Posted on 11/06/2001 7:11:47 PM PST by Justa
You should be careful about asking Microsoft employees like innocent about 'Java'. He will *not* have a nice opinion.
Altho if you don't like programming, Java likely isn't for you, since it's a programming language.
Cheating is rampant in most of the more popular certifications via 'study guides' like Cheetsheets and Troytec that basically have the entire test and corresponding answers. It really burns me that people can get or maintain jobs that way. That's why I declined to go after the MCSE, it's such a bogus certification and so many people cheat to get it that I don't want it on my resume. From what I've discerned many businesses have an overall negative opinion of the certification.
I studied from a CD-ROM set for about 2 weeks, and then went and took the six tests in 3 days at $100 each. From the time I got my course materials to my certification was less than 3 weeks at a cost of about $900. At the time a friend of mine also took the tests with me. He "studied" by doing nothing more than taking the practice tests provdided in the course materials. By the time two weeks was up, he had memorized the answers to all of the practice questions, which in reality WAS the test questions. Like I said above, the MCSE cert. has been good for me, and I no doubt make more money because of it. My only gripe with it is, like I stated above, that the course material, as well as the testing, is not a realistic indicator of how well one knows the systems he becomes certified in. Your son is probably naturally inclined towards computers, and that is the most valuable asset he can have in this business. He would do just as well without the cert. in his actual job, but that little piece of paper seems to mean alot to potential employers.
I was interviewing for a VERY high paying position in a large city about 2yrs. ago. It was a 6 month contract, and I decided that I could handle the drive as well as the extended time away from home for the amount of money the job paid. My first interview was with a human resources type, and she was very professional and asked all about my education and certifications and so forth. The second interview was with the IT mgr of the company, and he asked me this question: "How do you feel your recent MCSE certification has prepared you for handling the day to day maintenace and implementation of new hardware and software?" My response: "I don't feel that it has helped me, as a matter of fact, if I didn't have it I could do just as good of a job here, but if I didn't have it, you and I wouldn't be talking right now". The human resources type was visibly aghast, but the IT mgr just laughed and said "right answer, when can you start?" That job ended up lasting about 9 mos, and I still keep in contact with the IT mgr at that company.
Different database systems often have their own host language, but almost all of them can be accessed via SQL. Its a default language, and you're expected to know it if you are working with databases.
Amen to all that.
After all the pretty user interfaces are designed, someone wil say, "Can we get a count of page hits grouped by five-minute intervals" or something like that.
SQL has fed my family fo 20 years, through C and Informix to ASP and SQL Server.
I went through a local ATEC for coursework, read a lot of books, and just started playing with equipment to get hands-on experience.
I've seen some truly worthless MCSEs out there--they always went to a boot camp.
As others have said database management is in high demand now. Businesses will fight tooth-and-nail to protect their databases and this take priority to any operating system they might use. Looking forward I see the biggest growth opportunities in Linux particularly now that IBM offers a Linux NOS for it's mainframes. This way mid-to-large size companies can put their mainframes on Linux and run their distributed neworks with the appopriate Linux distrubutions for each level. Imo, this is a 'really cool' solution and will save a Tremendous amount of money, time and energy going forward. Intel recently switched to Linux and estimated their savings for the first year alone would be $200 mil.
When there's a problem with a MS OS there's maybe 15 people in Redmond, WA to locate, troubleshoot and patch the problem. When there's a problem with Linux there's literally 10s-of-thousands of programmers worldwide to find and fix the problem. Furthermore, they'll do it in the shortest time possible and provide the fix to apply across all affected platforms and versions. This is one of the main benefits of open source vs. closed source OSes. Linux people can i.d. and fix their systems as a community whereas MS people have to wait to see what Uncle Bill will do for them.
if you giveaway ALL the secrets, we'll never get a head
FWIW I am a RHCE
There are worlds of diffrence in the kinds of training and coursework you can get. Mine was from a $299 CD kit, and the 6 tests were $100 each. I have $900 in certification. Playing with the equipment is the most direct route to knowledge in this field. No book or test is going to even come close to giving you the kind of knowledge you will learn from actually doing it. As for your training, you probably had better training than me, but in the end, we are both MCSE's with no distinction between us. That demonstrates how easily someone can get this certification without actually knowing what he is doing, or worse yet, by cheating, which happens more often than you would think.
My advice (I've been in IT since 1982) is to figure out an area of specialization that's a good match for your interests, aptitude, and job potential, then seek the best training and experience you can find in that area, with certification being an afterthought (for beginners). If you've got some experience and want to pad your resume for advancement, a more advanced and targeted certification (i.e., certified java programmer/developer; certain security certs; etc.) may be helpful.
