Are boot camps worth its weight???

angelsun

Hey,

I have over 6 years experience and need to get certification to be more marketable.

If they are worth it, which one is the best one to go to???

Big D

forbesl

angelsun wrote:

If they are worth it, which one is the best one to go to???

I'd have to say the Marine Corps probably has the hardest boot camp. If you want an easy boot camp, go Army.


Sorry, I couldn't resist the temptation.....

jpeezy55

You would get much more out of an Army boot camp than an IT boot camp...I don't think they are worth it. Too much info stuffed into too little time.

Do it the old fashioned way and study for awhile and then take your certs...you'll respect yourself in the morning.

mikej412

I'd have to agree -- any military bootcamp would teach you focus and discipline which you could then apply to self-study.

forbesl wrote:

I'd have to say the Marine Corps probably has the hardest boot camp. If you want an easy boot camp, go Army.

I was Army Infantry..... so I'd say the Air Force bootcamp would be easier.

Here I a CCNA bootcamp thread where I was slightly more helpful...
http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14572

SRTMCSE

bootcamps have left a sour taste in my mouth after working for one of the larger ones. in hindsight a lot of what is done is shady and despite there marketing, NOT in the best interests of the students or the industry.

Ricka182

I can testify, Marine boot camp is no party. 13 weeks of hell, but it was worth it. I still didn't learn any IT stuff there.......but seriously, IT boot camps are a waste. You may be the exception because you have a good amount of experience. If you feel the knowledge is second hand, and you find a good deal(less than a few thousand $$), you could look into it more.

rkholmes

All the certs you see in my signature block/profile thing, I self studied for.

Well I got a wild hair up my hind end and decided that I wanted to fast track my CCNA. I went through this place called Intense School and let me tell you what a RIP OFF it was.

First off they have to teach to the lowest common denominator...right? So the first 2.5 days was a rehash of the Network+ material, and for the balance of the week (it was a 5 day class) they tought the old material (the test before 640-801). I didn't have the cash so I financed it through SallieMae, thinking how it would increase my salary at work and increase my job prospects as a result of having the certification. This was February 2004.

I still don't have my CCNA and am still paying off the student loan. I'm employed as a Lead NOC Technician making 53K per year.

IT BOOT CAMPS STINK!

buulam

I have a former co-worker that had a very good experience at a Boot Camp for CCNA. However, he was already very experienced and our Lead for Network Operations and it was a small class (8 in total). The others in the class were also experienced, from industry and were also being sent by their companies who also wanted them to just get their certs over with.

This was through a provider that we've always gone through for education in the past. He said they were able to dig deep into the curriculum and clear up misconceptions these guys have had for years.

Anyways, what I'm saying is that Boot Camps are probably ideal under these specific conditions I've mentioned. I wouldn't take one if:
a) I had to pay for it myself
b) I wasn't already familiar with the concepts/products
c) didn't just want to zero in on key topics that would be tested for the cert

sprkymrk

I'm going to have to agree partially with both of the last two posts (buulam and rkholmes). I have never financed a boot camp myself and never would (well, probably never). I have been to several on the company's dime. What I have found is that if I already was familiar with the material and/or currently working with it, it's a great way to pick up new information quickly and also a great way to prepare for a certification test. I found this to be the case with my MCP and CCNA. I already had been to both a 9 month MCSE school and the Cisco academy 1-4 and worked full time in a Windows environment. However, on the other hand, I did a boot camp for Exchange 2K, having had very little experience with it, and I was lost the entire week.

As far as SallieMae, they are (IMO) an immoral bunch of loan sharks. I paid off my SM loan (for the MSCE school) early and swore that anything that had the SM name on it would never get my business. My credit card recently got bought out by SM and I immediately transferred the balance to a different card and cut the thing to shreds.

Webmaster

As some of you may know already, I have such a low opinion of bootcamps that we don't even accept bootcamp advertisers while they are amongst the better paying advertisers. We even lost an advertiser because I didn't want to accept their bootcamp product in their ads. One of the main problems I have with bootcamps is the lack of consistency. A bootcamp can be very good if it uses certain course material, provides additional study material, includes access to equipment, and is tought by a certain instructor. However, a bootcamp can be very bad for the same reason, i.e. the course material is crap, additional study material provided are ****, equipment is old/irrelevant, and the instructor incapable.

And I agree that one should never pay for a bootcamp, and certainly not loan the money for it. If your employer offers to pay for it, pursade him/her to use that money for other study method (buy you lab equipment and self-study material for example). If you really want or need instructor-led training, go for the official courses that spend 4 to 5 days on one exam, not 2 weeks on the entire MCSE track.