Yet Another Thread About IT Certification

[Allen]

I am sure there has been many of these in the past, and there will be many of these in the future. I don't think GD is the right place for this thread, but since it's about multiple technologies it doesn't exactly fit in to any specific forum. (If any mod/admin disagrees, please move it to it's correct home )

I have been working in IT for a few years now, been working my way up from 1st line, to field engineer, to 2nd line and server support. I have worked frequently with technologies like MS, Linux, Cisco, HP, Dell, VMWare etc etc. I had a bit of bother getting work after losing my last job but have managed to, very luckily, land on my feet as a contractor at a very large blue chip organisation (calling them a household brand is an understatement, they are on par with the likes of Apple) working in Infrastructure Support doing anything and everything from 1st line to 3rd line. However, I think it would now be a good time to really bolster my CV with some major qualifications.

When my financial situation settles down in the next month or so, I will go straight ahead and get myself some Microsoft certifications, specifically 70-410, 70-411 and 70-412. I am confident that I have the knowledge and experience to pass these exams, although I will be purchasing a couple of e-books to brush up on them in case there is anything I am missing. This will accredit me with the MCSA certification to start off with and the rest of the MCSE exams can come later.

Next, I am thinking of getting my CCENT. Again, pretty standard, only one way to do it. Study, learn and pass the exam. I won't go straight for CCNA as I am not familiar enough with the technology yet and have only done specific things in different roles. CCNA can come later.

I would also love to study for some VMWare certifications, however, they are so expensive I will have to wait a few months/a year to save up for them. Or be very lucky with a company paying for it!

However, I have been looking around for some decent Linux qualifications and I can only find two that are not distribution specific, neither of which I know if they are well recognised. The first is CompTIA's Linux+ and the second is LPIC-1. After further investigation it looks like they are very similar, or support each other, or something. But would employers look at these qualifications on a CV and think "yes, he knows his stuff about Linux"?

I know this is a lot of studying to do, but I think it's far better than going for a degree as I was thinking about recently, and I can do these exams whilst working in a much shorter time span than a degree (part time degrees take 6 years, I am planning to do all or most of this over the next year or two).

So, fellow technical people, what are your thoughts on Linux qualifications? Worth the paper they are written on? Also, do you think doing so many qualifications is too much and I should concentrate on one area more than others?

[Splash]

Nothing to throw at you re the choice of certs, but if you can spare the cash I highly recommend looking at a subscription to Pluralsight: I pay about £35 a month (it's billed in USD, so it varies according to the exchange rate) which gets me unlimited access to all of their content, including offline access on my phone/tablet. They've got a whole host of stuff - it's part of my study towards doing VCP5-DV in Feb, and I'm also studying Exchange 2013 and the Server 2012 stuff you mentioned.

It may seem expensive (they do a free trial, so you can check them out with no obligation) but the training really is excellent if you're looking to put in a few hours a week on your own time (or even better if your company allow study time at work), and the offline player makes my morning commute so much more productive.


I know the above sounds kinda advert-y, but I'm honestly just a customer of theirs who is in a similar situation to yourself (ie working for a tech company and needing to get up to speed on a number of different subjects).

[Allen]

I highly recommend looking at a subscription to Pluralsight

That looks very interesting, I didn't know such a thing existed. And being able to study on multiple devices on and offline would be great for me, I currently waste 2-3 hours per day on a commute!

[Splash]

As I say, check 'em out. They've been on a bit of an acquisition spree of late (they acquired Trainsignal, which was my previous training site of choice) so they have a really good range of stuff including development if you want to round out your skillset.

Anyhoo, good luck with your studies!

[herulach]

I've no specific IT experience, but have recently completed some rather specialist banking exams, so I can probably contribute on the general principle - IT recruitment might be different of course.

Speak to recruiters about what is actually relevant to jobs. I was going to do one particular course, but speaking to a number of recruiters found it wasn't especially well regarded & instead I opted to do a number of smaller but more specialist qualifications. Most of these will earn exemptions from other things if I decide to study them further down the line, but have already done far more for me in terms of pay/promotions etc about 2 years before I'd complete the joblot.

If I were an IT recruiter I'd be sceptical of someone with lots of qualifications in different fields. Generalists are useful, but I think most people would think you'd be a bit of a jack of all trades.

Tl;Dr; speak to some recruitment consultants.

[Splash]

Speak to recruiters about what is actually relevant to jobs. I was going to do one particular course, but speaking to a number of recruiters found it wasn't especially well regarded & instead I opted to do a number of smaller but more specialist qualifications. Most of these will earn exemptions from other things if I decide to study them further down the line, but have already done far more for me in terms of pay/promotions etc about 2 years before I'd complete the joblot.

