Microsoft Certification Training

[Q]

I don't know really anything about this but I do know it's cheap. So what is recommended to take that will actually have a use in work? (I'm in college right now)

 

[RobsTV]

Does this path make sense:

With goal of cheapest way to get to MCITP.

1. Taking exam 70-271 and 70-272 to get MCDST
2. Then upgrade from MCDST to MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician, exam 70-621.

Quick look at practice tests, and thinking can pass MCDST without any courses.
Then with this deal, get Collection 5103 for training on upgrade exam 70-621.

3 exams. One collection.
end result:
MCDST
MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician
MCTS: Windows Vista as a bonus cert

Please correct me if this is wrong.

Thanks

EDIT: for those having trouble adding promo code or checking out, the only way it worked for me was to be signed into Live! and manually entering code as well as credit card info. Copy and paste and autofill would not allow it to work. Manual and all went through fine. Confirmed March 19th 9pm.

 

[RobsTV]

Originally posted by: ericlp
I wonder if they are doing this because of Win 7 coming in and vista going out?

Looks like they just need help fixing all that is already broken.

After I signed up yesterday, looked at my bank account today and see I have 17 pending charges for this (but all at $1.00 so far). I'm sure it will correct itself, but just goes to show you how terrible MS is.

Using WinXP SP2 along with their browser (IE7), on their website, to purchase their product, with their Live login method, and 17 charges instead of 1. You would think if any site would work correctly, it would be theirs.

And the best part is, while the training program selected now is in My Learning (shows expires June 17 2009), and can no longer be added to cart, it still does not work and is unaccessible. Plus, if I view my cart it is still there!

 

[fleshconsumed]

I'm a little late to the party, so I'll have to bump this thread as I have a couple of questions:


1. The text says collection is only available for 90 days. If I go to collection it says the subscription length is 3 years, if I use promo code the subscription length will only be valid for 90 days instead of 3 years, is this correct?
2. Can you save this E-Learning stuff on your hard drive for it to be available after 90 days?
3. It says limit one, besides Aztech and Thetech, has anyone had success ordering more than one collection at a discounted price?


Thanks

 

[RobsTV]

They screwed up on my billing, so I was not able to start courses.
Added to cart again yesterday, checked out, and worked fine this time.

In My learning, subscriptions, the purchase ($35 collection with code) show all the courses expiring Sept 2010, or in 18 months, not 90 days.

After confirming it was fine, I tried again, and like the others, was able to get another collection for $35.

Then, downloaded all the collections individual courses to my laptop for offline use.

So far it all seems to work great. total of 14 courses for $70.

Under account history it shows both collections purchased, with confirmation numbers, and price of $35 each collection after discount..

 

[fleshconsumed]

You're sort of confusing. Did you pay twice for the courses?

Also, you said you downloaded courses to your laptop for offline use, do you know if you can still use them after "expiration" date or do they have some form of DRM that prevents you from accessing those after 18 months?

 

[boomerang]

Thank you very, very much OP. This is a great deal. I just signed up for two courses. Thanks again!

 

[hifi]

Originally posted by: kimchee411

Originally posted by: CheapFlyer
Ericb,

Thanks for the info. I have been reading up on the A+, even though a lot of that is out of date, it's a good starting point. I think my next stop will be the MCDST. I do realize without a degree in IT (I have a BS in another field) I'm not going to be making any kind of decent money. Luckily, the job I got furloughed from will someday call me back. I just want to get started in the computer field and see where it takes me.

Again, thanks for your insight. Anyone other recommendations are welcomed!

You're on the right track with A+ and MCDST for a Helpdesk/Desktop position. Once you gain experience at that level and you want to go into Systems Administration/Engineering you should look into the MCITP certs. MCITP Server Administrator is essentially the new MCSA and MCITP Enterprise Engineer is the new MCSE. Also, virtualization is a hot commodity right now and the next big step in IT.

As for the money aspect, you probably won't make great money not because of your lack of a BS in IT, but because of your lack of experience. I don't know anybody in IT who has a BS in IT. In fact I've never even heard of a program offering a BS in IT. IT is not an academic field -- it's the practical application of Computer Science, and a CS degree is commonly what is desired... on paper, that is. In IT, what REALLY matters is experience and knowledge. "Fitting in" can often play an important role too. IT are usually laid back people who have a real passion for technology, and a lot of us are pretty lazy too =P... which is ironic because that laziness compels us to spend countless hours making things more efficient so we have to do less work.

