Career Progression and MS Certs

Syy

Hi Techexamers

Im hoping you can help me out with a bit of advice.

First off a bit about me. I am 30, i have 5 years experience as a 1st/2nd line Desktop Technician supporting XP and Win7. I have a CompTia A+ which was obtained quite a while back and i am currently studying ITIL Foundation (my company wanted me to do it).I would like to take my career to the next level hopefully with some help from MS Certifications.

I am very keen on SharePoint and Lync so becoming a specialist in one of these areas would be my end goal however i realise i am quite a distance from that goal. Another issue i have is that my current role doesn't give me any exposure to working with or on servers so unfortunately i have no experience in this area. I know that i need to have a firm understanding of server technologies to reach my goal therefore i have some questions regarding the MCSA Server 2012 certification which im hoping you guys can help me with..

• Given my current role and lack of server experience would this certification be worth pursuing? or would you guys recommend any requisites before undertaking the MCSA? MTA maybe

• I have heard that alot of the 2012 material "expects" you to have knowledge of server 2008? Does anybody know if this is true? if so would you recommend pursuing 2008 instead?

Any help is much appreciated, I would also be really interested to here from anybody who has been in my current position and has followed this path.

Cheers

Simon

BGraves

Hi there Syy,

I noticed no one had replied to your post here, so I thought I'd stop by and say hi.
I see from one of your previous posts here back in 2012, you basically ask the same thing and state you're in about the same position as then.

I think the advice given then still holds true today.

If you want to pursue some hands on with servers, download evaluation copies from the microsoft website and use virtual machines to build a home lab. Then you'll be able to practice at your lesiure and get the hands on you need.

MTA's are great for foundational level knowledge, so if thats where you are at then by all means, pursue those. It might get you on the right track for success. I've never taken them but others here have and I don't see a lot of complaints.

My thought for your current situation would be to pursue a Windows Desktop MCSA, as you mention you work on Windows 7.
Second shot offers are available till May 31st, so that might be something to look in to if you're really motivated.

That might get you familiar with the Microsoft exams and get you headed in the right direction, then you could decide if you want to pursue a server OS MCSA, etc.