Job requires cert after employment

sorry for double posting, I meant to post it here in this forum (IT jobs)

play out this scenario....

You only have minor experience with the IT field, and you are studying for your first cert (A+). Your about half way through the book and yesterday you just finished an interview for IT support. At this position, the company requires you to obtain an MCP within the first 6 months of being there.

Is it possible? I'm not doubting myself, actually I'm pretty excited about it. Talk about motivation!

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Comments

Jrmicon

Obtaining an MCP w/in 6 months should be easy, that is just one test.

janmike

SpEkTrE! Dude! It's time to smell the roses!

Sounds like a good proposition--excellent motivation.

Did you get hired?

SpEkTrE

janmike wrote:

Did you get hired?

I hear ya!

I should hear back later next week.

But on another note....

Should I give a thank you by email or write a hand written one?

janmike

I would definitely expend the energy to write up a business-letter style of thank you note to the person who conducted the interview. It will come across his/her desk in style if it comes by USPS. This makes sure that your name stays fresh in mind. Although they may not personally make the final decision about the hire, this is the best thing that you're able to do at the present time.

Just say that you appreciate the time taken to meet with you for an interview, and that you look forward to working for the company(something like that anyway). Make it short and sweet so that you don't tie them up for long.

Best of luck!

tahjzhuan

What's the title of the position if you don't mind? I consider myself entry to mid level IT and I was starting to think entry IT jobs didn't exist.

mynameisboring

I wouldn't send a thank you letter;

The guy should be busy enough with other things. I can't see it hurting your chances of landing a job, but I don't see it improving too. Honestly now, if you are getting hired for a tech support job who cares if you write a good letter or not. Most of it will be by new age methods like the phone and email

SpEkTrE

tahjzhuan wrote:

What's the title of the position if you don't mind? I consider myself entry to mid level IT and I was starting to think entry IT jobs didn't exist.

It's IT Support Analyst. Entry level for a local IT company

Main Event

Where on the East Coast are you if you don't mind me asking and what are your qualifications?

Orion82698

Don't send a letter. If you left a good impression at the interview, then you will get hired.

SpEkTrE

Main Event wrote:

Where on the East Coast are you?

Delaware

garv221

Good luck. In an interview, always say you are currently studying toward some exam. Make it known you want more certs. It shows Initiative.

turtlenodhead

I did my CCNA in 5 days
Comptia LINUX+ 2 days
JSCD in 1 day

Tried MCP in 2 days failed (i got 50%, passing is 70%)
I'm retaking it tomorrow after 4 days study
I think I'll fail again, but it's ok because I can retake it after 14 days

I'm consider myself below average to the computer student in my university. so as long as you have determination and good study material you can do it

MCP test takes 80$US so even if you fail just try again

/usr

Unless you have a great prior knowledge of the material, there's no way you'll pass an exam after two days, so don't try.

I did my CCNA in 5 days
Comptia LINUX+ 2 days
JSCD in 1 day

halflife78

turtlenodhead,

You did your CCNA in 5 days? As in you picked up some study material and in 5 days passed the test with no prior knowledge of CCNA?

/usr

turtlenodhead

After reading another post where you scored a 496 on Sec+ and seeing how you passed these tests in such a short time, it leads me to ask this question, though you will probably deny it if you are. Do you use braindumps?
Since this is just not possible for the average person unless they have loads of experience in various field, I think that you're either lying or using braindumps.
I apologize if you do in fact have experience and are passing these exams legitimately.

halflife78

Well, I was indirectly heading to the same question lost is asking. I know I have 4 years experience with networking (using Nortel gear), took the Academy classes at a local college, and still failed my first time around. There is no way possible you learned CCNA or any of the rest in that short a period of time. I am assuming you don't have any experience since your post make it seem like you are a student student, so if I am wrong I apologize.

turtlenodhead

i have an university degree, and I took courses which teach some basic network protocols. JSCP's passing score is 52%, I passed with 57%, I know C++. Comptia Linux+ is an entry level exam, since my university faculty only have linux OS so I at least have know basic linux command.
15 hours of gruling study everyday helps.

I didn't take sec+. I tried WINXP 70-270 exam. Studied for 2 days and went and get below 50%(70% is pass). I'm going to try again tomorrow after 4 days of study.

i don't even know what braindump are. If you mean they are previous exam, I would have buy it if I have money. The only source I have are textbook, i bought at Amazon.com, and finding as much free test question on the web as possible.

Only reason I rush through all this is because I need to get a job asap.
I dont have a job now. I would have taken courses if I have money but I don't.

garv221

"I did my CCNA in 5 days
Comptia LINUX+ 2 days
JSCD in 1 day"

turtlenodhead...

Every one of us whom hold a cert….It has now been devalued...Thank You for being "that guy"!!!

Webmaster

turtlenodhead wrote:

MCP test takes 80$US so even if you fail just try again

Johannodshead....

