Training for 680/685?

Carlsal

Hey Folks! New to the forums and I've found a TON of great info here, so first of all THANK YOU for all that you do.

First, a bit about myself... I've been working with computers for a long while now, but currently my full time position is level 3 tech support for a major cell phone company in the US. I do deal with TS'ing TCP/IP configs with mobile routers and the like, but it's not as focused on computers as I would like. I have my A+ and Network+ out of the way already, and I'm wondering what my next steps should be, and more importantly how to go about them...

A word about goals... short term I'd like to move to something more help desk style dealing with internal customers. This is an option at my current employer but opportunities are few and far between. Long term I'd like to move into either help desk management or something in the networking side of things.

So, right now, I'm enrolled in courses through work (starting in a couple weeks, can still drop) and a college they partner with for 2 courses that will end up with the 680 and 685 exams and that cert... my question is how necessary do you think this is? I have worked with this college before and when I took my Network+ through them it was just the CBT Nuggets class for it picked up and revamped with practice exams and things. I'm thinking this may be the same thing. If it's possible I'd like to avoid having 22 weeks of courses and almost $3k out of pocket for my employer if it's reasonable to accomplish without it.

So, I guess that's my preliminary question....

Oh, also, I've seen quite a few job postings calling for ITIL V3 certification?? I've not heard of it till now... worth it?

Thanks again for the great board everyone... I look forward to being in here a lot and hopefully contributing soon!

tbgree00

I think those windows 7 certs will be directly in line with your goals. From my recent experience many companies are starting to roll out 7 and going forward you won't be bad off if you have it. It's possibly to pass without a course if you have the toys to play with for some hands on. I studied for a few months for the 680 and got it in early 2010 but I had been using 7 Enterprise since the release candidates. You would probably get a lot of the image creation and deployment stuff from the course which is a good part of the test.

As far as ITIL it's a pretty big deal on large helpdesks. My previous contract forced their employees to get it within a year of starting. It can help with project management and documentation but I don't see a ton of value for it in my case. Since you're in a large company it may make sense for you, though!