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Posts Tagged ‘certification’

The 70-620: TS: Configuring Microsoft Windows Vista Client exam is the first of the exams I have on the roadmap towards the MCITP: EA certification, and one that I am thankful to have out of the way.  This exam by no means is very difficult, but there are some areas on the list of objectives that a lot of people simply don’t really use.  Having used Vista for a long time now at home and work, I was comfortable with a bulk of the core content while some of the extra features built into Vista such as Meeting Space, Calendar, Fax and Scan, Tablet PC features, and Mobile device features were not very familiar to me since I’ve never had a reason to use them.  Furthermore, aside from perhaps the Tablet PC and Mobile Devices features, I don’t see the other areas really being of much benefit since I have yet to see an organization that uses the other features.

This is what led to the problems with preparing for this exam, it took a lot of perseverance to actually study for this exam.  When it comes to studying, I encounter a hard time staying on track unless the material is either something I find interesting, or something that there is much use out of understanding the material.  This is not to say that if something isn’t interesting that I won’t study it at all, because I have studied many dis-interesting topics through my classes extensively – but many of those proved to have value in some aspects of my life or career.  The portions of the 70-620 exam that I found problems to motivate myself to devote time to and study were both dis-interesting and content that I firmly believe will never really benefit me, and should I encounter those items in the real world at some point (unlikely) – it will be incredibly easy to work through regardless.

That being said, I did study for the exam in it’s entirety anyways since the topics could be brought up and I wasn’t about to fail an exam because I was ill prepared.  I just had to buckle down and work through it, regardless of how boring the content was.  Study materials used for this exam included the MS Press MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit, Configuring Windows Vista Client as well as the TestOut LabSim 70-620 – Configuring Windows Vista Certification Suite computer based training (CBT).  The book was difficult to work through because of the issues discussed previously, and as a result I only read the first 3 chapters of the book.  The bulk of the study time was spent watching the TestOut CBT through in it’s entirety once and then completing the full practice exam at the end of the training 4 or 5 times.  In the end it turned out to be adequate and a pass was made.

Next up in the MCITP: EA track… 70-640, but only after the Windows 7 Beta (71-680) and the CompTIA Server+ 2009 Beta which are coming up in the next several days.

Till next time…

Today it appears selected candidates that signed up for the CompTIA Server+ Beta exam began to receive e-mails asking for confirmation that they will be able to sit the exam prior to June 15th 2009, and to also confirm which testing center they prefer.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the candidates selected it seems, just awaiting the voucher code that is sent after you confirm your testing center.  In the mean time, I thought I would post a link to CompTIA’s Server+ 2009 exam objectives:

CompTIA Server+ 2009 Beta Exam Objectives

Best of luck to everybody who plans to sit the exam!

CompTIA is introducing an updated version of the Server+ exam.  A limited number of a people will be able to sit the new Server+ exam in it’s beta format completely free.  This is a time and seat limited event, with the deadline being May 29th or the first 400 people to take the exam.  As it is a beta exam, do not expect to have your results and leave the testing center knowing if you have passed or failed.  Instead, the results will be calculated as they analyze the data collected to determine what a passing score will be.  The exam and your results are supposed to be released in the fall of 2009.

Those intrested in signing up for a chance to be considered for the exam should fill out the form located on CompTIA’s website here:

Free CompTIA Server+ Beta 2009 Exam Voucher Application

Good luck!

One of the projects that I eventually intend to perform at a larger and more detailed scale is an info tech job analysis.  That is still a work for the future as there is more research and coding to accurately gather data and present it in a manner that makes sense.  In the mean time, I decided to do a quicker analysis using a fairly broad scope to gain a bit of insight as to where various Cisco related jobs are at a state by state basis.  What I did was perform a query on Monster.com for various Cisco certifications for each state as well as Washington D.C.  In the following table are the results of my search.

Nationwide Cisco Certification Job Analysis

Please keep in mind, this is a very simplistic analysis.  This is simply a process of searching Monster.com for various keywords (CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, etc) for each of the 50 states as well as Washington D.C.  for a total of 459 searches.  Do bear in mind that these results are not indicative of the total number of Cisco related jobs in each state, as some of the listings may have included two or more certifications.  In addition, this search does not take into account any of the CCNA specializations nor CCIE specializations.  This is just a general overview of what was listed on Monster.com on February 4, 2009.  If you prefer graphical results, click on the State name for the corresponding bar graph.  I did leave out the CCDE certification from the table below as it was causing troubles with the format of this page, however there was only one (1) result in Maryland for the CCDE certification.  I appreciate any comments or tips, as well as what you would like to see on future more details analysis of job listings.