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I have successfully landed a pretty cushy university job doing your typical deployment and troubleshooting/break-fix work. Very nice environment wherein I'm essentially free to go for whatever certifications appeal to me and the cost of the first test is covered by my employer. All else equal (though factoring the amount of studying required for each), for someone who already holds the esteemed A+/Network+ certifications, which would you say to go for first between MCSA (70-680 + 70-685/686), Security+, or ICND1? I'm leaning toward doing them pretty much in the order I've listed (MCSA --> Security+ --> ICND1 (and then ICND2)), as my on-the-job work is pretty good study for the MCSA. After that, my CompTIA certs would expire next year, so I'd kinda like to refresh them and I have an interest in information security anyway. And finally, CCNA's always been a goal. Sound logic? There's no real push for me to get any particular certs so I'm just wanting to do what sounds interesting and useful. P.S.: When does the 70-680 exam retire, anyway? I thought it was due this year but I can't find anything about it going away.
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Jun 5, 2014 23:03
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OhDearGodNo posted:Thank you, I'll pick that up. Your course days would better be spent with you logging on to the training room, then going to another room and reading proper prep materials. If VMware really does go by a standard set of training to all its authorized partners, it's probably a lot more worth going through the books. I used this one and passed the VCP on the first try: http://www.amazon.com/VMware-Certified-Professional-vSphere-Study/dp/1118181123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402066795&sr=8-1&keywords=sybex+vcp If you're doing the 5.5 VCP exam, I'd expect its 5.5 counterpart would be just as good: http://www.amazon.com/VCP5-DCV-Cert...words=sybex+vcp Japanese Dating Sim posted:I have successfully landed a pretty cushy university job doing your typical deployment and troubleshooting/break-fix work. Very nice environment wherein I'm essentially free to go for whatever certifications appeal to me and the cost of the first test is covered by my employer. I've avoided getting ICND1/ICND2 simply because I don't want to do networking - I'd rather do server/sysadmin and work for companies that do realize networking and sysadmin are separate skill sets that each deserve their own professional attention. That said, given my wariness of being thrown into two pools and expected to swim in both, I'd say get the MCSA and Sec+. N+ and A+ probably aren't worth taking the time to refresh - I don't think many employers even verify current status of someone's certs. If you have an interest in networking, I'd skip the MCSA and focus on Sec+, then ICND1/2 and see where down the Cisco path of infosec that takes you. I haven't really delved too much into pure infosec but stuff like CEH and other pentesting exams might be useful too. The MS exams do have a strong security component - Windows permissions are a big enough chunk of stuff to remember, along with all the protocol security and stuff. I wouldn't go into infosec solely with an MCSA from what I've seen of the exams and done with it, but IIRC more security-related certs hold greater sway down that path. YMMV - there are far more knowledgeable people on the Cisco side in this thread than me. MJP fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 16:00
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MJP posted:I've avoided getting ICND1/ICND2 simply because I don't want to do networking - I'd rather do server/sysadmin and work for companies that do realize networking and sysadmin are separate skill sets that each deserve their own professional attention. Maybe I'm nitpicking you too much but I kinda disagree with this. Not in that systems and networking aren't two different fields--they absolutely are. But even as a full-time sysadmin, knowing CCENT/N+ level fundamentals about networking is very valuable in terms of troubleshooting and designing systems. This doesn't mean you're logging into routers and switches to edit configs, but I like to know at a basic level how and why bits are flowing into and out of my systems. Is it really a good use of the neteng's time to come look at your server and tell you the reason it can't ping Host A is you messed up the subnet mask or it is missing a route? I've used tcpdump and Wireshark to diagnose countless problems, which wouldn't be possible if I threw any problem involving an IP address over the wall. If I didn't understand NAT and HTTP, I'd have worthless Apache access logs because every request would look like it came from our firewall. Etc. None of these are tasks I consider "doing networking" but they require some networking knowledge to perform. There's also the fact that unless you're at a larger organization, most places can't justify a full-time network person. It's going to fall on the sysadmins. You may not be interested in working for those companies and that's fine, but newbies should be aware of it. Most every SMB sysadmin job is going to have networking duties in the description. Maybe you don't need to actually have your CCNA, but you better be able to answer "what is a VLAN?" and "what is the difference between a router and a switch?" at the interview. Basically I don't consider CCENT/CCNA to be at the "network specialization" level, to me that's more CCNP and higher.
