Which MS Certification(s)?

I have so far only taken my 70-640 Vista Exam but i'm looking to take some more.

Very near to being ready to take the 70-236 Configuring Exchange 2007 exam, I was going to take the Server 2008 exams but my job at the moment is more Exchange focused so I would like to get the Enterprise Messaging Admin exam collection done.
 
I wouldn't go paying for expensive courses / materials unless your company is paying for it.
If this is self study, you may find a lot of it available on usenet for "evaluation".
Just type in the course code 70-640 into newzbin or nzbmatrix and it should return a fair amount.
From your own pocket you should only be paying for the actual exams.

good luck :)
 
Big Chris said:
I think I'll start with the MCDST to get a feel for how the certification process works. Even that is £200 for the course then £88+VAT for each of the two exams.
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At most, pay for the books and read through yourself.
I found the 2 exams for the MCDST quite straightforward. As long as you have decent exposure to XP (who doesn't these days), then there's not much to go wrong.

Edit: Worth mentioning that after passing 1 exam you'll be an MCP and get some sort of certificate for that. :)
 
If you have previous experience you can get away with just reading the books and taking the exam, if you don't just reading the books will mean the exams are harder and you'l have no work related knowledge to back them up. Taking exams in areas that you're currently working will be your best bet.

MW
 
So are there specific books for each course module then? Or can you get various ones from different publishers as per GCSE/A level exams?

Are the other course materials easy to come by? Makes sense to save money on the materials then pay for the exams.
 
I have been looking into this myself I am in a similar position as big chris. Working in as an IT technician for 5 years but have no qualifications. I know my way around server 2003 and XP but would be nice to have some qualifications to enable me to move on to bigger and better things.

The distance learning/doing it on your own approach I am slightly wary as I am not sure I can be 100% focused and committed if not in a lab/classroom environment.

Can anyone recommend training schools in London? Doing a search on google for MCITP brings up a whole load of shady spam/crap websites.
 
QA have some training centres around London. However doing courses won't be a cheap way of doing it.
 
Christ, you're not kidding when you say they aren't cheap, the ones I looked at from QA seem to be 8 day express training. I may be able to get my work to pay for me but not when they are £5,000 per course.
 
Did the MCITP EA with Windows 7 rather than Vista, obviously. Really want to go back and do a couple of the MCTS's for SharePoint next though, that's on my list anyway :D

I also did the course for the MCSA but didnt do the exams as I didn't manage to get round to it.

QA were OK for like end user stuff and I did my ITIL with them but some things Ive done have been a bit sack with them
 
I am currently working towards exam 70-680 config win 7 :)

Not done any ms courses before.

£25 for the book and cd then when i am ready £88+vat for the exam.

Will move onto 70-640 and 70-642 next :)
 
Chap here went on the Firebrand MCITP EA course, cost about 6 or 7k and was 13 days straight. I know some others in the forum have done this as well.

Get the books and do it that way, unless work are paying :p

Also if your workplace has access to MS E Learning stuff you get some content for free. I know with the software assurance part of our EA we get access to some server E Learning content, not sure if it's enough to take one of the exams or not.
 
Ev0 said:
Chap here went on the Firebrand MCITP EA course, cost about 6 or 7k and was 13 days straight. I know some others in the forum have done this as well.

Get the books and do it that way, unless work are paying :p

Also if your workplace has access to MS E Learning stuff you get some content for free. I know with the software assurance part of our EA we get access to some server E Learning content, not sure if it's enough to take one of the exams or not.
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lol that might have been me... I did do it through them and that course. With discount managed to get it for like 6k but work paid, so you know, I went windmilling in :D

I actually found the windows 7 one the hardest :rolleyes: yea I know, but the rest are like networking and things like AD which is the same but the 7 one is all about the new features that are all in 7 and it for me more to learn than the others. Although typing it, it sounds retarded lol
 
Just finished M22762277 fasttrack today, looking forward to getting exam done before month end.
I think after MCSA has been achieved I'll look more into the upgrade exam for my DST, I doubt it will achieve much but its nice to get stuff up-to-date.

Hoping I get minor pay increase once I've achieved the SA... Are the "average salary" results per qualification online any use? I've got 2 and half years desktop/server experience and hold a (seemingly worthless) BSc in IST.
 
The thing is, it's not going to get you big bucks, but I found when there is so much competition for jobs anyway, it helps against those that have nothing on paper.
 
As said above, sadly general MS/AD admin stuff has people queuing out the door to apply for, so it keeps the salaries a bit lower.

These kind of certs will help a little, but even then there's still loads of competition.

Also some places might think why pay more for someone who has them when I can easily train someone up to do just the things I need them to and pay them less.

All depends on the job you are in/going for.
 
To get some basic quals under your belt, go for the A+ and MCDST. With a little experience in support, you'll basically just be paying for the CV space as the exams are so easy.

After that, take whatever path you wish to forge in your career. I'm working towards MCSA:Security at the mo.
 
I'm on track for MCSE, 4 down 3 to go (currently MCSA)

Been doing 1 exam every month, luckily work are paying :D

I think they're probably worth it, looking at most jobs I'd be interested in, a lot of them say it would be advantageous.

As my elective I took 70-680 windows 7 config. So if I fancy upgrading it's only 2 exams :)
 
How in the 9 hells did any of you get a 1st/2nd line support job *without* qualifications?

Down here (Cornwall), there are *IT graduates* going for those jobs. One employer I spoke to recently said when he was interviewing for a network admin *assitant* job, 1 guy even offered to work extra days for no pay, just to land the job. And this guy had been a network manager before he moved down to Cornwall...
 
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