Here's a wise quote from one of our members in another forum:

jdmurray wrote:

My ultimate objective is not to pass any certification exam. Instead, I use the cert exams as a framework and motivation to study specific subjects in the fields of computer science and information technology. Passing an exam and getting a piece of paper to hang on my wall (and in my resume) is just a side benefit, and a nice one at that.

quickpot

turtlenodhead wrote:

MCP test takes 80$US so even if you fail just try again

I thought MS tests were $125? Where can I get it for $80, does anyone know?

garv221

Webmaster wrote:

turtlenodhead wrote:

MCP test takes 80$US so even if you fail just try again

Johannodshead....

Here's a wise quote from one of our members in another forum:

jdmurray wrote:

My ultimate objective is not to pass any certification exam. Instead, I use the cert exams as a framework and motivation to study specific subjects in the fields of computer science and information technology. Passing an exam and getting a piece of paper to hang on my wall (and in my resume) is just a side benefit, and a nice one at that.

Very True.

Webmaster

You can get them here:
www.getcertify4less.com/techexams.html
for $115

Sometimes they have vouchers that will expire in a couple of weeks to about a month and they sell them 4less....

quickpot

Swet, thanks very much Johan

turtlenodhead

really sorry for being impolite.

70-270 test in my region(taiwan) cost $80 without use of any voulcher.
not sure about the other test.

Certificate should be use as an add on. Having a certificate is only a start. The knowledge you learn and being able to perform task is more important.

Also I don't think people should say certificate is devalued. Since people shouldn't consider a CCNA/MCSE would make such a great impact when applying a job.

At least that is not as improtant in my region. Most of them really don't consider about the certificate, especially admistration cert such as CCNA/MCSE/LINUX+. Most of them want you to have knowledge and experience on an specific product, such as SQL or visualC++. Thus I believe having MCDBA or MCAD and use administrative cert MCSA/CCNA
will probably be most beneficial in the long run.

halflife78

Your missing the point here. Certs are kind of like money, when counterfiet money is introduced into the market if devalues all money. When people use **** to study they aren't studying at all, they are memorizing the answers to a bunch of questions they shouldn't of known in advance.

For you to of passed your CCNA in 5 days, you used a form of study material that let you go into the test ahead of time knowing the answers to questions on the test itself, and to clarify this situation am I mistaken here or correct, you took the test and when you did you had many questions you had already seen from study material?

This form of studying devalues certifications because when you try to be a marketable person, you will get hired based upon the knowledge they think you have from passing all these certifications or whatever experience you have. On your first day of a new job, you think that **** is going to come help you figure out how to setup a routing table, VLANS, and the configuration file between 4 subnets, a Layer 3 Cisco 3550, and a Cisco 2610 pushing traffic over a Frame Relay? What happens here is when you look dumbfounded the first thing ALL these people at this location think is that this so called CCNA cert if worthless. So the next Joe who tries to get a job after you are fired that spent 6 months studying for their CCNA and knows what he is doing doesn't have a chance in hell to get a job because of you. This is how that form of studying devalues certifications.

Also, you said a MCDBA is a highly regarded certification in your region. At the rate you are going you could have your MCDBA in under a month, but do you honestly think you are going to have a clue what is going on? Microsoft certifications build upon each other and you are already starting off bad. You know why you failed the 270 test your first time don't you? It's so new the **** haven't caught up to all the information yet unlike CCNA and Linux+.

Now if you are in the industry already and have been for awhile, I could understand passing in 5 days. But from what I gather you are a study still so you have no hands on experience. I also want you to understand that I am not trying to be an ass here, but I don't think you fully understand how much of a negative impact this has on the community as a whole, and quite frankly how much of an impact it will have on you when you get into that first job and don't have a clue what's going on.

turtlenodhead

Only study material for CCNA is Sybex Cisco Certificated Network Associate.

Linux+ I use sybex Linux+ and Thomson Linux + in death

Java I use 2 web tutorial

MCP I use Sybex Windows XP professional & exam from techexam and MC.MCSE.

All books bought from amazon.com.

I was saying a certificate is not enough. certificate still only means you know the basic. Having a comptia Linux+ cert only means you can do at most administrative jobs. Most company(in taiwan) are looking for people who are able to develop embedded system using linux kernel for peripheral equipment such as hardware(firewall, filter...).

Just as I'm saying having a MCDBA or MCAD is not enough. It's still the basic. You need to know things in deapth and be productive. Other interview I went to require you to be able to make professional GUI interface. Everything is about productivety and revenue in the Taiwan Job market.

It might be different from North American market.

And also if I was right I read from forum there are MCSE boot camp in which people finish all 7 test in 14 days. If you want to flame, flame them. And as far as I know they don't use braindumps. Most of people taking them have fair amount of experience in IT field.

The reason I fail MCP is because I have 2 days to read 630 pages of text book, installing WINXP takes time, experienced with them takes time. I'm not too bright too. But it's still a good experience knowing every question in microsoft test are lengthy.

2lazybutsmart

turtlenodhead wrote:

The reason I fail MCP is because I have 2 days to read 630 pages of text book, installing WINXP takes time, experienced with them takes time. I'm not too bright too. But it's still a good experience knowing every question in microsoft test are lengthy.

