the case.

I figure there is no harm in going for the interview though

The company in the advert in the paper was simply called "UK IT Training"

oddjob62 · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:26

utajoker said:
hope its not one of them things were u pay them £5000 and they train you then garentee a job, my friend went for one of them, had 3 training sesions then never heard from them again

I went on one of those 4 years ago, got a job (through them) straight after, and still contact them whenever i am job hunting.

Guru · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:28

oddjob62 said:
I'm pretty sure he's not being sarcastic.
the MCSE and CCNA are decent quals if you actually understand and can use all the knowledge that they require.
I have known a CCNA who have no idea how to reset a cisco router password, and an MCSE with Messaging who had never heard of Recovery Storage Groups.

Best of luck. Sounds like a good opportunity.

Cool, I really hope so

I am actually already beginning to despise working for the NHS. The only reason I am still here with them is because I am having them fast-track all the surgery I need on my arm. Hence applying for the job in the 1st place lol

But mum's the word on that one LOL

Dist · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:28

the advantage of the microsoft certifications is that if you ever decide to study towards a ICT degree with the OU (like me) you can use that certification to count for part of the degree.

oddjob62 · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:33

Guru said:
Cool, I really hope so

I am actually already beginning to despise working for the NHS. The only reason I am still here with them is because I am having them fast-track all the surgery I need on my arm. Hence applying for the job in the 1st place lol

But mum's the word on that one LOL

Hmmm i googled "UK IT Training", and the site doesn't look too promising.

Their courses seem to be geared to windows 2000, and imo for a company who apparently teaches web design... the site is a bit... shoddy.

Guru · 29 Jun 2007 at 00:06

Have to admit their website isn't overly impressive, but I think I'll go for the interview to find out more regardless

Would be sweet to get a job out of it!

Oh yeah, on another note, how much would these qualifications cost me if I was paying it all myself?

Solari · 29 Jun 2007 at 00:20

Oblivious said:
CCNA is ten a penny.

I'd contest that view - this was true at one point, but Cisco reviewed the exam structure, and the CCNA is now a lot more difficult.

Anyhow.. I have never bothered with the CCNA and am doing networks as my primary job function - tbh the experience I've gained from working with Telcos is far more helpful.

Only IT qualification I've done is Sun Certified Systems Admin. Was useful but doesn't teach you enough "real life" stuff - scripting skills and day to day sysadmin experience again, is far more useful.

InvaderGIR · 29 Jun 2007 at 00:31

What peeves me about getting jobs in IT is that they all require experience, but how do you get the experience if you don't have a job in the direction you want to go in. :confused:

Anyhoo, on topic, my girlfriend is doing one of those learn at home things, from some completely random unheard of company (to me anyways...maybe it's one of those ones you see on Sky every now and then). Personally I see no point in training with a company that is unheard of, I'd rather go by someone that I know is a company that does things like that, like the OU.

As has been said, that webby looks rather dubious though (as does the one for my gf's company - I forgotton the name though).

InvG

Dist · 29 Jun 2007 at 01:03

InvaderGIR said:
What peeves me about getting jobs in IT is that they all require experience, but how do you get the experience if you don't have a job in the direction you want to go in.

that annoys me too, and since i dont have gcses or a levels (but studying for a degree with the OU) i will have an even harder time getting that initial experience. Which is why over the next few years during my degree im getting fit so that when i finish my degree one option for me (which im seriously considering) is joining the army with the corps of signals, since the army doesnt require experience to join, but it does give good experience and the chance to pick up some good qualifications along the way. But i guess saying this isnt realy helpfull as joining the army deffently isnt everyones cup of tea.

InvaderGIR · 29 Jun 2007 at 01:10

Dist said:
that annoys me too, and since i dont have gcses or a levels (but studying for a degree with the OU) i will have an even harder time getting that initial experience. Which is why over the next few years during my degree im getting fit so that when i finish my degree one option for me (which im seriously considering) is joining the army with the corps of signals, since the army doesnt require experience to join, but it does give good experience and the chance to pick up some good qualifications along the way. But i guess saying this isnt realy helpfull as joining the army deffently isnt everyones cup of tea.

Nope, certainly isn't mine.

Luckily for me I am actually at uni, but in my summer off I wanted to get an IT techie job, even with 1 years learning under my belt I can't get anythng, and doubt I can till after my placement year...which is the main thing that'll get me a job after uni I recon, as it'll give me that starting experience, the degree it'self may help a bit, but not a huge amount.

I did originally want to do IT Techie stuff without uni, but realised I had to go, even just for IT experience at some point along the line.

InvG