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Jun 6, 2014 16:53
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What Doc said. When I started doing SysAdmin work, I was strictly Windows/Application/Anything but networking. Got into VMware and storage stuff and still didn't know too much about networking. I am about 6 months into taking over all the networking stuff at my current job, and have realized even more now than ever before how beneficial it is. It really does tie everything together and knowing it well (even if you don't like it) will expand your skillset tremendously. 6 months ago if anyone asked me, I would love to say that "I am not a network guy". Now after 6 months, our poo poo has been running without unplanned outages for some time (WTF was the old dude doing?!?!?). I still have a lot of cleanup and optimization ahead, but I know when I leave here, I will be in a much better place vs sticking with the "I am not a network guy" attitude. Edit: It also isn't rocket science (none of this poo poo we are doing is). It is simple to use google, build a little lab with some old equipment at work, then start moving forward.
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Jun 6, 2014 17:13
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Docjowles posted:Maybe I'm nitpicking you too much but I kinda disagree with this. Not in that systems and networking aren't two different fields--they absolutely are. But even as a full-time sysadmin, knowing CCENT/N+ level fundamentals about networking is very valuable in terms of troubleshooting and designing systems. This doesn't mean you're logging into routers and switches to edit configs, but I like to know at a basic level how and why bits are flowing into and out of my systems. Is it really a good use of the neteng's time to come look at your server and tell you the reason it can't ping Host A is you messed up the subnet mask or it is missing a route? I've used tcpdump and Wireshark to diagnose countless problems, which wouldn't be possible if I threw any problem involving an IP address over the wall. If I didn't understand NAT and HTTP, I'd have worthless Apache access logs because every request would look like it came from our firewall. Etc. None of these are tasks I consider "doing networking" but they require some networking knowledge to perform. I would argue that sysadmins should have nothing to do with the traffic on which their systems operate. Knowing the structure of, say, an EDI application - which one's the transport server, which one's the DMZ server, which DB it talks to and what to do in case of situation X, Y, or Z - is what a sysadmin should be doing. Setting up the ports and routing/switching to get the traffic from the DMZ to the private network, and from point A to point B within the private network, is all networking. I'm not saying sysadmins should never study and learn networking. Far from it. Yeah, it's beneficial - but I'm in a tiny organization and we have an outsourced network admin to save on the sysadmin budget. It allows me to focus on projects, escalated tickets, documentation, etc. You'd be surprised how many job postings require MCSA and CCNA to even apply for the role, and list network design alongside systems administration. Too many companies of all sizes suffer from the delusion of the IT unicorn. I would say that rather than fueling that delusion and pushing the bar higher and higher, we should segment out tasks as sysadmins and network admins for sanity's sake. If nobody ever says "here is why it is a bad idea to have an expectation of a sysadmin that is also a network admin" (or vice versa) it means to move up you're gonna have an even higher barrier of entry. Plus, to be honest, the math part of network administration is so all-encompassing - that's a real intimidating factor. If you're using Wireshark and other tools as a diagnostic, it's already enough of a suspicion of a network issue to involve a networking resources. "Jake, I can't ping this server, and traceroute dies at the switch to it - anything I should be checking here?" Again, I'm just trying to make a point that they are two very unique disciplines with minimal overlap - not enough to justify having both. Yes, one could get a CCNA and MCSA and do really well, but they could also get a CCNA and MCSA and get poo poo on. I wouldn't go down the dual cert route unless I had a very real assurance that a commensurate salary or work-lifestyle change was awaiting me. When I was looking at jobs over the years, I never saw anything but wages way under what the duties of dual-cert positions required.