Anyway with that said, if you like to play around with computers in your personal life, it makes perfect sense to pursue it in your professional life. IMHO what ultimately drives one's success is one's passion and truly enjoying one's work. You're going to be spending the majority of your life at work, so you better like it. I friggin love my job -- not too many people who can say that.

Best of luck to you!

I am a IT professional too and I second your opinion, especially the laid back part

 

[ALBundyHere]

Originally posted by: Linflas
Is this dead or is there a trick I am missing to get the Apply button to work?

Nevermind, I figured out that pasting it in was the problem.

Well, technically certification is a trick. When I was looking for an IT job, most if not all companies were looking for a degree. They cared nothing about certification. Some even laughed at me for showing it to them. I have long given up on IT. Its not worth this much trouble for such little salary.

 

[TallDude]

To me it seems to be a catch-22.. I have a BS in Computer Science... and in some of the interviews I went to, they were really looking for recent certifications. While my skills are up to date, I didn't have the certs, and I earned my degree in 1987. Fortunately my up to date skills landed me a job, my degree where I learned COBOL, VAX/VMS, Oracle (remember 1983-1987 timeframe), Pascal, and Assembly, would not have.

That being said, I did take advantage of the offer and got $1400 worth of training (that expires in 2012!) for 175! Awesome Deal!

 

[tfcmasta97]

Originally posted by: RobsTV
Does this path make sense:

With goal of cheapest way to get to MCITP.

1. Taking exam 70-271 and 70-272 to get MCDST
2. Then upgrade from MCDST to MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician, exam 70-621.

Quick look at practice tests, and thinking can pass MCDST without any courses.
Then with this deal, get Collection 5103 for training on upgrade exam 70-621.

3 exams. One collection.
end result:
MCDST
MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician
MCTS: Windows Vista as a bonus cert

Please correct me if this is wrong.

Thanks

EDIT: for those having trouble adding promo code or checking out, the only way it worked for me was to be signed into Live! and manually entering code as well as credit card info. Copy and paste and autofill would not allow it to work. Manual and all went through fine. Confirmed March 19th 9pm.

Two questions:

1) anyone know how long this deal will be going on for

and

2) would these certs actually be useful for those looking to get an entry level position with an unrelated degree

 

[XiZiT]

Two questions:

1) anyone know how long this deal will be going on for

and

2) would these certs actually be useful for those looking to get an entry level position with an unrelated degree

2. Any Microsoft degree is far and beyond what one needs to attain an entry level position. I would say that 2-3 CompTIA cert = 1 MCP cert. But it's also specific to the position. If you are going for Help Desk IT (entry level) an A+ and Netowrk+ is equal to 1 Microsoft cert (70-29x) exam. But that's for Help Desk. Network Administration you definately need A+, Network+ for starters. An MCP cert that's not on a path of MCSE won't help.

However, if you have no degree and even worse NO IT experience (at least 3-5 years), beating your chest that you have a certification or two but no experience to back that up is utterly useless.

 

[elkinm]

Mine keeps saying the program is un-available at the moment when I try to add a means of payment.

I tried adding collection 2278.

Anybody else have this issue. I am looking for the most comprehensive and complete collection for server 2003 or later. Any other good collections that work fine?

Thanks for the deal.

 

[XiZiT]

Originally posted by: elkinm
Mine keeps saying the program is un-available at the moment when I try to add a means of payment.

I tried adding collection 2278.

Anybody else have this issue. I am looking for the most comprehensive and complete collection for server 2003 or later. Any other good collections that work fine?

Thanks for the deal.

Had same problem with a similar Server 2003 offering. It's been about 8 days since I reported it to Microsoft and each time they want additional personal information or are "escalating" the issue. I'm at the step now where they will contact me by phone. Still waiting...

Good luck and let me know if you resolve it before MS gets back to me.

