time to took you for MCSE

ilcram19

i just would like to know wut is the average time for MCSE im just curious....

sprkymrk

10 years and counting...

royal

I would say each exam took me about 120-140 hours of concentrated study to complete. Some of the exams such as 293/297 don't take that long due to them being either a review off of some other exam with some added topics or having a different twist (design vs configuration).

ajs1976

NT 4.0 track - 9 months
2000 track - 6 1/2 years (got side tracked a couple of times)
2003 track - ask me again in a few months

ilcram19

dat pretty impresive royal i have a 2 months and counting....
hope one day to be mcse

royal

Well how much time did you spend in those 2 months. Months really mean nothing when it comes to how long it takes to prepare for an exam. You could have spent 40 hours per week during those 2 months to study or 5 hours per week during those 2 months to study. For example, each exam took me about 1 month to complete but I spent 40-60 hours per week for an entire year to pass all my exams. I knew quite a bit before going into the exams as I have worked on AD prior to starting my MCSE as well as home labs I have built years ago, etc..

ilcram19

let said when ever i get a chance i spend 3-5 hous peer day studing and doing labs, so about
30 housr peer week including saturday and sunday i try to test every month so so about 120 hous peer month....oh wow imaging if we were getting pay for studing lol jj,

nickmak86

I have till the end of this month to get my MCSE, so that's almost one exam a week... I've been cramming for the past 2 months and have got my MCSA and MCTS: SQL Server 2005 only just a few hours ago and I have say that experience in those systems are crucial to pass the exams.

PS: I'm 20 yrs old by the way, going off to university in september, hence my deadline. Also if you guys are wondering where my experience came from... Well, I built my first server when I was 14, built my first AD when I was 15 and that's how it got started... and now I have to run a small datacenter of 10 servers for my dad's company... hehe...

Cheers,
Nick

BeaverC32

I have till the end of this month to get my MCSE, so that's almost one exam a week...

Is that even possible?

Mishra

My co-worker just did the MCSE in 2 weeks at bootcamp.

LukeQuake

Mishra wrote:

My co-worker just did the MCSE in 2 weeks at bootcamp.

How much previous experiance did / does your co-worker have? Also, do you know what kind of study resources were used at this 'bootcamp' ..... ?

jbaello

I am finishing my MCSA 2003 including MCTS for SQL 2005, possibly 1 of each Network + and Security + My target date is before 2008, otherwise I failed, because I age again, each passing time is something I can never bring back not even the most advance science.

I am trying to study as much as I can when I have downtime at work all I do is read and make sure I take notes and learn this precious things. So for me I set a timeframe, my time frame for MCSE remainders is 3 months in year 2008.

So before I turn 30 I "MUST" have the following!!!

MCSE 2003 / 2008
MCTS SQL 2005
Network +
Security +

Sun Certified System Administrator (SCSA)
Sun Certified Network Administrator (SCNA)
Sun Certified Security Administrator (SCSECA)

CCNA

So what the hell am I still doing here lol I'm running out of time, I gotta get back to my studies haha!

blargoe

This thread reminds me of my the MCSE isn't worth squat anymore

sprkymrk

blargoe wrote:

This thread reminds me of my the MCSE isn't worth squat anymore

What do you mean? The MCSE is worth different things to different people in different situations.
A PhD in chemistry isn't going to do a coal miner or garbage collecter any good. But to say the PhD itself isn't worth squat is incorrect.

blargoe

I should have said that it is generally worth less than it used to be.

sprkymrk

blargoe wrote:

I should have said that it is generally worth less than it used to be.

Really? I haven't noticed that, unless you mean from the early NT days before the dotcom bust.
However, I can only speak for myself and my own personal experience. Thanks for clarifying.

jbaello

blargoe wrote:

I should have said that it is generally worth less than it used to be.

Your confusing me o.O!

bowulf

I skipped the NT4 track, so I can only speak from 2000 track and upgrade 2003 exams.

Windows 2000 - 5 months (the core tests were done every 2 weeks after taking a month to read the MS Press books -- I had already worked with the technology for 2 years at that point)

Windows 2003 - within a month of the 292/296 release

As for how much the MCSE is or is not worth, my company still requires "engineer" certification (CNE/MCSE/RHCE) for all new administrators or probation if they don't have it. It might not mean as much due to the prevalence in the market as a differentiator between two opposing candidates, but that does not lessen its importance to have in my eyes. In interviewing people, not having one immediately brings to question commitment to education and self-improvement. So while one might not get hired because they have one, they might not get hired if they don't.

slinuxuzer

blargoe wrote:

This thread reminds me of my the MCSE isn't worth squat anymore

Well what this means to me (or at least my take on the worth of an mcse) Is you have literally millions of Hr managers who put Mcse on a job that should have no more than A+ on it and the job pays 10/hr.

What I see to be the problem is that people see Mcse as the answer to all the problems they have career wise. So you get all the people that use ****, don't do hands on, obtain an Mcse before that have a job doing anything, and serveral people that just flat lie and say they have the cert, because alot of employers never check.

So you Start hearing stuff like I gotta get it in one month, take a test a week. Come on what happened to knowing the technology, if you don't have any more respect for the trade or take any pride in the fact that you really are good at what you do and have to rely on a cert to make you think you are good, then maybe you should consider a career move.

Heres a thought, you can learn to drive a **** truck in about a month, provided you get hands on go try that.

Personally I am 4 tests away and after next week I hope that number to be 3. I worked LONG and Hard at this and will continue to do so, its now been 1.5 years since I passed my client exam, in that time I have been working with Ad, group policy, dns, minor cisco, medium sql and hope that I never feel paper certified in anything.

I guess my final thought is I wish Microsoft would go to a all lab final test or something similar to the ccie. From the stories I have heard, a ccie interview doesn't have near the Technical drilling that an Mcse interview does. I have not had an interview yet as a Microsoft admin where I wasn't drilled for atleast thirty minutes.

Sorry to rant, but I feel that the market being saturated with paper certs hurts legit peoples income and this is something that burns me.

jbaello

bowulf wrote:

I skipped the NT4 track, so I can only speak from 2000 track and upgrade 2003 exams.

Windows 2000 - 5 months (the core tests were done every 2 weeks after taking a month to read the MS Press books -- I had already worked with the technology for 2 years at that point)

Windows 2003 - within a month of the 292/296 release

As for how much the MCSE is or is not worth, my company still requires "engineer" certification (CNE/MCSE/RHCE) for all new administrators or probation if they don't have it. It might not mean as much due to the prevalence in the market as a differentiator between two opposing candidates, but that does not lessen its importance to have in my eyes. In interviewing people, not having one immediately brings to question commitment to education and self-improvement. So while one might not get hired because they have one, they might not get hired if they don't.

I think it just all depends on the company one of our jr. System Administrator doesn't have jack except MCP and a degree the other jr. System Administrator just got 270 and 290, I never had one until July of 2007 but I've been in the field for 5 years, some companies wants you to be an all around tech jobs and will try to pay you retarded salary, our company actually has different spot and specialty for each technology unix|network|windows|desktop support.

I guess whatever you have network + or just CCNA it's up to you to make it happen.

my 2 cents