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Jun 6, 2014 17:14
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I had to do a good bit of IIS, SQL, DNS, and DHCP poo poo at my last job. I was also responsible for running our monitoring servers. And you know what? I loathe sysadmin poo poo. But it was still part of my job, and you wouldn't believe how much time it saved me being able to troubleshoot stuff without having to punt to the sysadmins whenever I thought it was an application or platform error. So your assertion that there's "minimal overlap" is an inaccurate generalization. e: Point being, even as a CCNP, the MCSA would be useful for me. psydude fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 17:50
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CCNA or even Network+ are not that difficult and you need to be able to discuss networking intelligently if you want to be a decent server admin.
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Jun 6, 2014 18:10
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Where does the "host" end and the "network" begin? Is the host NIC the property of the network team? What about it's tcp stack? Does the host's routing table belong to the network team? What about it's link aggregation, or VLAN tagging, or subnetting? At what layer of the network stack does a problem become a sysadmin problem? The CCNA is so very very basic that 90% of what you cover is applicable to setting up and troubleshooting host networking. Knowing how ARP works, how IP works, how TCP works, how sub-netting works, how VLANs and link aggregation work, how switches switch packets and routers forward packets are all really useful things to know to troubleshoot issues that begin with the host, not the network hardware. Ive worked with a lot of sysadmins who can't do that stuff because they think it's not their job, and they suck. They are slow to resolve issues, they are quick to blame other groups, and they rarely provide a solution without help or calling the vendor, even for things that should be easy. That's not to say that you need a CCNA to understand networking well enough to be a good sysadmin, but the level of knowledge required to GET a CCNA isn't really much beyond what I'd expect a good sysadmin to know anyway. And if you intend to work in virtualization at any point (you won't have a choice, eventually) knowing a bit about the switch and router side is big help. Also, the idea that someone with an MCSA AND a CCNA is an "IT unicorn" is just hilarious. Not one, but TWO entry level certs? Wow, way to bust the curve buddy!
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Jun 6, 2014 18:34
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NippleFloss posted:Where does the "host" end and the "network" begin? The network is the computer. (R.I.P. Sun)
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Jun 6, 2014 19:09
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NippleFloss posted:the idea that someone with an MCSA AND a CCNA is an "IT unicorn" is just hilarious. Not one, but TWO entry level certs? Wow, way to bust the curve buddy! Hey, the MCSA takes THREE tests! The MTA is entry level! 
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Jun 6, 2014 19:30
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MJP posted:That said, given my wariness of being thrown into two pools and expected to swim in both, I'd say get the MCSA and Sec+. N+ and A+ probably aren't worth taking the time to refresh - I don't think many employers even verify current status of someone's certs. Obviously it's not a very big concern now that I'm actually in the industry, but if I can keep them, might as well.
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Jun 6, 2014 19:34
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Just took the security + exam after taking a week long class a month ago, signing up for the exam on the last day of class, and putting off studying until this morning with very little hope of passing. Walked away with an 858. Thankfully I took an hour to go over the performance based questions on getahead, with four of the five questions being exactly the same. The fifth was asking about physical security devices and was piss easy. Pretty sure I just got lucky and had the easiest combination on questions possible on the multiple choice as there were maybe three questions I didn't feel confident on and none were "I have no idea"
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Jun 6, 2014 19:56
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NippleFloss posted:Where does the "host" end and the "network" begin? Is the host NIC the property of the network team? What about it's tcp stack? Does the host's routing table belong to the network team? What about it's link aggregation, or VLAN tagging, or subnetting? At what layer of the network stack does a problem become a sysadmin problem? I'd say the system ends at the NIC, yes. I don't see what's unreasonable about that. If server A and B can't talk to each other, and I've ruled out all the software possibilities - Windows firewall, applications/services not running or configured properly, NIC configuration, etc. While a basic knowledge of networking is required, I'd say that subnetting is extraneous to sysadmin work beyond understanding what it is. I haven't needed to subnet in my sysadmin career thus far, and if I do, I don't need a certification for it - there are subnet calculators galore out there. I don't need to console into routers or switches unless I'm working with our network admin and doing something on his behalf, or acting under his direction. The basics of the CCNA you describe are covered on the MCSA. Yes, they're covered under "here's how to use Windows Server as a router/switch!  " because MS seriously believes people will use that, and tests extensively on it, and what I had to learn of subnetting, ARP, etc. convinced me that I was not interested in CCNA - I had real trouble grasping the math and concepts and went into the exams totally confident on 90% of the material, the remainder being networking. As to sysadmins not knowing the solution and calling vendors, I'd say that's the mark of a professional - it's not possible to know everything at all times. If I can come up saying "Hey network dude, I'm having serious connectivity drops during the day at random times; how would you recommend I set up Wireshark? Or is there a better tool I should use to see if I can isolate the problem?" Just blaming the network team/guy is the mark of a lovely person, not a lovely sysadmin. Also an MCSA is hardly an entry level cert. A CCNA is an entry level networking cert, yes, but I would definitely not consider MCSA to be entry level - that implies MCSE is the one that matters, and most job postings I saw said MCSA or MCSE was a plus, not a requirement. It's not the same thing as an actuarial exam/cert, or any other professional certification that is required to even start. MJP fucked around with this message at 12:33 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 12:29
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The CCNA is an "entry level" certification to the field of network engineering, which is not an entry level field; I would not call it an entry level certification that somebody with no prior IT experience could breeze through in a couple of days. I'd also argue that it has a higher ROI than the MCSA.
