Advice needed on Windows 7

I am a recent UK mature graduate who gained a 1st in Business IT with a view to moving into IT. Since graduating I have passed my A+ to give me a better chance of getting a job but have the problem of every job needs 6 months experience so even though I have the skills I can't get a foothold in. I want to carry on building my skills and think that this course will be ideal but I see that it is advertised everywhere that you need a years eperience in IT to takle the exam. I have paid for online training for a year in most of the microsoft courses to pick and choose as I want but if I need a years experience I can't see I can even take the exams or is that just recommended. I see a lot of jobs will pay for employees to take the courses but I can't get in the jobs because I lack the experience so it's a catch 22 situation. Can anyone tell me if I can take the exams without being in the industry or should I just give up and get a macjob.

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Repo Man

That is just an experience recommendation and not a requirement.

DoubleD

CPAndy wrote: »

or should I just give up and get a macjob.

I tryed to get a MacJob but they didnt want me

DV27

CPAndy wrote: »

I am a recent UK mature graduate who gained a 1st in Business IT with a view to moving into IT. Since graduating I have passed my A+ to give me a better chance of getting a job but have the problem of every job needs 6 months experience so even though I have the skills I can't get a foothold in. I want to carry on building my skills and think that this course will be ideal but I see that it is advertised everywhere that you need a years eperience in IT to takle the exam. I have paid for online training for a year in most of the microsoft courses to pick and choose as I want but if I need a years experience I can't see I can even take the exams or is that just recommended. I see a lot of jobs will pay for employees to take the courses but I can't get in the jobs because I lack the experience so it's a catch 22 situation. Can anyone tell me if I can take the exams without being in the industry or should I just give up and get a macjob.

You dont need to be in the Industry to take any Microsoft certs - if anything you learning them right now show's a good indication to any potential employers that you're not just satisfied with your A+.

As Repo Man said, the experience factor can be flexible - you having Certs could easily put you above someone without certs but with the experience - it depends on the potential employee. Some plump for experience, some plump for certs. In the end I think it comes down to adaptability - if you know you can adapt to a working environment and learn fast then you could fit in just as much as someone who has been in a similar position before.

My advice would be to look around for IT apprentice positions (there are a few around) - you might not earn mega bucks but at the very least you'll gain that experience you need, and maybe put a foot in the door of that company for a permanent position (and pay rise). Have you thought about speculative approaches to companies that you may like to work for? At the very least you could gain feedback from them about their hiring philosophy..

All the best

DV27

fly2dw

Repo Man wrote: »

That is just an experience recommendation and not a requirement.

That post above is the truth of it.

However as DV27 is pointing out, in terms of a job, it depends what the potential employer is looking for.

The Microsoft certs in particular are just like instruction manuals. Imagine reading an instruction manual on assembling a product and using it. If you read it without actually having the product in front of you, you will get an understanding of how to assemble and use the product, but lack the experience and appreciation which reading and doing it at the same time can bring (In comparison, missing the hands on experience in a working production environment. There are things you might take for granted, and things that may not be covered etc).

It is kind of the same thing with Microsoft products. Fortunately part of this problem can be conquered with virtual labs or a home virtual network which you can setup to aid with your studies. However you never get that real experience of working with end users in a live infrastructure with all kinds of different configurations, applications, and people (Different technicians and teams etc).

I would say at this stage as it is only a client exam (Meaning an exam focusing on a operating system) you should study the Windows 7 exam regardless of the years experience. The experience is not as important in this instance as other more network or server orientated exams. Windows 7 is used in both home and work environments so experience can be gained more readily (From a basic functionality point of view and to work on some form of fluency within the OS). The year experience would probably be beneficial, but it is not to say that you cannot do this exam without it. Just make sure you read from a variety of sources, read up on every term that you are not sure about, and try to do as much hands on as possible.

If you are not working in the IT field ask people questions who are in the field, in regards to your studies. You might see some functionality in Windows 7 such as Bitlocker (As an example) and after reading up you may understand what it is and how it is setup, but as you are not in IT go to the forums (Like this one) and ask people about it. Ask what does Bitlocker mean to them in their organisations, how would they use it and why or why not etc, to get more of a real world insight.

I do understand your catch 22 situation and that is why I advise you to do this without the experience, because out of all of the certifications available over any platform, client exams are probably the more forgiving ones to do without experience. You should learn a lot from the course and it should give you a nice look of the horizon of the server world (Should you choose to go that route).

Best of luck