h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah, I know, it's M$ either way, but such is the way of the world.

I'm being made redundant at some point in the next year or so, and the company is offering £500 per person towards re-training, and I'd like to make use of it.

In my present job, I run, maintain, update, and generally look after, several databases and spreadsheets, and do occasional bits of VB coding in them too, and I've been doing that for about 2 years. I also do fairly low-level tech support stuff. That is say, if a computer stops working altogether, than that's someone else's job, but if you've lost the 'From' field in Outlook, then I can get that back for you.

So, in an effort to advance my career, what kind of course should I take to prove that I can do what I know that I can do? I understand that Micro$oft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) course is a stepping stone to the System Engineer (MCSE) course, but do you think I could jump right onto an MCSE, or should I go for a different route altogther?

What do you think? My life is in your hands.


Geggs

Yeah take them up on it. The only thing about Professional Qualifications (be they Microsoft, Cisco, Sun, etc) is that you've got to retake the certification exams every three years to continue to have those four letter acronyms at the end of your name, and warrant the absurd salary bonuses that those can net you.

Which reminds me, I've still not got round to sitting my CCNA certification exam over a year after doing my CCNA course.

If you want to continue along the route you're already on, how about looking into some of the database certifications - M$ do one for SQL server and the other main database vendors also offer training and certification.

MCSE is the one to go for, the MCSA is like MCSE Lite...
BCNU - Crescent

Thanks all!

Looking into a database qualification is a possibility, so thanks for mentioning it, Phil.

I'd kinda guessed that MCSA was MCSE Lite, but I wasn't sure whether I already had enough skills and knowledge to step up to the MCSE plate, as it were. Do you think I could?


Geggs

Does the microsoft certifications site not have a pre-requisites list, ie the knowledge you should have before you go into the course. You might suprise yourself at how much you do know, then again

A good bookshop should have some of the various books published to help people get through the courses. Have a look through those as well as it'll give you an idea about how much you need to know to get through the course and exam.

Must get some me more training sorted and a book or two.