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Jun 7, 2014 13:07
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psydude posted:The CCNA is an "entry level" certification to the field of network engineering, which is not an entry level field; I would not call it an entry level certification that somebody with no prior IT experience could breeze through in a couple of days. I'd also argue that it has a higher ROI than the MCSA. I wouldn't put ROI in as a metric unless you're paying for training out of pocket. If it's just self-study and home labbing, there's really not much cost at play other than free time. As to ROI on time it depends on so many factors - is there really a reliable nationwide metric of CCNAs vs. MCSAs? I mean, I never looked for network admin roles, just sysadmin, and MCSA seemed to be wanted a little more. Granted, this is pure anecdotal, but I'd say it's probably a better expression that CCNA probably has better ROI than a Juniper networking cert, or any legacy Netware certs, as such that an MCSA may not have as good an ROI as its Redhat equivalent - probably a better market for Linux admins given their relative rarity.
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Jun 7, 2014 13:53
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I've personally seen a ~10,000% return on the cost of taking the CCNA test so I'd say it's worth it. If the CCNP ends up having that kind of return I'll be extremely happy.
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Jun 7, 2014 17:57
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So aside from getting lucky, whats the best way to land a junior sys admin position? I am working on some networking certs (CCNA), but I should have a MCTS Win Server 2008 cert in a few months as well. It just seems like every junior level sys admin job is treated more like a mid-level sysadmin as far as requirements go. I'm trying hard to avoid helldesk, but I guess I don't know what kind of jobs might help me get some kind of relevant sysadmin experience except for jobs that required multiple years of sysadmin experience.
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Jun 7, 2014 18:55
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Just finished up some major last-minute cramming for Monday's VCP5 exam. Still not feeling extremely positive about my level of preparation, but I've always felt that way on every exam I've ever taken since high school, and the less confident I felt the better I did (some sort of weird inverse relationship that went both ways - the more confident I felt the worse I did). Be that as it may, all I need is to score 300 out of 500 points, so even if all I manage is 301 I'm still going to consider it a victory. Besides, you still call the guy who graduates last in his class from medical school 'Doctor', and a pass is a pass. So I'm going to relax the rest of today and tomorrow (alright, I might still do some short studying) and try and get into a meditative state so that I don't inadvertently mess my chances up. Assuming I pass, I need to consider what I'm going to work on next. I keep thinking that maybe I need to get my Linux+ or RHCE certs, but at the same time there's also the MCSA and CCNA that are on my list as well. Oh well, first things first. Daylen Drazzi fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 22:08
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Nvm.
