What do you suggest I take?

This is in relation to my New Horizons thread. It looks like I have a good chance of budgeting either MCSE or CCNP into our grant we might be getting. I am undecided on which one to take currently for a couple of reasons:

MCSE: This is offered at the local community college and I actually start with XP Pro at the end of May. The MCSE track works me toward an Associates degree in networking. I have to confirm this but my teachers told me before that any class I have a cert in already I can skip and get credit for, so I could skip and get credit for almost 24 hours of college by taking this training at New Horizons.
I will be the first to admit I am extremely strong in networking and weak in Microsoft as my job centers around networking not systems. I am worried that by doing the training at NH I will miss alot of important information, hence my post of their reputation which looks very good so far.

CCNP: Is not offered at the local college or anywhere near me. I will have to buy all my material and equipment myself for this cert. By doing this one at NH I will save myself alot of money since it will be free.
I am really strong in networking with 4 years experience working on all this by myself: (I have permission to show these)
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=331&folderid=142151&groupid=194783&folderview=thumbs&ck=
I think that even if the training is fast paced with CCNP I can keep up where as with MCSE I may fall behind.

Based on the responses about NH they are a good company so now I just have to decide which one I want to "try" and get budgeted into this grant if we get it. I just wanted to get some opinions on what you guys would do or suggest.

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Comments

viper75

hmmm...that's a tough one.

I would personally pick the free CCNP. That's just my opinion. I'm more of a Cisco guy. I'm taking some Microsoft classes at my local college myself and from what I have noticed and what I was told by a few of my Prof.'s the books that are used in colleges for the MS courses only brush the surface of the material(MicrosoftPress Books).

The MS classes will ofcourse help you somewhat, but you won't really be prepared for the Cert. exam after the course is over. You'll will have to spend a lot of time on your own studying. My Prof. recommends the Sybex books for the study material for the Cert. exams. (Cisco and Microsoft).

Curious to see what you decide post what road you decide to take.

bellboy

look at it this wasy, there are probably more m$-certified people out there than cisco certified people. even if there are more opportunities for m$ people, it is still likely that supply will outstrip demand.

cisco appears to take more time to get certified in (to the level you speak of in your post), though, but in my region of late the better-paid jobs ask for mcse or ccna. ccna is one exam, mcse is seven

halflife78

After further research they only offer the first test for CCNP certification not the whole series. I am going to take it later, I have to choose from MCSE, Security+, Linux+, and Project+ it looks like.

mbeaven

I would go with the MCSE over the Comptia certs. With the exception of A+ I have yet to run into a recruiter or HR person who knows what the others are (just my own personal experience).

I just did one of the Microsoft hands-on security labs at a NH and I thought they were pretty well setup. The instructor seemed knowledgeable and although I had to leave early they gave me a quick tour of the facility and also the cisco lab. I hope I get a chance to go back.

SniperHunter

I personally would go for the CCNP grant. Im taking that track now at a tech school im going to, its good stuff. I applied on careebuilder.com to the New Horizons add they had about internships in the IT field, im going to a seminar they are having on tuesday in the city