coverdiscs with demos - hasn't broadband kinda killed that off too?
I realise that broadband isn't everywhere, but then again I would have thought people without broadband access are possibly outside of the target demographic for gaming magazines also.
Certification is a necessary evil - whether you like it or not, it is something that is necessary if you work in that kind of IT job.
I have seen people make several mistakes (please note I am not suggesting you're in any of these categories):
- They complain about not having the time/energy/money/whatever to get certs, and in some cases even complain about their company not giving them training, but they have plenty of time to go home and play XBox...
- They do one (and only one) certification exam from about 15 vendors - so they have no obvious area of specialisation. I think this makes you look like too much like a generalist - like if you know a little bit of everything, then maybe you don't a lot about any one particular thing.
- They do one type of certification exam, over and over - for example, the MCSE you mentioned, one exam gets you MCP, seven exams get you MCSE 2003. For someone with few/no certs, you're better off diversifying after a short while - do one exam, (or maybe four exams - MCSA) and then do something else different, and come back to do the higher level stuff later. If you're suddenly looking for work while you're partway through a higher level certification, having a number of lower level certs under your belt makes you look better on paper.
As someone who is also on the certification bandwagon, I understand your pain - it sucks when you spend a long time completing certs, then the renewals roll around and it's upgrade exam time. Having said that, experience counts - for example, you mentioned you deal with MS SQL - go buy the MS Press book, book in the exam, and for maybe $200-$250 (depending on your local currency, I guess) you'd be able to put in big letters "Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL 2008" on your resume. The learning curve should be easier as you're already familiar with the product. It is a start.
Basically, do what you can - do one MS exam, one exam from whatever backups software vendor you're experienced with, do one Linux exam (I dunno what, there are a few - depends what resources/books/experience you have), and/or maybe do something out of the box like CAPM from PMI, or something impressive sounding to someone who doesn't know any better, like CompTIA Security+ - nice companion certs that go a long way and look impressive to the HR person tasked with reducing the pile of applicants.
I am sure everyone here realises that certification is only a very small part (at most) of being a good IT person - I personally have gained a lot out of it, and I don't just mean getting in the door with interviews etc - I haven't braindumped my way through any of what I have done, and I'm 30+ exams down the track, so I have actually learned stuff along the way.
I do wish you luck with it though, and again I feel your pain.
At my university someone had written "Arts degree: please take one" in permanent marker just above the toilet paper holder in one of the the gent's toilets.
I thought it was clever, although you went to art school so, um, yeah forget I said anything.
HyperV can be installed on non-Core installs of Server 2008 also - core isn't required, you can add the HyperV role to a full install of the OS also.
I kinda like HyperV myself in certain scenarios - for example I can give a VM host to my SharePoint development team (who seriously don't seem to have much of a clue about system admin tasks, and I want to keep them well clear of my VMware ESX environment).
HyperV is good because the more clueless can right-click their way out of trouble.
It is also a Microsoft product so is easy to "sell" internally to the people who sign the cheques, although from my personal experience, getting people to feel comfortable stepping away from Microsoft in certain areas is getting a little easier these days, thanks mostly to Vista - but also thanks to VMware, Citrix XenServer to a lesser extent, and some totally awesome and free to use apps like Nagios - $0 is pretty compelling. YMMV of course.
HyperV has its place, it is just going to take MS a while to catch up with certain features that other products offer, which they absolutely will, they have the cash to throw at this problem. They don't have any choice but to join in, this market segment is too large.
Linux support is something they needed to add, for example customers that host many windows OSes on HyperV might decide one day to run up a Ubuntu box to host Nagios - if HyperV doesn't support Linux guests they might decide to explore non-MS virtualisation platforms instead.
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I did not support the war in Iraq...
This is the first time I have heard anyone refer to the war in Iraq in the past tense.
coverdiscs with demos - hasn't broadband kinda killed that off too? I realise that broadband isn't everywhere, but then again I would have thought people without broadband access are possibly outside of the target demographic for gaming magazines also.
Certification is a necessary evil - whether you like it or not, it is something that is necessary if you work in that kind of IT job.
I have seen people make several mistakes (please note I am not suggesting you're in any of these categories):
- They complain about not having the time/energy/money/whatever to get certs, and in some cases even complain about their company not giving them training, but they have plenty of time to go home and play XBox...
- They do one (and only one) certification exam from about 15 vendors - so they have no obvious area of specialisation. I think this makes you look like too much like a generalist - like if you know a little bit of everything, then maybe you don't a lot about any one particular thing.
- They do one type of certification exam, over and over - for example, the MCSE you mentioned, one exam gets you MCP, seven exams get you MCSE 2003. For someone with few/no certs, you're better off diversifying after a short while - do one exam, (or maybe four exams - MCSA) and then do something else different, and come back to do the higher level stuff later. If you're suddenly looking for work while you're partway through a higher level certification, having a number of lower level certs under your belt makes you look better on paper.
As someone who is also on the certification bandwagon, I understand your pain - it sucks when you spend a long time completing certs, then the renewals roll around and it's upgrade exam time. Having said that, experience counts - for example, you mentioned you deal with MS SQL - go buy the MS Press book, book in the exam, and for maybe $200-$250 (depending on your local currency, I guess) you'd be able to put in big letters "Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL 2008" on your resume. The learning curve should be easier as you're already familiar with the product. It is a start.
Basically, do what you can - do one MS exam, one exam from whatever backups software vendor you're experienced with, do one Linux exam (I dunno what, there are a few - depends what resources/books/experience you have), and/or maybe do something out of the box like CAPM from PMI, or something impressive sounding to someone who doesn't know any better, like CompTIA Security+ - nice companion certs that go a long way and look impressive to the HR person tasked with reducing the pile of applicants.
I am sure everyone here realises that certification is only a very small part (at most) of being a good IT person - I personally have gained a lot out of it, and I don't just mean getting in the door with interviews etc - I haven't braindumped my way through any of what I have done, and I'm 30+ exams down the track, so I have actually learned stuff along the way.
I do wish you luck with it though, and again I feel your pain.
At my university someone had written "Arts degree: please take one" in permanent marker just above the toilet paper holder in one of the the gent's toilets.
I thought it was clever, although you went to art school so, um, yeah forget I said anything.
HyperV can be installed on non-Core installs of Server 2008 also - core isn't required, you can add the HyperV role to a full install of the OS also.
I kinda like HyperV myself in certain scenarios - for example I can give a VM host to my SharePoint development team (who seriously don't seem to have much of a clue about system admin tasks, and I want to keep them well clear of my VMware ESX environment).
HyperV is good because the more clueless can right-click their way out of trouble.
It is also a Microsoft product so is easy to "sell" internally to the people who sign the cheques, although from my personal experience, getting people to feel comfortable stepping away from Microsoft in certain areas is getting a little easier these days, thanks mostly to Vista - but also thanks to VMware, Citrix XenServer to a lesser extent, and some totally awesome and free to use apps like Nagios - $0 is pretty compelling. YMMV of course.
HyperV has its place, it is just going to take MS a while to catch up with certain features that other products offer, which they absolutely will, they have the cash to throw at this problem. They don't have any choice but to join in, this market segment is too large.
Linux support is something they needed to add, for example customers that host many windows OSes on HyperV might decide one day to run up a Ubuntu box to host Nagios - if HyperV doesn't support Linux guests they might decide to explore non-MS virtualisation platforms instead.
I knew the US space program ripped off Nazi Germany, but the Roman Empire too? Wow!
I agree that Master of Orion is totally worth violating your non-proprietary-only-software principles for. Even worthy of an OT comment.