I'm sorry, but I think you're contradicting yourself a bit here. You think MCDBA's and MCSE's are just the beginning of the IT world, right? Fine! But what you're actually saying is analogous to the fact that a bachelor’s degree is just the very beginning in higher education. But you can't do a bachelor’s degree in 2 days, right? Or can you?? I suppose not.

I'm not going to speculate anything or draw any inferences from your post, but I can bluntly say that studying for only 2 days is completely unrealistic --unless one's extremely bright (which is probably not the case for 2 day crammers) or one has the capability of reading a 600 page book in like 2 seconds per page. Reminds me of Good Will Hunting. Even in such a circumstance, one would be forced to resort to braindumps, which would, of course, yield a bad result. I did MCSD which requires more effort than MCAD, and I can assure you that even a braindumper cannot do it in 2 days. ---Unless we're talking robots... Nah even robots can't do that. loolz

2lbs.

turtlenodhead

I'm not going to speculate anything or draw any inferences from your post, but I can bluntly say that studying for only 2 days is completely unrealistic

There are 14 day MCSE boot camps. From what I read a person tried it in MC.MCSE says it's basically a 14 hours a day course you do studying at night. I'm not sure if they actually do the 7 test within the timeline.

For My CCNA I didn't have too much of a trouble. Since I have network course in school which is mendatory. The difficulty(if without the cisco commands) are probably even more in depth. And I pretty much do 15 hours a day study for 5 straight day. Which should roughly be equivalent to a person studying 2.5 hours a day for 1 month.

And alot of the more basic stuff in CCNA should already be fairly general knowledge, like ip, default gateway, TCP/IP, DHCP, MAC address. We are pretty much implementing a simplified RIP simulation in our lab, using distance vector algorithm and actually using poison reverse and trigger updates... which is pretty much the RIP portion in the cisco OS, in which I believe very likely cisco OS are basically using linux kernel?? or do they use IC for faster speed?

so alot of those is pretty much general knowledge for a person who graduated university.

2lazybutsmart

I personally don't believe bootcamps are an efficient way of learning --especially learning hard topics like MCSE. Let's put the wizards and the ultra-smart aside. We're left with the normal, average people who learn first, then experiment, and only then claim to be knowledgeable. I'm not saying 14 days is not enough for a Microsoft, or probably even a Cisco, exam; what I'm saying is that whatever you do, don't learn the "certificate", learn the knowledge.

And if getting a job is so hard these days, look at all those people who just cram and "expedite" the process of learning just to get certified --and get a job, which they ultimately don't and instead, spoil it for the rest.

And alot of the more basic stuff in CCNA should already be fairly general knowledge, like ip, default gateway, TCP/IP, DHCP, MAC address. We are pretty much implementing a simplified RIP simulation in our lab, using distance vector algorithm and actually using poison reverse and trigger updates... which is pretty much the RIP portion in the cisco OS

Well those terms (ip address, default gateway and TCP/IP) are indeed worthy of being categorized under "general knowledge", but that's just the beginning (as you always put it) of the CCNA exam. RIP, in itself, is the beginning of routing protocols, too. The ultimate goal is learning all the advanced stuff --and mastering about everything related to the CCNA exam. This is how we all should learn. Not just cram for the exam and complain about failing later on. Again, I’m not saying you can’t fail if you study hard; but if you know, for instance, that you missed the command for activating an interface on a router, that should give you a hint on how you stand.

2lbs.

turtlenodhead

The ultimate goal is learning all the advanced stuff --and mastering about everything related to the CCNA exam.

CCNA in my opinion is pretty straight forward. There is nothing really complicated.

The problem is it have a very high level of passing. You need 86%?
so you need to make sure you cover all aspect of the exam. And it is a good idea because that's what CCNA is all about, making sure you cover all aspect about cisco router/switch without going too much in deapth.

The most complicated part about the CCNA exam is probably the WAN part. Because you don't really know how much in deaph you need to spend on the topic. The WAN section could be a topic on it's own. But fortunately Cisco believes you only need to know some of the very basic.

There is nothing advance that are really needed to master in CCNA. There is a passing score for a reason. Cisco believes you acquired enough knowledge if you are able to get a 86%. You can master CCNA but it's probably better time management if you try to broaden your knowledge. CCNA topic in itself is pretty narrow.

There are more advance topic. But I believe that's what CCNP and CCIE are for. And I'm sure in order to be good at CCNP you still need all the knowledge you acquire for CCNA. And if you really want to show people you are not just a test taking machine. There is the CCIE. I believe the lab exam is 8.5 hours long?? and passing percentage is 2-5% for first timer and 8-10% in general??

So try not to narrow too much in one field. Because unless if you are sure all you are going to be doing is router/switch configuration in your job. Don't need to be too focus on it. And if you forget something there are always sources you know you can reference to and find it fast.

And you can always spend a few days refreshing your memory before you take a adminstration jobs which require cisco configuration.

Can I ask you a few question on the MCAD and MCSD 2lbs?
Because I'm thinking of getting myself into it.
Which traking you take for the core requirements? If you took mainly Visual C.net can I ask is there any good book on the subject. And is it possible or does text book you bought come with evaluation copy of visual C.net?
And is there any suggestion or hint for following this career path?
And in itself is the topic more about "programming" or more about using the visual.net product.