Tips and Traps for Young Players

Some of you may remember my post http://www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22113

Well here's an update.

I have as yet not started this job but I rang the contact to say I would have to defer the start by one week. He was cool with that.

This is a senior support job at an organisation I worked for previously 6 years ago. The contact was my old supervisor.

One thing he told me on the phone was he was impressedwith the certifications I'd earned since I was last employed there. He saw that I took the initaive to up-skill myself and not rely on my current employer to provided training.

Here's a tip which I believe everyone should take onboard. Get your certs. Do the work even if your boss refuses to help you progress. You'll never know when you need them.

In my case, I am currently working a job and am on $59000 AUD (desktop support). I gained my certs in a year (excpet the A+ - 2002) and spent maybe $2000 or so getting them all. This new job will see me earn around the $69000 mark.

I belive I would have had a slimmer chance of getting this new psoition had I not done the work and certified myself. I certainly won't be resting on my laurels. I'll keep my certs active.

These "tips" are nothing new. But I just hope someone who is disillusioned with the whole certification and job seeking process might take what I've said to inspire them.

I also want to thank those who started this site. It's helped enormously. Thanks

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Comments

malcybood

congrats on the certs and the new job man....

I don't want to de-rail your post but I notice you have the ITIL foundations cert....how did you find doing this?

My company are currently implementing ITIL and I'm meant to be doing this course....I believe you do the course and sit the exam at the end of it? Is this how you done the cert or did you do self study?

Keep it up

Malc

plettner

malcybood wrote:

congrats on the certs and the new job man....

I don't want to de-rail your post but I notice you have the ITIL foundations cert....how did you find doing this?

My company are currently implementing ITIL and I'm meant to be doing this course....I believe you do the course and sit the exam at the end of it? Is this how you done the cert or did you do self study?

Keep it up

Malc

Thanks.

The company I was working at provided a three day course. A trainer came out and did the course at our work. My company didn't pay for the cert - only for the training. I paid for the exam and organised the exam soon after the training through Prometric. It's an Exin exam so look that up on the list of providers they have. I can't remember how much the exam was - maybe $180 - 200 AUD or so.

I did buy a practice exam through Self Test Software which was very good. I used the materials provided by the training company also. I used no other books or materials. I passed with 80%.

I reckon if you do the course and sit the exam soon after, you'll do fine. Get a practice exam if you can. The material is dry but logical.

Remember, this is only the foundations course. You can do the others, but I haven't gone near those!

malcybood

Hey thanks for the info. I've just got the details through for this now and we are getting a consultant in to teach the course over 3 days then we are sitting the exam on the last afternoon. It is described as follows:

IT Service Management Foundation Course

A three-day training course leading to the ISEB Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

This course is designed to introduce delegates to ITIL best practice and is a pre-requisite for any further ISEB IT Service Management qualifications. It provides an introduction ITIL terminology and processes designed to deliver effective and efficient IT services.

The course format is based on formal lectures and group discussions, led by one of our experienced consultants. The lectures are supplemented by a series of assignments based on a case study and carried out in syndicate groups. The course material includes a number of sample questions and mock examination papers in preparation for the ISEB examination, which takes place on the afternoon of the final day.

The course follows the syllabus defined by the ITIL Service Support and Service Delivery books and covers the following topics:

Introduction to Service Management

Service Support
Configuration Management
The Service Desk
Incident Management
Problem Management
Change Management
Release Management

Service Delivery
Service Level Management
Financial Management for IT Services
Availability Management
Capacity Management
IT Service Continuity

Students are provided with a complete course materials pack, comprising:

Student notes and case study;
Presentation materials handout;
Assignments with model answers;
Mock examinations with answers;
The itSMF IT Service Management pocket guide.

So hopefully I'll have anopther cert fast track stylee on the 11th May

plettner

malcybood wrote:

Hey thanks for the info. I've just got the details through for this now and we are getting a consultant in to teach the course over 3 days then we are sitting the exam on the last afternoon. It is described as follows:

IT Service Management Foundation Course

A three-day training course leading to the ISEB Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

This course is designed to introduce delegates to ITIL best practice and is a pre-requisite for any further ISEB IT Service Management qualifications. It provides an introduction ITIL terminology and processes designed to deliver effective and efficient IT services.

The course format is based on formal lectures and group discussions, led by one of our experienced consultants. The lectures are supplemented by a series of assignments based on a case study and carried out in syndicate groups. The course material includes a number of sample questions and mock examination papers in preparation for the ISEB examination, which takes place on the afternoon of the final day.

The course follows the syllabus defined by the ITIL Service Support and Service Delivery books and covers the following topics:

Introduction to Service Management

Service Support
Configuration Management
The Service Desk
Incident Management
Problem Management
Change Management
Release Management

Service Delivery
Service Level Management
Financial Management for IT Services
Availability Management
Capacity Management
IT Service Continuity

Students are provided with a complete course materials pack, comprising:

Student notes and case study;
Presentation materials handout;
Assignments with model answers;
Mock examinations with answers;
The itSMF IT Service Management pocket guide.

So hopefully I'll have anopther cert fast track stylee on the 11th May

Good luck on test if you proceed with it. I think you need a pass mark of 26 out of the 40 questions.

drakhan2002

malcybood wrote:

My company are currently implementing ITIL and I'm meant to be doing this course....I believe you do the course and sit the exam at the end of it? Is this how you done the cert or did you do self study?

You can self-study for the ITIL Foundations - you can check the ITIL web site for more information, but take the 2 day course...it only costs about $700 U.S. Not only that, a lot of businesses are getting on the bandwagon (mine is...we've certified over 300 IT people in it the last 8 months).

malcybood

drakhan2002 wrote:

malcybood wrote:

My company are currently implementing ITIL and I'm meant to be doing this course....I believe you do the course and sit the exam at the end of it? Is this how you done the cert or did you do self study?

You can self-study for the ITIL Foundations - you can check the ITIL web site for more information, but take the 2 day course...it only costs about $700 U.S. Not only that, a lot of businesses are getting on the bandwagon (mine is...we've certified over 300 IT people in it the last 8 months).

my work are paying for it all as part of our ITIL implementation so I'm not really worried about self study......costs ME nothing lol Consultants are coming in to teach the course then we sit the exam on the 3rd day as part of it!....We're currently about 8 months down the line of implementing ITIL out of a 2 year plan

We have about 10 people being certified on this course 9th - 11th May, myself included with probably more to follow. The IT dept consists of about 50 people but it's deemed everyone doesn't need it right away

Thanks for the info though