ZergFluid fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 22:42
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While I can agree that knowing when to call another team or a vendor is a good skill to have, if you want to be a good sysadmin, you need to understand how this stuff works. tcpdump/wireshark are still common debugging tools, especially for archaic but prevalent protocols (why isn't TFTP working?). Configuring VLAN tagging and bonding are common takes as well, and understanding the principles matters. Plus all of this really matters with the rise of software-defined networks. Would you rather receive a ticket that says "LACP should be configured, but the partner hash is null, and there's no redundancy when I pull a cable plugged into switchport X in rack Y" or "bonding isn't working." "I can't get network access from new/moved systems foo and bar, but they can ping each other, can you check that they're on the right VLAN"? Or " network doesn't work". Knowing enough to eliminate likely problems (subnetting, routing, etc) and give a detailed ticket to the network team can dramatically improve response time, because it's obvious that you're not a boob and you've done basic legwork, so their job is easier. The scope of your job as a sysadmin ends somewhere, but that somewhere is your environment, not the NIC
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Jun 8, 2014 15:38
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Eonwe posted:So aside from getting lucky, whats the best way to land a junior sys admin position? I am working on some networking certs (CCNA), but I should have a MCTS Win Server 2008 cert in a few months as well. It just seems like every junior level sys admin job is treated more like a mid-level sysadmin as far as requirements go. Honestly, if you're new to the industry the best way to get into a sysadmin role is to suck it up and take a helldesk job for now (not that you should stop applying for jr positions, but temper your expectations). Having a job and a year or two's experience in the field will go a long way towards making you marketable for actual systems/network admin positions. One thing that doesn't seem to be talked about much is that there are a lot of things you can learn from a lovely helpdesk job w/r/t the range of technologies businesses use, how/why they use them and how all of those interact with each other. You just aren't going to find a class that can teach you what working in that environment will. From what I've seen, this is why so many companies look for a bare minimum of real world experience for anything beyond helpdesk. Other than that, small businesses and MSPs always seem to have the most opportunities to get your hands dirty with the server/infra side of things while you're still in an entry level position, so keep that in mind when you're looking. If you're fresh out of school and have your CCNA/MCSA you very well may be able to snag a jr sysadmin job, but true "junior" sysadmin positions are often hard to find in the first place, as you have noticed, so don't be afraid to take a helpdesk job in the meantime.
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Jun 8, 2014 21:54
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Eonwe posted:So aside from getting lucky, whats the best way to land a junior sys admin position? I am working on some networking certs (CCNA), but I should have a MCTS Win Server 2008 cert in a few months as well. It just seems like every junior level sys admin job is treated more like a mid-level sysadmin as far as requirements go. There's really no avoiding helldesk. None. Not unless you can volunteer as a sysadmin for an organization and retain the title, despite what'll probably be helldesk work. Take the helldesk job, study in your downtime. An MCSA plus a resume that had enough sysadminny details in previous jobs was what got me out of helldesk. The more you can turn "reset passwords" into "managed AD groups and users" as applicable to MCSA stuff, you're golden. I'd get the 2008 MCSA and later upgrade it to 2012 when you're ready. Give yourself at least six months, and that's optimistic, for all three exams. It took me more or less 12 months of studying and prep to do all four of the 2k3 MCSA exams, and around 5ish months to do the two exams to upgrade 2k3 to 2k8. Daylen Drazzi posted:Just finished up some major last-minute cramming for Monday's VCP5 exam. Still not feeling extremely positive about my level of preparation, but I've always felt that way on every exam I've ever taken since high school, and the less confident I felt the better I did (some sort of weird inverse relationship that went both ways - the more confident I felt the worse I did). Retroactive break-a-leg, man! The exam was a pretty challenging one for me, but think it through. VMware is sadistic as all hell to only give, what, 70 minutes? At least MS gave you three hours. How did you do?
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Jun 9, 2014 21:07
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MJP posted:Retroactive break-a-leg, man! The exam was a pretty challenging one for me, but think it through. VMware is sadistic as all hell to only give, what, 70 minutes? At least MS gave you three hours. Bombed the exam - 256 out of 500. Need 300 to pass. I got hammered on the networking and storage portions. Not one single loving question about theoretical stuff like what licensing would you need to get if you want this particular feature. No minimums or maximums. 40 questions about practical knowledge and troubleshooting of storage and networking. The study guides I used were all a loving joke. I really need to sit down and re-evaluate my current setup so I can do a nested ESXi layout and maybe grab a NAS device to serve as a poor man's SAN, because my lab in Workstation just did not cut it. And not that it's an excuse, but when I rescheduled the exam a month or so ago I managed to change the testing site, so I arrived 20 minutes early at the wrong site, find out the correct one is on the other side of town, hit every red light on the way, and show up 15 minutes late pissed as hell and completely unsettled. I knew everything was going to pot the moment the girl at the wrong site told me "I'm sorry, but you're not on our list today." Well, at least I know that I suck at storage - that's got to be worth at least 60 points right there. DAF - you mentioned you might be able to hook me up with a discount voucher. Any chance of that still?