There are better ways to learn how to program a router than paying someone $1000 and watching him flip viewgraphs for four and a half days. I imagine the MSCEs are just as bad. It's as big a ripoff as all those VCR repair schools that popped up in the late 70's promising ambitious young men fame and fortune in the lucrative field of... well... you know.
I came to Phoenix at the age of 50 with almost no technical knowledge of computers. I have combined community college courses, self-study, certification, and two boot camps for my current level of knowledge. I needed more income and flexibility.
Today someone offered me a very large sum to teach Linux/Unix courses. It would be corporate training - travel involved. This is not going to work out overnight, but I think it will be a good deal for me. What would I teach? Unix, Cisco, that sort of thing.
Whoever gave advice about training in databases is correct. That will always be a good job. A lot of women seem to take to it, also.
I am always wary about people saying a language is hot. As someone wrote, hot languages come and go. I was at one meeting where a guy bragged he would always have COBOL work. Now it is easy to find unemployed COBOL people. Y2K is past. Get over it.
Micro$oft certifications are a reflection of the company. I did some training and found it incredibly boring. I decided not to do anything with M$. I did pass the CCNA.
The two best certification tracks are Cisco and Oracle. However, I tell my students at the community college - "Be the best in your area and they will seek you out." That is what many people overlook. It does not take long to figure out who really knows something. The person with no degree and no certs can make $100,000 teaching - if he knows his material and teaches well.
The saddest case I ran into was a young man who just gave a bootcamp $7,000 to get 7 certs. (What a deal!) He did not have any idea what books he should buy to start. He didn't know where to begin. I think it was cruel to take that much cash from someone and give him no guidance.
I paid $500 for a CCNA bootcamp review. It was well worth it. The going rate now is about $3,000.
Sorry to ramble. If someone wants to be employed, I would suggest three areas for long-term job security: Linux/UNIX (fastest track right now), Cisco, and Oracle. An A+ certification is a good idea all around. I believe it is considered a basic high school diploma in computer science.
Another track to consider is becoming a master of several applications. Someone who can do Excel, Access, and Word can find employment. A real expert can deal with Excel/Lotus problems, etc. Corporate teaching can pay a lot. Some other applications worth learning are: Dreamweaver, MS Project, and PowerPoint.
Someone can specialize in graphics, PhotoShop, Adobe applications. Once again, the skilled person will find work looking for him.
My next certification will probably be Linux+ from Comptia.
A year later, I had one.
I got a job.
It paid THREE TIMES AS MUCH as my pre-MCSE job, glory to God.
Tell me again about what a waste that was?
Dan
-Make 3 '/' (root) partitions = 1GB with the initial '/' mounted on the first. Name the other two something like 'root2' and 'root3'. This way you'll have root partitions for installing other Linux distros to evaluate how they handle your database and programs. "Yeah", you can run all your same data and programs in various Linux distributions by doing this. I recommend using the JFS:Reiser file system. It's a journalised FS so it keeps malware script from 'worming' it's way onto the HD. Hackers like using Windows to load linux viruses and vice-versa to get people who dual boot between the two. Your windows virus scanner won't detect a Linux virus aimed at your ext2 Linux drive and the opposite holds true of Linux and your FAT32 drive.
-Next make a Linux Swap partition and set it to atleast 2x system RAM.
-Next make a /home partition. This should be about 20% of the drive or 5 GB for 3 distros and a few users. More users or distros will require a larger partition.
-Next make the /usr partition. You'll want to make this as large as possible since this is where most Users' files go.
-The last 2 are optional depending upon if you'll be running a Linux server. /var is for the server files and should be sized accordingly. And /stuff is the default Guru name for everything they want to save outside of /usr.
If you're new to Linux the best advice might be to install a second HD, make it the boot drive, install Linux to it using the Grub bootloader being sure to mount the Windows drive during install at the partitioning screen. You have to do that manually, just by clicking the hdc tab (2nd HD) and clicking on the blue windows partition then selecting 'mount'. It's not done by default. >>>??? If you do it this way you'll boot to the Grub bootloader and it will allow you to select between Windows and Linux.
Now if you upgrade to XP then it's different. XP won't allow you to change drive letters or controller assignment. If you do it won't load so that new, snazzy 7200rpm drive will be the D:\ drive. That's not a problem for Grub. It just means when you load Linux you're gonna want to create around a 600MB FAT32 partition as the last partition on the new HD so when you boot to Windows you can switch your VMM to there. That way VMM runs off the fastest drive and is on a seperate controller from the OS which = more speed and stability for '98.
XP is pretty cool, I'm using Pro now. It's fast and easy and as malware like sircam, nimda and codered have brought the NT4 kernals (NT, '98) to their knees NT5 has protected memory and file systems similar (but somewhat inferior -no flames please) to Linux with JFS.
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