MS 680,685 and 686 exams

IanDD

Hi Guys,

Im very new, so if i post incorrectly please let me know.

Mine is a very general question, I have recently passed the following exams:

Microsoft 70-680, 70-685 and the 70-686.

My question is what is the worth of these exams in the real world. I am currently working as a Desktop Support Technician and the company I work for paid for me to go on the above courses.

On my return to work we have been told that their is a good chance that some of us are going to get laid off in the next six months. I am trying to search for jobs but I can not find anywhere what kind of jobs I should be going for or the kind of salary I should be looking at.

I currently live in the UK and have googled but I do not find any guides that equate these certifications to job roles or salarys.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

DoubleD

looking at between about 12-18 K per year I would say
I get 15

za3bour

Well you currently have the following certificates

MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Administrator 7

MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support Technician 7


So you should look for jobs that requires these certificates and I think there are many. If the company is paying for courses why don't you convince them to let you do the MCITP-EA as well (which is another 4 exams for you) and by this your chances of finding a new job will be bigger.

I wouldn't worry about layoff, I would try to study at the mean time and try to have more certs so in case I'm unemployed I will have a better chance finding a new job.

IanDD

Many thanks for your replys,

I thought the 70-686 was for MPTIP-EA, I am not very good when it comes to microsoft certs as they seem to change them evey few minutes!

za3bour

IanDD wrote: »

Many thanks for your replys,

I thought the 70-686 was for MPTIP-EA, I am not very good when it comes to microsoft certs as they seem to change them evey few minutes!

True indeed, they have many MCITP certificates and it's really confusing

The MCITP-EA (Enterprise Administrator) has 5 exams (640,642,643,647 and one client exam (like 680))

If you have experience with Windows Server I would say go for it.

IanDD

Many thanks za3bour,

I may well start doing some server exams, think I am going to have a couple of weeks off first thou, learning and taking the 70-680, 685, 686 in 7 days has left me mentally worn out!

But i definately have the certification bug now thou!

veritas_libertas

xSequentialx wrote: »

how the hell can someone learn and pass the 70-680, 685 and 686 in 7 days

Only with ****

IanDD

well it wasnt really cramming it, I already had 5 years of server side knowledge, studied 16 hours a day for the 7 days, and I only used the official microsoft press books, I just condensed the learning.

The 680 and the 686 exams were very similar apart from group policy being added, and most of the 685 exam was general helpdesk problem solving.

The course I attended was also led by a very good microsoft certified trainer and was a bloody hard slog, I would highly recommend Firebrand as a training provider.

The fact I already knew DHCP, DNS and SCCM/WDS from a work environment helped. But I never used any kinda **** but did use some measurup exams just to get used the type of questions.

Suppose I did cram but I still needed to learn the subject matter to pass the exams!