Self Teaching MCDST

Sash

Sash

Sash

Soldato
Joined
26 Dec 2008
Posts
3,388
Location
Edinburgh
I had made a thread a few months ago about considering moving into IT.
Just wondering if anyone has self taught themselves MCDST and which books/websites are best to use?

I dont have any business experience in the IT industry so am needing to get some qualifications to begin with.

I have looked into Computeach who seem to be very expensive (£1.6k to get MCDST -> MCSE/MCSA) for the year. So that is not an option.
 
Microsoft Press. Also look at getting Technet plus subscription as that solves your software needs for a year. The books can be found for a reasonable price by searching for the exam number on your favourite online bookstore.

Be warned though that most employers will look at the qualification without experience and bin your CV. MSITP qualifications are great supplements to experience but not so great without as the employer (in my experience) will asssume you just did ActualTests or the like to pass.
 
RDM said:
Microsoft Press. Also look at getting Technet plus subscription as that solves your software needs for a year. The books can be found for a reasonable price by searching for the exam number on your favourite online bookstore.

Be warned though that most employers will look at the qualification without experience and bin your CV. MSITP qualifications are great supplements to experience but not so great without as the employer (in my experience) will asssume you just did ActualTests or the like to pass.
Click to expand...

Thats the problem, cant get experience without the exams because they wont hire you, cant get a job without experience.
 
Im finishing the first half of my DST at the moment. As an exam it focuses mainly on workgroup situations so you can learn at home and use a VM if needed to run XP. Good way in if needed, I have experience in support but my company likes qualifications so I just work my way through them etc.

Either way it's a good one to start with, just use the books from MS Press

- Pea0n
 
Currently for me it is "can't get a job with both experience and exams" but that is just the state of the market around here at the moment. If you are looking to get in to IT as a non graduate the place to start would seem to be 1st Line Support and then work from there, or hope you get lucky with job interviews. Unfortunately with the job market as it is at the moment you will be going up against people with experience.
 
Pea0n said:
Im finishing the first half of my DST at the moment. As an exam it focuses mainly on workgroup situations so you can learn at home and use a VM if needed to run XP. Good way in if needed, I have experience in support but my company likes qualifications so I just work my way through them etc.

Either way it's a good one to start with, just use the books from MS Press

- Pea0n
Click to expand...

Thanks, will check them out.

RDM said:
Currently for me it is "can't get a job with both experience and exams" but that is just the state of the market around here at the moment. If you are looking to get in to IT as a non graduate the place to start would seem to be 1st Line Support and then work from there, or hope you get lucky with job interviews. Unfortunately with the job market as it is at the moment you will be going up against people with experience.
Click to expand...

Yeah I am taking a gamble that the recession will be over within the next year (lack of jobs-wise) so I am attempting to get the qualifications now and start looking sometime next year.
 
Did these qualifications about 5 years ago - using the official books. Wasn't too bad but I did have a lot of desktop experience at the time and then there were some questions phrashed in 'Microsoft' speech where all answers were technically correct yet they wanted the best one.



M.
 
Bumping this thread again. I managed to get the Sybex books and CD Rom.

What is the best Virtual Machine Program for use to learn the course? I don't want to format my main PC/laptop onto XP just for the course and I don't have a spare laptop to put XP no.

Thanks :)
 
Thanks guys will check out VirtualBox.

On a related note, I have been looking into the MCTS - Windows 7 Configuring exam to also do, is this something worth doing instead of the Windows Vista exam?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom