Company is willing to pay for training in small amounts... thoughts?

Bacon_00 · January 2015

My company has offered to pay for training for me, however my boss will need to "sneak it in" to other expenses. He said $300-$500 "here and there" is probably about the max.

I wanted to take an MCSA bootcamp, but those cost about $5k lump-sum and are out of the question. I've looked for other classes, and they run around $2-3k.

The best idea I have right now is to have them bankroll self-study materials, but I've never really taken to self-study like some. I'm a good student in school, but I really struggle with motivating myself to self-study. I passed my CCENT with self-study, but it was quite a slog and I disliked it. I was unemployed at the time, too, so now with a full-time job (and a baby on the way!) I just don't see it being a path to success. I could probably force myself to do it, but I'm afraid of burning out.

Any ideas how I can get MCSA training that isn't these $2-3k crash-courses? Something that offers classes over a longer period of time and spreads out the expense?

Thanks a bunch!

ajs1976 · January 2015

look into Pluralsight and CBTNuggets. I think both have a monthly subscription option.

Bacon_00 · January 2015

Just thought of CBTNuggets -- that might be perfect. I know you can't pass the test on those alone, but CBT + a couple books + practice tests would probably be sufficient (from what I'm reading on here). I also have access to set up however many test/lab machines I want at work to mess around with stuff, which is a big plus.

Deathmage · January 2015

Bacon_00 wrote: »

Just thought of CBTNuggets -- that might be perfect. I know you can't pass the test on those alone, but CBT + a couple books + practice tests would probably be sufficient (from what I'm reading on here). I also have access to set up however many test/lab machines I want at work to mess around with stuff, which is a big plus.

If your on a tight budget get a desktop and put esxi 5.5 on it, as long as the suckered has a quad core (HT is even better) and say 8 to 16 GB'S of ram and for testing a large drive you can make a few VM's with 2008 R2 or 2013 R2 on them and just experiment. Literally making a windows domain with a Windows 7 box is the best way to learn for the MCSA.

Microsoft offers 60 day trials of server 2008/2013 and windows 7, even though after 60 days it won't be legit it will still work.

Once you have a small lab, the read along is much easier to absorb.

If you need help with the lab let me know. Myself or others on here can build out something with a budget range to work with...

Best of luck to you!

Bacon_00 · January 2015

Deathmage wrote: »

If your on a tight budget get a desktop and put esxi 5.5 on it, as long as the suckered has a quad core (HT is even better) and say 8 to 16 GB'S of ram and for testing a large drive you can make a few VM's with 2008 R2 or 2013 R2 on them and just experiment. Literally making a windows domain with a Windows 7 box is the best way to learn for the MCSA.

Microsoft offers 60 day trials of server 2008/2013 and windows 7, even though after 60 days it won't be legit it will still work.

Once you have a small lab, the read along is much easier to absorb.

If you need help with the lab let me know. Myself or others on here can build out something with a budget range to work with...

Best of luck to you!

Great advice -- thanks! I actually have access at work to make however many 2008/2012 VM's I want (within reason), and have actually already set up my own little test domain to screw around on. So I won't lack for a sandbox to break/fix/learn on, which is half the battle. So with that all set, I'm hoping CBT Nuggets + a textbook + some practice labs will be enough to get me through the tests.

Louie1277 · January 2015

Deathmage wrote: »

If your on a tight budget get a desktop and put esxi 5.5 on it, as long as the suckered has a quad core (HT is even better) and say 8 to 16 GB'S of ram and for testing a large drive you can make a few VM's with 2008 R2 or 2013 R2 on them and just experiment. Literally making a windows domain with a Windows 7 box is the best way to learn for the MCSA.

Microsoft offers 60 day trials of server 2008/2013 and windows 7, even though after 60 days it won't be legit it will still work.

Once you have a small lab, the read along is much easier to absorb.

If you need help with the lab let me know. Myself or others on here can build out something with a budget range to work with...

Best of luck to you!

Well I think that would be cool for everyone around here on how to build a correct lab using ESXI I believe you could run hyper-v nested inside esxi right?

Louie1277 · January 2015

Well good for you . I notice I learn better when i'm in a class room or doing example lab work. that's how I learn plus some reading on my own. The only issue is that when I do have a question or stuck who do i ask google? haahah ... I guess everyone has there way of learning...

For me I need some kind of structure for me to follow ... Step by step to build and learning

mjnk77 · January 2015

Local community colleges may offer the program at a decent price. Prices range from a few hundred to a couple grand. I'll send you a PM.

Company is willing to pay for training in small amounts... thoughts?

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