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Jun 10, 2014 00:00
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Bombed the exam - 256 out of 500. Need 300 to pass. Did better than me on my first attempt. You'll definitely pass on attempt #2 I don't think there's a huge question pool so try to remember the questions you had difficulty with and study them.
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Jun 10, 2014 01:08
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Bombed the exam - 256 out of 500. Need 300 to pass. I got hammered on the networking and storage portions. Not one single loving question about theoretical stuff like what licensing would you need to get if you want this particular feature. No minimums or maximums. 40 questions about practical knowledge and troubleshooting of storage and networking. The study guides I used were all a loving joke. I really need to sit down and re-evaluate my current setup so I can do a nested ESXi layout and maybe grab a NAS device to serve as a poor man's SAN, because my lab in Workstation just did not cut it.  You lacked two important pieces of testing knowledge. 1. There are no config minimums or maximums on the exams as those numbers changed between 5.1 and 5.5 and the test is version neutral. 2. You can not be early or late for the test as the person at the testing center can give and honest to god gently caress if you show up or not, so you panicked before the exam even began when you could have had a nice leisurely drive, and surely that hurt a little bit.
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Jun 10, 2014 03:20
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Daylen Drazzi posted:
Let me see if my codes still work
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Jun 10, 2014 03:29
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Passed the NCDA with a 92%!
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Jun 10, 2014 21:38
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Bombed the exam - 256 out of 500. Need 300 to pass. I got hammered on the networking and storage portions. Not one single loving question about theoretical stuff like what licensing would you need to get if you want this particular feature. No minimums or maximums. 40 questions about practical knowledge and troubleshooting of storage and networking. The study guides I used were all a loving joke. I really need to sit down and re-evaluate my current setup so I can do a nested ESXi layout and maybe grab a NAS device to serve as a poor man's SAN, because my lab in Workstation just did not cut it. Sorry to hear that, man. I was lucky enough that I've got a Server 2012 storage box at home; I spun up iSCSI and used that for rehearsal. If you've got an old shitbox desktop out there, maybe it'll take 2012 and you can just use it for barebones iSCSI to get your hands on it? NFS is well and good but the handful of storage networking I got was all knowing iSCSI bits and pieces - where in an IQN to look, etc. (hopefully that's not an NDA-breaker) Seconding the relax part. I hate to victim-blame, but you gotta go into the VCP ready to take on a lot of knowledge that, if you haven't been doing VMware for a year or more as part of your day-to-day - including some architectural/engineering crap - then you need all the assets in your corner that you can, including calmness. These testing centers are just hives of computers in a quiet, camera-observed room. There's never a rush and nobody will ever turn you away for being late. Circle back, hit up the Sybex book. Dunno what study guides you were using, but if you're just crunching down the exam requirements, that's not always the best way to pick up use cases - and for me if not most, knowing "this is when you do X" is a great tool to understand what you're doing and why.
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Jun 10, 2014 22:19
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TeMpLaR posted:Passed the NCDA with a 92%! Nice job! 7-mode or cDOT?
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Jun 10, 2014 23:05
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NippleFloss posted:Nice job! 7-mode or cDOT? 7-Mode for now, but going to start looking at getting my cluster mode certs next (and the 50x series tests) The exam room is in an adult school and there was a graduation party during the exam. They handed out earplugs in the test center. Debating on VCAP or NS0-50x next.
