Windows 7 before 8 or just skip 7?

Arod95

Hey guys I want to get MCSA Windows 8, but I wanted to know if should take Windows 7 too? I would love to both, but I would like to know how some people feel about it? I did that with server that i took 2008, and just did the upgrade exam afterwards. So can some people share their thoughts on what I should do? Thanks in Advance

ptilsen

Neither. I don't feel either would substantially help your resume. I'm not saying client certs don't matter, but you already have MCSE Server Infrastructure and the two most recent MCSAs. No reasonable employer could possibly expect you to not be pretty familiar with the client versions, and I don't think the exams would further prove your competence with them.

In my opinion, your efforts would be better spent elsewhere.

Arod95

Thanks for the reply @ptilsen. I didn't think about it that so I guess I'll look somewhere else then! really appreciate it anywhere you think specifically I should look at? I plan to do desktop infrastructure next year, and wish their was hyper-v cert really hard to learn it without any direction. Do you know if they have any books on it?

noisemonkey

don't know about books but microsoft virtual academy has some free courses : Virtualization

DoubleNNs

ptilsen wrote: »

Neither. I don't feel either would substantially help your resume. I'm not saying client certs don't matter, but you already have MCSE Server Infrastructure and the two most recent MCSAs. No reasonable employer could possibly expect you to not be pretty familiar with the client versions, and I don't think the exams would further prove your competence with them.

I'm currently studying for the CCNA. After the CCNA I was originally planning on going for the MCSA 2008 - starting w/ the Network Infrastructure exam. However, a large amount of the jobs in my region (for my experience level) want Win 7 experience. I don't have much Win 7 experience other than being a casual user - I switched over to Mac OS X 2 years ago on my personal comp and I use Linux at work.

I was wondering if It would be smarter to go for the Win 7 exams after finishing my CCNA, to tailor my skills for the jobs in my area, or to simply go for the MCSA and hope that future employers won't ask me to do too much on the client side?

Arod95

my opinion is to do both. which that's what I decided to do recently cause you learn so much about servers you forget the different rules that apply to clients. I plan to go both routes just to feel confident I know both sides of the story.

ptilsen

The smartest thing for you to do to deal with that need would be to cater your resume to it. Show your experience with Windows 7, and know enough about it to talk about it. The Windows 7 cert in particular isn't going to help you that much. I would say it is largely irrelevant to most positions and what will actually be expected of you. This has always been the case with MS client certs (although I haven't looked at 8 ), which in terms of their content are more geared towards desktop engineering and deployment than the support knowledge the entry-level market craves. Now if you really don't know the OS that well, then maybe you should study just for that reason.

Don't get me wrong, the cert could help you, but if you feel you're ready for server-level Microsoft exams, I wouldn't take the client-level pit stop. In my opinion, 70-680 lost a lot of its value when MS decided to **** the MCITP nomenclature.

TechGuy215

I would probably say 7 before 8. You don't see many 8 machines in a current business environment. Typically most places are still mixed environment with XP and 7, at least in my experience.

DoubleNNs

@ ptilsen - I have a lot of experience w/ Windows: 3.1 - Vista while growing up. I considered myself a power user (tho now that I'm getting further into IT I'm starting to doubt that self-proclamation because I'm starting to see REAL power-users lol.)
I'm sure I could create a Win 7 VM and just play around with it to get intimate w/ the differences between Vista and Win 7. However, I see a lot of Desktop Support Positions that request Win 7 deployment skills and backup/restore, in addition to support knowledge.

Would I still be fine skipping the Win 7 exam and going straight to server even tho positions prefer deployment skills?
(I only have a few months of IT experience at this point.)

@ Arod95 - do you suggest doing server or client Windows certification first? I'm trying to plan out my next step after CCNA.

Arod95

Client first based on what I read on both its easier and some concepts you learn in client you'll see again in server.

horusthesun

The company I work for are going toward Windows 7 and 8
I been asked to help with the deployment

for that I say, why not both ? ...

Ivanjam

@DoubleNNs - the 70-685 exam is more desktop support oriented than its deployment cousin the 70-680 - together they give you the MCSA Windows 7 cert, which is, arguably, the best entry-level Windows cert out there.

Devilsbane

ptilsen wrote: »

Neither. I don't feel either would substantially help your resume. I'm not saying client certs don't matter, but you already have MCSE Server Infrastructure and the two most recent MCSAs. No reasonable employer could possibly expect you to not be pretty familiar with the client versions, and I don't think the exams would further prove your competence with them.

In my opinion, your efforts would be better spent elsewhere.

While this is great advise, as ptilsen points out, employers will assume you have this knowledge already. If you don't, then you had better get it. I find certs are a good way to learn new things, and if you are going to invest that much time into learning a technology, you might as well spend a couple bucks to ensure you learned what you were supposed to as well as get the added bragging rights. If you don't care about the paper and want to save a few bucks, then pick up a book and do some light study before you move on to bigger and better things.