Starting the journey to the MCSE

I'm finally starting the journey to the MCSE now that I have had some time to relax and unwind after the Master's degree. This is more of a personal achievement that I would like to obtain. I'm sure the ROI will be great on this certification. However, I am moving more into management as I moved up to a Systems Admin which is actually more of an IT Manager in terms of my actual job role.

I have a lot of experience with AD, GPO, and Windows Server in general. Since, I completed the MCSA in the past this helps my familiarity. The goal is to be done by next June around my performance review timeframe.

Let the study and faith journey begin!!

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stunnedsoup

Awesome man! I plan to keep tabs on this thread to see your progress.

I have to ask, what path/exams are you planning to take?

Best of luck!

markulous

You can do it!

Dakinggamer87

stunnedsoup wrote: »

Awesome man! I plan to keep tabs on this thread to see your progress.

I have to ask, what path/exams are you planning to take?

Best of luck!

I plan to take the 70-410/411/412 then either 413 or 414 depending on which one I prefer.

Dakinggamer87

markulous wrote: »

You can do it!

Thanks bud!!

stunnedsoup

Dakinggamer87 wrote: »

I plan to take the 70-410/411/412 then either 413 or 414 depending on which one I prefer.

Good deal! Sorry, I totally missed where you noted this in your sig.

Happy studying!

Eightn9ne

All the best mate!

This is on my bucket list as a personal achievement as well. I never went to uni though so me obtaining an MCSE would be an achievement that I'd be pretty proud of.

People that aren't in IT may not know what an MCSE is but I guess we IT folks in this forum do know what it is and how damn hard it is to obtain (well, it's a journey for me at least)!

All the best for the both of us mate!

Dakinggamer87

Eightn9ne wrote: »

All the best mate!

This is on my bucket list as a personal achievement as well. I never went to uni though so me obtaining an MCSE would be an achievement that I'd be pretty proud of.

People that aren't in IT may not know what an MCSE is but I guess we IT folks in this forum do know what it is and how damn hard it is to obtain (well, it's a journey for me at least)!

All the best for the both of us mate!

Indeed!!

malachi1612

Good luck!

I started mine last month after achieving MCSA in Windows 10. But Im going down the Server 2016 route.

Dakinggamer87

Nice!! Best of luck to you

I did consider the Server 2016 route but I don't see enough Windows Server 2016 environments as of now so I figure I can always take the one upgrade exam if necessary down the road.

pizzaboy

All the best guys, plan to be starting that track as well from September. I will be tracking your progress and possibly probing you for info

Panther

Nice! Was your Master's online? Which school/program? I see WGU has Master's IT Management. Congrats by the way!

I'm thinking of a similar path, from 10+ years in tier 1 and 2 support.

Something management/sysadmin.

Dakinggamer87 wrote: »

I'm finally starting the journey to the MCSE now that I have had some time to relax and unwind after the Master's degree. This is more of a personal achievement that I would like to obtain. I'm sure the ROI will be great on this certification. However, I am moving more into management as I moved up to a Systems Admin which is actually more of an IT Manager in terms of my actual job role.

I have a lot of experience with AD, GPO, and Windows Server in general. Since, I completed the MCSA in the past this helps my familiarity. The goal is to be done by next June around my performance review timeframe.

Let the study and faith journey begin!!

Dakinggamer87

Panther wrote: »

Nice! Was your Master's online? Which school/program? I see WGU has Master's IT Management. Congrats by the way!

I'm thinking of a similar path, from 10+ years in tier 1 and 2 support.

Something management/sysadmin.

Online at WGU - MS - IT Management!!

greg9891

Excellent ! just give me a buzz if u need any exams study tips Brother.........I know you will do well.

Dakinggamer87

greg9891 wrote: »

Excellent ! just give me a buzz if u need any exams study tips Brother.........I know you will do well.

Thanks brother will do!!

I just started reviewing videos and taking practice exams to see what areas I need to brush up on as a lot of it's familiar territory. Some new stuff but nothing too bad.

Dakinggamer87

Books/Materials I am using for my studies:

-Microsoft Official Press Books (70-410, 411,412,413/414)
-Sybex: Mastering Windows Server 2012 R2
-CBT Nuggets/PluralSight/YouTube

pizzaboy

I am about halfway through the pluralsight videos. Seems like mostly review from 2008 material with the exception of all the powershell stuff.
I read through Ch 1 of the MS press so nothing too heavy as yet.

I also have the Sybex and the Don Poulton so am thinking that I will read those books alongside the MS Press to go deeper and of course follow up with some technet.

Dakinggamer87

pizzaboy wrote: »

I am about halfway through the pluralsight videos. Seems like mostly review from 2008 material with the exception of all the powershell stuff.
I read through Ch 1 of the MS press so nothing too heavy as yet.

I also have the Sybex and the Don Poulton so am thinking that I will read those books alongside the MS Press to go deeper and of course follow up with some technet.

Great plan!! So far lots of review indeed from the MS Press from '08 with PowerShell being the exception memorizing those cmdlets..

Dakinggamer87

New update: Halfway through MS Press book. I will start labs soon then doing lots of practice exams. I'm hoping to schedule first exam by end of October/beginning of November.

Louie1277

pizzaboy wrote: »

I am about halfway through the pluralsight videos. Seems like mostly review from 2008 material with the exception of all the powershell stuff.
I read through Ch 1 of the MS press so nothing too heavy as yet.

I also have the Sybex and the Don Poulton so am thinking that I will read those books alongside the MS Press to go deeper and of course follow up with some technet.

I'm on the same road. Half way on the pluralsigh videos for the 70-411 . I know watching the videos and doing the lab has always helped me. I give myself other 1 month to take the exam.

Being a little scare on taking the 411 for the first time. I know taking the 410 it took me a while to pass but never gave up.

pizzaboy

What I especially liked about the videos is the fact that both those guys are in love with powershell. So everything they can do with powershell they demonstrate.
I've been delinquent with the reading (been having too much fun with the videos), so it's back to that now that the videos are over.

Only halfway through CH2

need to get cracking!!

Dakinggamer87

We're all making progress that's what counts!! The book gets dry at times tho but what tech book doesn't to an extent...

pizzaboy

They usually are but when the topic is interesting and something I've never touched before I get excited. CH2 is basically reviewing WDS using MDT2013 etc. Maybe when I play around with the new powershell commands it will liven things up.

usman4673

@Dakinggamer87: Nice to see you going after MCSE. All the best! I have sent you a PM, please reply whenever you can.

Dakinggamer87

Update: Scheduling at the end of November the 70-410 exam so practice test time and review of PowerShell commands!!

pizzaboy

All the best.

Dakinggamer87

pizzaboy wrote: »

All the best.

Thanks man

stunnedsoup

Good deal! Best of luck. Hoping you can knock this out before Thanksgiving. That way you can relax for a bit!

Dakinggamer87

So an update my plan was to take it before Thanksgiving but we know life happens lol.. So I pushed it to end of January for the first of the four exams due to having VDI training in December on VMware Horizon and building a new data center. I will be leading the project on the software and hardware implementation and architecture of the diagrams!!

So I am excited about that but I still plan to study for the MCSE. I feel an extra month would be good to give me enough time to have a buffer in between projects.

Dakinggamer87

February 10th is the day I attack this exam in the test center!!

Louie1277

Man good luck and keep us posted.