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Jun 11, 2014 00:24
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TeMpLaR posted:7-Mode for now, but going to start looking at getting my cluster mode certs next (and the 50x series tests) It's been a while since I took the NCIE (3 years, at least), but it was sort of a funky test. A lot were pretty straightforward questions about deploying SAN on a NetApp with a heavy emphasis on virtualized environments, so questions about VASA, SATP, PSP, VAAI, and the actual process of attaching scanning for and configuring LUNs, as well as basic zoning on MDS and Brocade gear. Stuff that you'd probably already know if you'd worked in an FC environment with NetApp before. But then there were questions about things like storage discovery that seemed like they were based on NetApp Professional Services guidelines and aren't necessarily universal or meaningful outside of NetApp professional services. I managed to guess enough of those correctly to pass, but the test did have more of a NetApp employee feel to it than the NCDA. It's actually an easier test in some ways though, because it's focused far less on OnTAP trivia and it doesn't touch on everything under the sun.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:04
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As someone outside of IT, are the majority of these certifications multiple-choice exams? Do you get your results immediately?
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Jun 11, 2014 03:47
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off topic, but speaking of storage, hit this fun bug in VMware today. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1039088 All VMs were OK but one specific app kicked a bunch of doctors out. That was fun. So now I am patching a lot of VM Hosts tonight. To answer above, yes.
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Jun 11, 2014 04:34
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Hughmoris posted:As someone outside of IT, are the majority of these certifications multiple-choice exams? Do you get your results immediately? Some are practical exams. Some written. Some labbed. Some multiple choice. Some with results instantly. Some you wait a week. It varies. Is there a specific cert you're curious about?
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Jun 11, 2014 04:41
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I'm looking at the CISSP, and I'm thinking about going the self-study route. What I want to know is if anyone else has been able to do this successfully, and what the benefits (outside of ~3k in savings) would this method have over something like the SANS boot camp or something. Little backgroud: IT Auditor, former IS analyst. CISSP would catapault me to management fast-track and allow me to apply for jobs in other states if I wanted Self-prepared for the CISA, GSNA. Passed easily Work MIGHT be willing to pay for training, but boss seemed a little scared at the price-tag. If anyone knows of decent in-class prep programs that aren't excessively costly, I'd also appreciate that info. edit: Spaced on SANS cert's name. Immanentized fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 16:48
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Hughmoris posted:As someone outside of IT, are the majority of these certifications multiple-choice exams? Do you get your results immediately? Most of the exams that get talked about in here (CompTIA, Cisco, Microsoft, VMWare) are instant-results multiple choice with a couple simulation questions thrown in. There are a couple exceptions for high-level certs and some of the smaller certifying organizations. MC Fruit Stripe posted:2. You can not be early or late for the test as the person at the testing center can give and honest to god gently caress if you show up or not, so you panicked before the exam even began when you could have had a nice leisurely drive, and surely that hurt a little bit. I am a proctor for PearsonVUE/Prometric and I can confirm that 15-30 minutes late is no big deal at all. Worst case scenario, the person who has that seat after you has to wait a little bit. Generally the only reasons you'll get turned away are a) you're cheating, b) you threaten us, or c) you didn't bring your IDs.
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Jun 11, 2014 19:15
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I've actually been called by a proctor for being 30 minutes late for an exam (I thought I had cancelled it, that was an expensive screw-up.
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Jun 11, 2014 19:20
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The big exception off the top of my head is the Red Hat certs, which are entirely practical. My understanding is that there's no questions per se, you're just given a blank slate of a PC and told to configure a bunch of services a certain way.
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Jun 11, 2014 19:22
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Soylent Heliotrope posted:Generally the only reasons you'll get turned away are a) you're cheating, b) you threaten us, or c) you didn't bring your IDs. What happens if I threaten you over the internet like "Hey you, yo momma!"
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Jun 11, 2014 21:40
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I'm not having any luck in getting interviews with a CCNA so far. I'm probably going to get at least one in the next few months, but how bad does it look if I study for a CCNP with no experience? (I'm by far most interested in the actual routing and switching part of networking, I'm self-studying for the CCNA Security, and it's such a bore, while I absolutely love reading the ROUTE guide, which some have called the most boring book ever made).
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Jun 11, 2014 21:59
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