 

[lxskllr]

Sorry to seem so helpless here, but what collection would be a good start for someone trying to get into an IT help desk position? Like an earlier poster, I have a fair amount of experience in a home environment, but no professional experience. Even though this price is great, I don't have much extra money due to being on unemployment. I'd rather not get a package that goes over most of the information I already know, and I also don't want to get something that's over my head, or not really pertinent to my goals(help desk).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :^)

 

[MrMaster]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Sorry to seem so helpless here, but what collection would be a good start for someone trying to get into an IT help desk position? Like an earlier poster, I have a fair amount of experience in a home environment, but no professional experience. Even though this price is great, I don't have much extra money due to being on unemployment. I'd rather not get a package that goes over most of the information I already know, and I also don't want to get something that's over my head, or not really pertinent to my goals(help desk).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :^)

What people are trying to say here is you should have some type of CS degree and if you don't have that then you better have some certifications. Otherwise, your chances of landing a IT help desk position are low.

It isn't what you know, it's what piece of paper you hold.

 

[kimchee411]

Originally posted by: MrMaster

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Sorry to seem so helpless here, but what collection would be a good start for someone trying to get into an IT help desk position? Like an earlier poster, I have a fair amount of experience in a home environment, but no professional experience. Even though this price is great, I don't have much extra money due to being on unemployment. I'd rather not get a package that goes over most of the information I already know, and I also don't want to get something that's over my head, or not really pertinent to my goals(help desk).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :^)

What people are trying to say here is you should have some type of CS degree and if you don't have that then you better have some certifications. Otherwise, your chances of landing a IT help desk position are low.

It isn't what you know, it's what piece of paper you hold.

Actually, I was saying the opposite.

 

[jzodda]

Sorry to seem so helpless here, but what collection would be a good start for someone trying to get into an IT help desk position? Like an earlier poster, I have a fair amount of experience in a home environment, but no professional experience. Even though this price is great, I don't have much extra money due to being on unemployment. I'd rather not get a package that goes over most of the information I already know, and I also don't want to get something that's over my head, or not really pertinent to my goals(help desk). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :^)

I think you should do the MCDST and I think there is a link to that package somewhere in this thread. Then upgrade it to Vista if you like since there is one of those for $35 also. I think that link was in the first post.

Then take A+ cert which is 3 exams (I think 602-604) if I am not mistaken.

Then you should be fine for help desk entry level. Once you start you can game plan what other certs to go for and the job itself can help with that possibly or give you clues. For A+ you won't find anything in those packages though.

 

[Darvil]

is this deal over? I can't check out with the code. I get an Error.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: jzodda



I think you should do the MCDST and I think there is a link to that package somewhere in this thread. Then upgrade it to Vista if you like since there is one of those for $35 also. I think that link was in the first post.

Then take A+ cert which is 3 exams (I think 602-604) if I am not mistaken.

Then you should be fine for help desk entry level. Once you start you can game plan what other certs to go for and the job itself can help with that possibly or give you clues. For A+ you won't find anything in those packages though.

Thanks a lot for the insight. Do you think there's much of interest in the MCDST package? I can work around XP fairly well, but I don't know everything of course.

I found a website with free A+ training videos, but I've only watched a couple so far. They're quite boring, and so far have gone over everything I already know. I want to watch them all though, as I don't want to miss anything. I took a practice A+ exam online, but I failed it :^D In fairness I blitzed through it, and didn't put any time in thinking of the questions. I just wanted an idea of what kind of questions I could expect. They're still going over Win95 stuff :^/

If anyone else is interested in the videos, check them out here...

http://www.professormesser.com...ent&view=article&id=43

 

[CheapFlyer]

For people having trouble using the SECONDSHOT code, make sure what you are trying to buy is a "collection".

I was a little bummed, because I wanted the two MCDST courses, but they are not part of a collection.

If I am wrong, please let me know.

-CF

 

[q011519]

I bought the exam 70-431 package but for some reason it doesn't show up in my e-learning as a course I can take. Does it take time to process before I can take the classes? Thanks for any help.

 

[Darvil]

I am buying a collection this one (https://www.microsoftelearning...x?offerPriceId=220261) specifically.

I am using IE too just to be sure. Can't check out. Get the error "An error occurred while processing your request. Please try again later. "

 

[MrMaster]

The discount on this item is no longer available. Subtotal
$255.99

This is what I get when I view my cart after the error message. This sucks!

 

[Darvil]

Finally got the IIS 7 collection!!!! Great deal. Thanks!

It finally came through