MCSE Exams

jamieh

Hey all,

I'm half thinking of doing the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer course, part-time during the Summer.

Has anyone ever done this course and the exams?

How much does it cost??

What are the benefits of having the qualification etc etc??

Tom Dunne

This question might be suited to the all new IT Certification forum.

ntlbell

We really need a sticky somewhere for this.

The courses are usually nothing more than an instrcutor with no real world exp reading from the same book you have in your hand.

(they're are exceptions)

But usually you can't request an instructor.

If you can read then for the most part the courses are IMO a waste of money.

You can buy the MOC's online which will come with a copy of windows xp and windows 2003 which you can setup at home to do any hands on labs.

They also come with measure up which is a testing engine to prepare you for each exam.

The benifits are fairly obvious you're telling a potential employer you have a basic understanding of microsoft client and server os's.

Some companies require it, some companies don't care for it.

I personally don't care for it, and when interviewing I pretty much ignore it.

It's never got me a job it's never lost me a job.

Ginger

One of the new things out there is exam insurance..

No while i dont advise buying it in its native form, the current offer of getting a years TechNet Plus Direct subscription is mighty enticing especially when its 450 lids.

The bonus of it is that you will get all the MS O/S stuff as evaluation and the server software. Which if you are doing an MCSA/MCSE is very handy.

I dont know how much the thing works out at, I will be checking today so hopefully it wont be too much

mick.fr

Well MCSE is a long and difficult process. I have 3 MCSE I suffered a lot...

Cost : Expensive but you might have it financed by the European Union through the FAS at 60%. Still you would have to pay 4000 euros or more. Check with a training company such as New horizons in Dublin for example to get the exact figures.

Getting an MCSE on 2003 with little experience usually takes between 3 months and more depending of many factors (Amount of work, time spent on it...).

So the investment is pretty huge, but the benefits are as well.
Do not expect to get a very nice salary just after you get your MCSE because many companies do not realize the investment done and it is quiet usual to find job offers at 20k (And less) for an MCSE on 2003.
But after a few years if you keep passing exams the reward is huge, especially if you worked on design.

In my opinion a company seeking for an MCSE on 2003 at 20K does not deserve to hire such guy, even if the guy is pretty new to the IT.
In total a MCSE cost more than 10k so no need to bother to get a 20k job after that. There are lots of field engineer jobs out there for at least 35k, which makes more sense.

galactus

I did the MCSE exams and it took me a couple of years. Definitely set up a lab using VMWare (or whatever) for and read, read, read. I Would recommend the MS Press books for the exams and Minasi for understanding. MS KB articles and Technet are required reading also.

I didn't do any courses, would have been nice to have done one or two but hands on is the trick, was managing a network by the time I started the exams. I know they cost a fortune. Exams are €100 each and you do about 7-10 of them, depending on your route.

Plan your route to MCSE, read the official requirements. Have you thought of MCSA as a stepoing stone? If you have A+ or Net+ you can use these towards your MCSA (and thus your MCSE).

Blogged a bit of my study notes, HTH.

mick.fr

galactus wrote:

Exams are €100 each and you do about 7-10 of them, depending on your route.

Nowadays it is 140 euros with Prometric and 170 euro with VUE.

Shad0r

Part time if you do a "proper" MCSE, it will take you the guts of a year. Obviously if you want to step up the pace, you could do it more quickly (with New Horizons).

With the EU FAS funding New Horizons were offering the MCSE for €2,360. That included the 8 MOC* books (approx 200 quid each) and the cost of all 7 exams (€140 each).

* MOC = Microsoft Official Curriculum books.
These are the only manuals produced by Microsoft themselves. There is no legal way to buy these books without training in a Microsoft CPLS (Certified Partner for Learning Solutions). There are other cheaper books, for example Microsoft Press Books. However, as I understand it, these books are only made "in conjunction" with Microsoft.

mick.fr

Shad0r wrote:

* MOC = Microsoft Official Curriculum books.
These are the only manuals produced by Microsoft themselves. There is no legal way to buy these books without training in a Microsoft CPLS (Certified Partner for Learning Solutions). There are other cheaper books, for example Microsoft Press Books. However, as I understand it, these books are only made "in conjunction" with Microsoft.

Microsoft Press books that are specially designed to pass an exam, those with the exam number on the cover, are exactly the MOCs, but optimized for self-study.
Self-Study is fine for somebody who is already working in the IT industry and has some experience in the covered subject, but it is sometimes difficult to site down and relax trying to read 500 pages+ in a few days.

So professional training is usually the best solution for those who are too busy at work to take the time to read or for those who do not have any knowledge at all in a specific area.

mick.fr

Shad0r wrote:

With the EU FAS funding New Horizons were offering the MCSE for €2,360. That included the 8 MOC* books (approx 200 quid each) and the cost of all 7 exams (€140 each).

That is a really good deal, a week course is usually that price in any training center.
Full MCSE course is worth what 33, 35 days, something like that.

So yeah excellent deal, thanks mother Europe :-)