ITIL Foundation Course

Fluke?

Fluke?

Fluke?

Associate
Joined
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South Glos
Hi all,
I want to finally get a basic ITIL qualification as it seems to be prerequisite for most jobs I look at (2nd/3rd line support team leader) and was wondering if anyone could recommend any free/cheap online resource that I can digest a bit before I take the course? Also there seem to be masses of companies offering the courses and exams but have no idea which ones are any good.. Any recommendations?

I would ideally take an online course that I can study in my own time.

TIA!
 
What’s your experience with IT?

I did the ITIL foundation a number of years ago (think it was 2011) and I just bought the official book off Amazon, read it a couple of times then took the exam. It’s not difficult, it’s a multiple choice exam.
 
I do that role now in education but outside of edu similar roles are being advertised for 25-50% more than my current salary. I feel like I'm coasting atm.
Thanks though I'd not even considered something as old skool as a book from amazon!
 
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Fluke? said:
I do that role now in education but outside of edu similar roles are being advertised for 25-50% more than my current salary. I feel like I'm coasting atm.
Thanks though I'd not even considered something as old skool as a book from amazon!
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If you’ve got a decent idea of how IT works in business you should be fine with just a book and self-study.
 
I second what @Stu999 said. I did the course loooong time ago. Cannot remember how long the course was but it felt like a 6 hour course crammed into 4 days - if you get my drift. You'll be fine!
 
I did v3 in a 3 day course (laid on by work), with the exam on the third day. Wasn't difficult, got 100% but it's worth bearing in mind I'm especially adept at these sorts of exams where the content is so simple their only option for making it challenging is to catch you out with phrasing. Might sound like a brag/something everyone is good at but some people really get messed up by this sort of stuff even if they know the content so worth knowing. It's not exactly expensive, no harm in cramming it over a week of evenings or a weekend and then giving it a go.
 
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I did v4 in a 3 day course a few months after it was released.

In the group I was in nobody got 100% a couple failed. A few of the more senior colleagues failed it a few months later too.

It’s very dry. Does anybody actually follow ITIL completely?

I found the SDI courses more real world like.
 
ITIL isn't difficult, its just boring AF. I passed mine a few years back before they started adding expiry dates on the certs.

None of the companies I have worked for followed ITIL completely or even Agile.
 
Did ITIL v3 Foundation and Practitioner.

Then did the ITIL v4 Bridge course and looking at doing another this year.

They're pretty dry, not "difficult" and a lot of terminology or process to be remembered but look okay on CV.
 
Vanquish-Storm said:
I did v4 in a 3 day course a few months after it was released.

In the group I was in nobody got 100% a couple failed. A few of the more senior colleagues failed it a few months later too.

It’s very dry. Does anybody actually follow ITIL completely?

I found the SDI courses more real world like.
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The point of frameworks like ITIL is you don't need to follow them completely. You pick the bits you need as and when they become required.

The exam is dry. I'd get current employer to send you on a 3 day bootcamp.
 
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dLockers said:
The point of frameworks like ITIL is you don't need to follow them completely. You pick the bits you need as and when they become required.

The exam is dry. I'd get current employer to send you on a 3 day bootcamp.
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I can never see how you can pick bits from a lifecycle though? If you take say half of it do you just fill the other half with your own method?
 
Thanks for the replies all. I've purchased a few books and videos so will start swatting up on those for a while. It does all seem incredibly drab but will hopefully be worth it if only for something to add to the CV!
 
I had to do it for work. Did a 3 day course online, the last day was mostly prep for the exam. There's a phone app that you can get. I mostly used that to keep going over the questions. I passed easily enough but then if you've any experience in IT service desks is all obvious stuff. The only difficulty is the proprietary terminology which is dull stuff to remember. It's like everyone in your family swapped first name and you've to have two hour boring conversation using their swapped name, no mistakes.

A colleague didn't pass but they had zero experience in IT or service desks.

Will I use any of it. Very unlikely. We have a busy service desk and management mostly ignore it as much as they can.
 
Yes, ITIL is one of those certs "I have it because my company put me on the course" I think because AXELOS is an UK company, they actively approach companies to pick up ITIL, sort of like an tick box exercise for them. But I could be wrong.

But its not one of those certs many people activity do because they have an general interest in the model unlike Cisco, Microsoft or Amazon certs which are technical and more interesting.
 
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I did Foundation years ago and the course and subject matter was so incredibly boring that I struggled to take it all in. I’d been told it was easy but I was genuinely concerned I wouldn’t pass because I had so little interest in the subject matter. I did pass though. Just.

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One of our other employees failed and tried to keep it a secret from management. That was only part of his downfall, he had other things already against him but telling porkies like that tipped him over the edge and he was dismissed.

There’s a lot to take in for ITIL Foundation. It’s easy to get overconfident and fail this one.

Vanquish-Storm said:
I found the SDI courses more real world like.
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I enjoyed the SDI courses I did. I like that there are two levels and ‘extreme mastery’ or whatever its called wasn’t difficult for me to achieve.

malachi said:
I passed mine a few years back before they started adding expiry dates on the certs.
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When did they add that? I did mine in 2016 and I don't think there's any expiry date on the certificate. I really hope not.
 
Foundation is very easy but still very boring. I done a course years ago when I was at my first job, thought I had the qual but was mistaken but it was on my CV when I applied for another job and they wanted all my certs to be sent. I paid for the exam, got the phone app to do practise tests and passed it the next day, I wouldn't spend any money on it really - just put "Experienced with ITIL Frameworks and Best Practise" or something
 
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