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MCSE 2000 looking to get MCITP:EA certified - What am I in for?
StoopidMonkey81
Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
Hi everybody!
I'm new to these forums and am looking for some advice about getting MCITP certified. Some background: I attended community college in my early 20's and got MCSE 2000 certified after the hands-on coursework I did there. I landed a job at a smallish company as a junior network admin and 7 years later I find myself thinking it's time to move on. As the senior (and now only) admin I'm making $50K right now and I suspect I could do a lot better even as a non-management network administrator, though I'm not sure if that's true in today's market (I'm in the NJ/PA area). During my employment here I tried upgrading to MCSE 2003 but despite many tries I could not pass The Beast known as 70-292 and have heard many horror stories that tell me I'm not alone. That brings me to today where I realize that if I get the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator 2008 (with the Windows 7 course) cert it will greatly improve my chances of landing a new job.
All that said, I was wondering if you all could share some practical experience as to what these exams are like vs the MCSE exams of old. Are any of them as challenging as the dreaded 70-292? I've heard a lot of great things about the CBT Nuggets training courses and will likely use them over textbooks in order to get up to speed. I also wonder how many months it'll take me to get through it all since I'm still employed full time. So that's my situation and any advice or tips you have are greatly appreciated. I hope it'll be worth it in the end!
I'm new to these forums and am looking for some advice about getting MCITP certified. Some background: I attended community college in my early 20's and got MCSE 2000 certified after the hands-on coursework I did there. I landed a job at a smallish company as a junior network admin and 7 years later I find myself thinking it's time to move on. As the senior (and now only) admin I'm making $50K right now and I suspect I could do a lot better even as a non-management network administrator, though I'm not sure if that's true in today's market (I'm in the NJ/PA area). During my employment here I tried upgrading to MCSE 2003 but despite many tries I could not pass The Beast known as 70-292 and have heard many horror stories that tell me I'm not alone. That brings me to today where I realize that if I get the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator 2008 (with the Windows 7 course) cert it will greatly improve my chances of landing a new job.
All that said, I was wondering if you all could share some practical experience as to what these exams are like vs the MCSE exams of old. Are any of them as challenging as the dreaded 70-292? I've heard a lot of great things about the CBT Nuggets training courses and will likely use them over textbooks in order to get up to speed. I also wonder how many months it'll take me to get through it all since I'm still employed full time. So that's my situation and any advice or tips you have are greatly appreciated. I hope it'll be worth it in the end!
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LCA
Member Posts: 215
I've completed the last MCITP:EA exam (647) a couple of days ago.
First think about what order will work best for you. Putting aside The Windows 7 70-680 exam (which is no pushover) aside for a moment. I recommend doing 70-643 (Applications Infrastructure) second last and 70-647 (for me easily the most chalenging) last of the four server exams. The order the 70-640 active directory exam and network infrastructure 70-642 exam? Well it's a matter of personal preference which to do first.
As for the 70-680 exam I did it first as have many others who have done the MCITP:EA track. Though it could easily be done last. It took me a year almost to the day from when I started studying 680 till completing the 647 exam.
All this is IMHO....... -
OptionsDaniel333
Member Posts: 2,077 ■■■■■■□□□□
Just get to it. You are looking at 200-300 hours of study depending on experience. But I wouldn't worry too much about the cert. Just get on it!
Couldn't also hurt to look into diversification of your skills. Toss some Cisco or Linux on that fire?-Daniel -
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za3bour
Member Posts: 1,062 ■■■■□□□□□□
Well I was on a good track (check my signature) but I had to change job and move to another country so thats why I didn't take 70-647 yet (The EA exam).
I think with organization and proper time management you can actually finish the 6 exams required to be both MCITP-EA and MCITP-SA in 6 months or less.
My advice to you is to get more than one resource of reading (I usually get both MS and Sybex books) and LAB
The key is to lab as much as you can, do it yourself each and every single command that will really help you in the tests.
I did pass some old exams like Win Pro 2000 and ISA and I can say exams now are actually harder. I havn't heard of any beast for 2008 tracks though.
For me all exams are easy if I'm prepared well and vise versa. Good Luck for you