Microsoft Certification

[ZakkWylde]

Has anyone on here done any microsoft certification stuff? I was reading about it today and found it interesting, could be useful on one's resume. Let me know what you think or what your experiences are.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-overview.aspx

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

My mom did it back in the day (like ms-DOS days) she said it was really easy, if you know how to use windows and trouble shoot you'll be fine, I'm sure it's about the same now.

 

[Darkleoco]

I've also heard from my programming teacher that it is very easy so I say it would be nice to just do and put on a resume.

 

[white phantom]

is this like the microsoft courses?

If yeah then i have done a couple of them the xp desktop support ones just last year actually with college a MCP and ehh some other one i cant quite remember oh and yeah they are really really really easy the full actual test can practically be found online on "learning resources" websites such you find someone who puts the latest version up then study that go in and repeat the questions on screen multi chocie ones, basically just remember the answers and yar jammin

p.s. if this isn't what your on about then sorry for the ramble

 

[ZakkWylde]

phantom what did it cost you? Did you prep at all? Is it multiple choice?

 

[Disparia]

At my previous company I did the initial interviewing for IT and was more interested at meeting the person, evaluating personality, skills, etc and not so much what your resume claimed. However, at many other companies, you will need some certifications just to get in the door because HR or Hiring does the initial screening and will judge you solely on your "paper specs".

In short, it will help you to have certifications.

At some point, I should get around to taking the tests myself, lol. I've taken courses in Windows Server Administration and MSSQL server, but I was already employed and they were paying for it so I only took certain courses to strengthen where I was weak.

 

[white phantom]

phantom what did it cost you? Did you prep at all? Is it multiple choice?

Well to be honest i couldn't tell you a real world cost as i sat my course through the college which had some deal with microsoft of only being £40 or £45 per test, this wasn't including the cost of course books however which again were around thirty quid or so for the lab book and the textbook package each test.

As for preperation we had half a year of using a virtual machine loaded with windows xp for each test, basically you read the lab manual book and worked through various wndows xp tasks from simple ones like configuring the taskbar to more advanced.

The actual tests however we prepared at home or free time by using visual cert exam mananger and the "study file" from testking,certkiller or sites like this, This turned out to be the actual test we were sitting so as i say we worked through the 100 odd questions learned them and went in to the actual test which was only 40 random of the "checky box" type. I done tests 70 271 and 70 272 if im not mistaken which are retired however since we were last to do them we get to keep the credability.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?id=70-271

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?id=70-272

Hope this is of some sort of help

 

[Frick]

My mom did it back in the day (like ms-DOS days) she said it was really easy, if you know how to use windows and trouble shoot you'll be fine, I'm sure it's about the same now.

That depends entirely on which cert you're talking about.

When I was at MS support you could take the cert's, I didn't because I wasn't there for too long, but some people did and it helped them. It was a very low paying job, so a lot of people were there for a couple of years, took all the certs they could and then moved on to a lot more high paying jobs.

Some of them was not that easy, according to my co workers (who were IT gods btw).

 

[CJCerny]

My mom did it back in the day (like ms-DOS days) she said it was really easy, if you know how to use windows and trouble shoot you'll be fine, I'm sure it's about the same now.

Depends on which certs you are talking about. The Microsoft IT certs are very tough and very expensive and the ones that are challenging are definitely worth it as far as your resume goes.

 

[Red_Machine]

I have the MCP and MCDST in Windows XP support. I got them free through a local college apprenticeship programme.

 

[ZakkWylde]

Alright sounds cool, was looking at maybe going for this sometime this summer.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcts.aspx

There are a ton of different exams though, was looking at maybe doing a general windows one and/or a microsoft word/office one.