Be Excellent To Each Other

I have decided to learn and go for my MCSE.

Is it worth doing?
I can get all the course guides from work for server 2003. 2008 is not there yet.

Should I do the 2003 stuff then look at upgrading to 2008 in the future?

Help!!

I think it largely depends on your objectives. If there are opportunities within your current company and you know that they have no immediate plans to upgrade then you might do better to stick with 2003 for now.

I don't believe there is or will be a 2008 MCSE. The certification is replaced by MCTS - Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist.

Cheers.. Can't find the MCTS stuff, but I will look in detail later.

It is not for a job, it is just so I can get a better understanding of the backend products, as currently I know nothing..

This has never been a boundary that beeXers fear to cross, young grasshopper.

Oh goodness, don't do an MCSE/TS for that.

In fact, HP run some fantastic training courses - can't you get on some of them really cheap, or anything?

That. If it's not going to help you in your day to day job, it's (almost) completely pointless.

Unless you want to get another job.

Every single person I've known that has one of these is full of wonderful theoretical knowledge about MS products (what's the minimum amount of RAM a certain version of windows needs blah blah blah), but not many of them actually know how to fix problems in a support situation.

I've been messing around with computers for about 20 years, never taken an exam (although I did buy some MCSE books for NT 4.0 (lol) as there was a chance that I could have got someone to pay for the course for me) I like to think I have quite a bit of knowledge about a lot of things, but occasionally I get stumped.

On one occasion I asked the guy with the MCSE in the office here (asking the actual IT Helpdesk is next to useless if you want an answer this month) absolutly clueless, but he was able to tell me some useless fact tangentially relevant to what I was doing but of no practical value. In the end I found what I wanted via some contrived google search string.

Malc

Yeah, that. Must Consult Someone Experienced, innit.

How often do all the standards change, out of interest?

Although, if you already have The Knowledge, it doesn't hurt to get it, as lots of wanky managerial types like seeing it on peoples' CVs.

There is that.

Malc

But the test's reliance on trivia, rather than shit that's actually useful to know, means you probably don't already know it.

Standards? You'll be lucky

It's called certification for a reason. It's not teaching you things, it's certifying that you know them.

@MaliA - every time the product set changes.

I mean, well, it's kinda tricky to put this poltiely, so I'm not trying to offend:

How long is it until your knowledge becoes obsolete, or is it more a gradual evolution, a grah chaped gracefully upwards like Antionette's boobies, as oppsoed to the stop/startedness of a flight of stairs graph?

Your knowledge never really becomes obsolete as long as you are working in that field, because you continue to learn on the job. If you learn it and then go do something else, you've got maybe 2-3 years before you're worthless.

Cool, ta. I'm not considering a career in it or anything, I jsut want a flash player to work.

Sorry that my knowledge of french history is only that Antoinette had ace tits as well.

Oh, no-one's ever been able to get flash player working. It's a myth.

Wrong thread.

Cheers, I was just going to follow the MCP guides we had..

There are some good HP guides on the interal e-libarary.

If you have some pointers, I would love the advice..

So, hijacking slightly, I've been given five days to take a training course - which one (or more) should I do? I work in 1st/2nd line supporting hardware/software/OS on Windows tablet computers. They're not much different to laptops/desktops except hardware-wise, though.

OK - It's all about DNS.

Learn networking and DNS, and all the AD/Windows Server stuff is totally simple.

Do you feel you need more training to do your job, or do you have an opportunity to branch out a bit to enhance your CV?

What software deployment/patching do you use? If it's SMS (Or System Center Configuration Manager or whatever it's called now), then knowing a good amount about that is a good marketable skill.

As a company we use SMS, but we don't tend to do much of the deployment of new software ourselves (we have a Desktop Engineering team who do all that). We tend to just add machines and users to install groups in AD and Bob's your uncle.

I guess I'd like to branch out and enhance my CV as I want to get into infrastructure as a medium term goal. I use AD a fair bit, but could probably do with knowing how it all fits together a bit better.

Cn i hv pay rse pls?

Ethernet cables, as a general rule.

We use SMS too..

And Radia to some of our customers... I do know the basics... but knowledge is good

Radia (->HP OVCM->HPCM) is a bit specialised, but worth knowing well if you have no plans to leave HP.

So (and Craster, I'm mainly looking in your direction), what specific courses would be good for someone in my kind of role? I could do a Vista course, I s'pose, but is there any point?

What area are you interested in?

If you want to do infrastructure stuff, then AD, DNS, and SMS are probably the big ones of value to you.

Yep, so can you think of any courses that would provide this? My searches have proved fruitless so far.

Actually, I've found some now. Arsingly, they're mostly 5 days and I have only four training days to take.

Skip the first day, it'll all be 'team building' and 'ice breakers'

You won't get one that covers all of it.

SMS/SCCM:
http://www.learningtree.co.uk/courses/uk965.htm

AD+DNS
http://www.learningtree.co.uk/courses/uk596.htm

FeeX

To be honest it'd doubtful I'll be able to push those through, as they have little relevance on my day job right now.