Passed my first Exam! Ummm, now what?

I acquired all the materials to get the Windows 7 Configuration Certificate, but free exam and discounts of the Virtualization Challenge caused me to divert my studies and come back to desktop after.

I had the support of my manager who knew she will get the word from above soon to lay some of us off, so I had unrestricted access to plenty of Hyper-V capable laptops for test networks. (I am very fortunate in that aspect.)

Last Friday I passed the 70-659 and am now a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist!

While my score is lower than most I am proud I was able to dedicate 2 months of my life to focus on learning something I had no experience in, and came out shining. According to my report I am weak in VDI, but you can ask me anything about making HAVM's and I feel I know it very well.

Plus without practice tests the exam was a lot harder than I expected. I was expecting "Which one of these Virtual networks allow you to communicate with the host and not the hosts network?" instead I got much more complicated troubleshooting questions, and ended up using most of the 2 1/2 hours for the test.

So now I have a short break (wedding prep, motorcycle rally prep, home repair) before I hide away to start back up my next cert. and now I'm not sure if I want to go for desktop or focus on server technologies....

Thanks to cyberguypr‎ for helping me past a huge roadblock in iSCSI, and thanks to Techexams.net for telling me what training materials were recommended, and giving me tips for mentally dealing with a looming layoff.

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Comments

cyberguypr

Congrats on the pass. I also passed the test Thursday. Labbing makes a great difference, doesn't it?

How the heck did you get the free exam? I called all my local training providers and no one was participating in this.

Are you planning on going with 70-680 now?

MrBreton

When I was ready to take the test I called Prometric and told them I wanted to take the Virtualization Challenge, and they proceeded to not know what I was talking about. I called Microsoft and they said sorry. Called prometric again and they told me the website to go to on their site, which told me sorry they were out of vouchers.

I was kind of upset to find out this late in the game that you have to secure a voucher first.

I knew I had one voucher from buying the $99 "Server Virtualization Jump Start" training, but that was going to be my backup "Re-take" voucher.

So I Googled "Microsoft Virtualization Challenge" and found other locations that were giving out certs.

New Horizons, Global Knowledge, LRS, and some others that aren't around here have/had certs. So I e-mailed New Horizons and they e-mailed me back a voucher and some training brochures.

Used this voucher for my exam, and saved the paid one for my retake.

I was a heck of a lot more confident taking the test knowing I had a retake available to me.

MrBreton

cyberguypr wrote: »

Are you planning on going with 70-680 now?

I can't decide if I should go all the way in Windows Desktop because I feel its more needed, or if I should finish Virtualization because I started it and its possibly a higher pay grade.

Edit: And I might be a pinch late, but I think Virtualization is the future for server rooms and I shouldn't miss this boat.

N2IT

Forgive me I am not huge into MS, but is there another Virtualization cert you can go after? VM is hot right now, it would seem that you might want to continue to hot hand.

What about SCCM or SCOM do you use those tool sets? A good friend and former co worker recently was certified in SCCM. Said he learned a lot was given a lot more responsibility at his current position.

Budzy

Congrats on passing this one - I would say it was one of the harder exams I took.

Dakinggamer87

Congrats on pass!!

lister

congratulations. Can you tell me your experience prior to this qualification? Thanks

whatthehell

Congratz on the pass!

Rcoffman86

There is a Virtualization Essentials course that comes with a certification exam. It is offered in an eLearning formati and is very Interactive. It really provides some great information.