Advice, and Other Futile Ventures

Slowhand

I need some advice. . . about giving advice. Well, I suppose I'm really just looking for a sounding board to make sure the advice I want to give isn't too crazy. Here goes:

I buddy of mine came to me to ask some advice on "supplimental certification". He's mainly a Cisco guy, about to finish up his CCNP. He's got a few other things under his belt, like A+ and Net+, and I believe he's got Linux+ as well, (I've been bugging him to round out the "first four" and go for the Security+ as well, but that's a whole different story.) The kind of work he does is mainly in routing and switching, that sort of stuff, with little to no dealing with servers or systems administration. (They've got an MCSE for that.)

This brings us to the point. He's getting a little concerned that he has no "formal" Microsoft training, beyond having used every MS operating system from NT 3.1 all the way up to XP, (not too heavy on the server side, save for a little bit of tinkering.) He doesn't really want to spend the kind of time it would take to do the full MCSE, and he's hesitant (read "whiny") about even saddling up for MCSA. He's worried that he will need some paperwork showing professional-level proficiency with Windows, since Microsoft certs are pretty high in demand where we live. I'm inclined to tell him to just suck it up, if he's that worried, and do the full MCSE, and be done with it. However, since I suppose I shouldn't be mean to my friend, and there are other options, so I probably should give those to him.

So, here's the deal. From what I understand, he could do just fine with something like the MCDST, or even just snagging the 70-270 MCP. He'll probably never get into systems administration, and I don't think he'd really "need" the MCSE, so I'm kind of leaning towards the "lighter" MS certs.

So, before I send him into the fray, what do we all think? Should I just nudge him down the full-on MCSE path and tell him to quit his bitchin', tell him to go take the XP test, or have him look into the more helpdesk-style MCDST cert?

sprkymrk

The XP Pro 70-270 should be a good starter. If he doesn't want to keep going on at least he can get his MCP designation.

jpeezy55

I'd suggest doing the 70-270. If he's done that much with Microsoft and uses XP daily, then he should be just fine with this exam. It would get him the MCP Certification and may just prompt him to continue. The MCDST would be good if HelpDesk is what he wants to do. If he plans on doing network admin type stuff, then he may want to follow, at the least, the MCSA Path. That's only 270, 290, 291, and an Elective. Since he has A+ and Network+, then those 2 combined count for the Elective. That's where I'm at right now, I need to take and pass 70-291 to get my MCSA. None of them were very difficult (except for 291, which I failed once already, but I've only been hands-on with Server 2003 in a classroom environment and in the IT Field for just over one year, which is why I plan to stop at MCSA until I get more hands-on). Companies may demand certs, and the more he has, the better off he will be. I have a friend who was let go by his company because they wanted certified employees, and he just refused to take the exams. Since it was a job requirement, they had grounds to let him go, and they did...Still makes no sense why he would not take them...

Anyway, at the absolute least, try to encourage him to take 70-270 and see where it goes from there.

Danman32

I pretty much agree. Lead him in steps. Go for 70-270. When he feels confident with that, suggest 290 and 291 for MCSA (have him get his Comptia certs transferred). After that, he'll be MCSA.

I would also suggest he go for sec+. Even with pure network (no OS), that will be valuable knowledge and cert.

mikey_b

I agree with above statements - he's already got his A+ and Net+. They count as an elective for MCSA. If he knows XP well, then he should be a quick study for 270. That puts him halfway to his MCSA, which carries some decent clout in the MS world. 290 isn't very hard (especially with free versions of Server and Virtual PC), and his networking/subnetting knowledge gained from Cisco certs would really help him with 291. Then he's an MCSA and only needs to write one upgrade exam for each new Windows version to maintain his MCSA.

Slowhand

Good advice, from everybody. I think I'll beat him. . . "talk him" into doing the 70-270 test, and we'll go from there. I know that he can benefit from having the MCSA, and hopefully the full MCSE, if he gets into it. (He'll probably never want to touch a server again, after going through 70-291, though. . .)

Thanks for the replies, everybody.