If I were an IT recruiter I'd be sceptical of someone with lots of qualifications in different fields. Generalists are useful, but I think most people would think you'd be a bit of a jack of all trades.

Tl;Dr; speak to some recruitment consultants.

Not necessarily bad advice, but my experience of IT recruiters is pretty much that they don't necessarily care about certs *unless* a client is specifically requesting it. Also re generalisation: (and again, this is just my personal experience) I'm seeing more and more generalisation required, at least at the base level. It's often a good idea to get some experience in network, compute and storage and then look to focus on a specific area (I'm currently running through the Storage+ to get myself a little more understanding of storage in general)

[Jay]

I am doing my CCNA again... they have changed the course again so I had to buy more books. I have found Cisco to be a vital part of my armory even though now I mainly deal with Wintel / VMware / NetApp in the datacenter. Its good to see an issue and be able to sit down with the comms guys and have a really good idea what the hell is going on. It also stops the comms guys fobbing off comms issues as wintel issues

Splash I thought for VCP taking a classroom course was mandatory to get the cert.

[Splash]

Splash I thought for VCP taking a classroom course was mandatory to get the cert.

It is, but while there are a few VMware courses that can form the pre-requiste for the exam none of them cover everything in the blueprint. I'd rather only have to sit one course (as would my employer, since they're paying) but make sure I have all the knowledge needed for the exam.

[Jay]

I would love a vcp but the cost is way too high for me.

[Splash]

I would love a vcp but the cost is way too high for me.

Indeed, seems I've somewhat landed on my feet with that rarity: a company that wants to develop it's staff

[BlackDwarf]

But, the VCA-DCV exam is not only a piece of biscuit if you've even looked at VMware vCenter, but also looks better than nothing on your CV, and I did it the other weekend for free with some random code I found online.

[Splash]

But, the VCA-DCV exam is not only a piece of biscuit if you've even looked at VMware vCenter, but also looks better than nothing on your CV, and I did it the other weekend for free with some random code I found online.

That's true (it's a pretty easy cert with a free online training course and a relatively cheap exam that you can sit anywhere with an internet connection). The free exam codes have been expired, but you can still get them for half price (so working out at £40) using VMRT4B425324 - I've done VCA-DCV, VCA-Cloud and VCA-WM, and will probably do VCA-Network when they release the exam.

[Lucio]

This may sound flippant or obvious, but make sure whatever you're studying that it has direct relevancy to what you are currently doing. You'll learn the information a lot faster, if you can draw parrallels with your existing work, and find ways to start attempting to apply the new knowledge in your day to day tasks.

In terms of qualifying on Linux, consider again where you would use the knowledge, is it something that you will use regularly enough to both stay current, and that you can use in your current (or future) roles.

[Chris-UK]

Indeed, seems I've somewhat landed on my feet with that rarity: a company that wants to develop it's staff

Its always worth asking your employer the question though. I did and my employer has supported me through various Open Uni courses and now Microsoft MCSA. In return I agree that if I leave within 12 months of my own accord then I will repay any costs. Originally I was aiming for an Open Uni degree but due to timescales it was not feasible to complete before the earlier courses expire.

Worth mentioning Microsoft Virtual Academy which I came across via the Dreamspark website.

[Allen]

That's true (it's a pretty easy cert with a free online training course and a relatively cheap exam that you can sit anywhere with an internet connection). The free exam codes have been expired, but you can still get them for half price (so working out at £40) using VMRT4B425324 - I've done VCA-DCV, VCA-Cloud and VCA-WM, and will probably do VCA-Network when they release the exam.

Awesome, I might do the VCA-Cloud soon then! Do you know when that code expires?

This may sound flippant or obvious, but make sure whatever you're studying that it has direct relevancy to what you are currently doing. You'll learn the information a lot faster, if you can draw parrallels with your existing work, and find ways to start attempting to apply the new knowledge in your day to day tasks.

In terms of qualifying on Linux, consider again where you would use the knowledge, is it something that you will use regularly enough to both stay current, and that you can use in your current (or future) roles.

Well, my current role has me working with all of the technologies listed in my OP, so yes they are all relevant to me.

[Jay]

Just did the VCA-DCV and passed it without doing any reading. As long as you know basic vcenter, vDS, vSS, OPs Manager, DRS, VMotion, SDRS, HA, FT you will pass without any problems.

Also don't forget that vmotion is now supported without shared storage.