MCSA Career Training - Thoughts
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by: Jason Kendall
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Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 Time: 11:17 AM
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Both if you're a beginner, or an experienced technician looking to gain acknowledged certifications, there are interactive MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) courses to cater for both student levels.
To become certified at the level of MCSA it's necessary to achieve pass marks in four MCP's (Microsoft Certified Professional exams). For a newcomer to the industry, it's likely you'll be required to improve your skill-set prior to doing the first of the four MCP's. Find a company that has industry experts who can identify the ideal program for you and will take care to start you at the right entry level.
What is the reason why traditional degrees are being replaced by more qualifications from the commercial sector?
With fees and living expenses for university students climbing ever higher, plus the industry's increasing awareness that accreditation-based training most often has much more commercial relevance, there's been a dramatic increase in CISCO, Adobe, Microsoft and CompTIA based training paths that provide key skills to an employee at a much reduced cost in terms of money and time.
Of course, a necessary amount of background detail needs to be learned, but essential specialisation in the particular job function gives a commercially educated person a huge edge.
Put yourself in the employer's position - and you wanted someone who could provide a specific set of skills. What should you do: Wade your way through reams of different degrees and college qualifications from hopeful applicants, struggling to grasp what they've learned and which commercial skills have been attained, or choose a specific set of accreditations that exactly fulfil your criteria, and draw up from that who you want to speak to. Your interviews are then about personal suitability - instead of long discussions on technical suitability.
Frequently, the everyday IT hopeful doesn't have a clue in what direction to head in a computing career, or even what sector they should look at getting trained in.
As in the absence of any previous experience in IT, in what way could we be expected to understand what a particular job actually consists of?
Contemplation on these points is most definitely required if you need to discover the right solution that will work for you:
* Personality factors and interests - what work-centred jobs you love or hate.
* Are you hoping to get certified for a specific motive - e.g. are you pushing to work based at home (self-employment possibly?)?
* What are your thoughts on salary vs job satisfaction?
* Considering all that computing encompasses, it's a requirement that you can understand the differences.
* You need to appreciate the differences between all the training areas.
When all is said and done, your only chance of covering these is through an in-depth discussion with an advisor who knows the industry well enough to lead you to the correct decision.
Of all the important things to consider, one of the most essential is always full 24x7 support through trained professional instructors and mentors. It's an all too common story to find providers that will only offer a basic 9am till 6pm support period (maybe later on certain days) with very little availability over the weekend.
Look for training where you can receive help at any time of day or night (even 1am on Sunday morning!) You'll need direct-access to qualified mentors and tutors, and not a message system as this will slow you down - consistently being held in a queue for a call-back at a convenient time for them.
The very best training providers use multiple support centres active in different time-zones. They use an online interactive interface to join them all seamlessly, at any time you choose, help is just seconds away, without any problems or delays.
Never make do with less than you need and deserve. Direct-access 24x7 support is the only viable option when it comes to IT training. It's possible you don't intend to study late evenings; often though, we're out at work at the time when most support is available.
Accredited exam preparation and simulation materials are crucial - and absolutely ought to be sought from your training company.
Confirm that the mock exams are not only asking questions from the right areas, but also asking them in the way the real exams will structure them. This throws students if the questions are phrased in unfamiliar formats.
Always ask for testing modules so you'll be able to test your comprehension whenever you need to. Practice exams help to build your confidence - so the actual exam is much easier.
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