The musings of an IT Consultant » exams

Microsoft Certification and Staying Relevant

Raj Perumal — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:54:55 +0000

Hi folks, so as you know I’m a big proponent of certification. I always advocate keeping up to date and making sure you’re taking the right certifications.

Don’t just go out and take any old cert, but make sure you’re investigating and researching what is the hot ticket in the industry today, and make sure the certs you are taking are relevant to what employers want.

For example in this day and age, the cloud is a big deal. In light of this Microsoft is now offering a Private Cloud Certification track. This is a great way to get ahead of the competition and stay relevant with your certs.

You can read more here.

-RP

The Bryant Advantage

Raj Perumal — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:31:46 +0000

So now that I’ve been at the bootcamp and it’s time to buckle down and get ready for the exams, I was looking for some extra training material. I wanted to find some good study guides and labs that would help me prepare. I was also looking for some rack time (renting Cisco hardware and logging on to it remotely to do labs on) since I don’t own enough equipment myself.

Well I was doing some digging and I came across this thing called The Bryant Advantage. Chris Bryant is a certified CCIE and he created his own study material which is 100% legit and is great for studying for the exam. He also provides rack time if you need it.

So I figured I’d take the plunge and I bought the Bryant Advantage materials with the rack time. I have to say the material is just great! I’ve been reading his ebook and he really does a great job of explaining everything. Also Chris is extremely helpful for any questions you might have. I can highly recommend buying his material to prepare for the CCNP.

-RP

CCNP Boot Camp

Raj Perumal — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:10:35 +0000

Hi folks, so for the last week I’ve been in Florida at a CCNP boot camp studying and training day in and day out. I have one more week to go and I have to say it has been quite intense. The CCNP ain’t anything to take lightly. This certification will chew you up and spit you out!

Luckily the great folks at Boson have a boot camp available and i’ve been lucky enough to get a great instructor, Bryan Baize. Bryan Baize (CCIE 16139) is a CCIE (the PHD of network certifications in my opinion) and a fabulous instructor. His ability to recall the most obscure facts and answer all of your questions and his ability to convey concepts to the students is just great.

As a former IT instructor myself, I can wholeheartedly recommend using the Boson boot camps as part of your training regiment for the CCNP. I will keep you guys up to date on my progress in my quest for this certification. One more week to go!

-RP

My new years resolution….time to start preparing for the CCNP

Raj Perumal — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:32:27 +0000

Hi folks, as some of you may know, I’ve been studying a lot of Cisco lately and been working with it more and more in my daily work. I recently got my CCNA and now have set my sights higher.

For this new year I am going to start preparing for the CCNP certification from Cisco. This certification consists of 4 separate exams and is extremely hard from what I’ve heard. Also based on the difficulty level of the CCNA I can assume they are correct.

Over the next year I will be preparing for this and then writing the exams as time allows. I will keep you guys posted as to my progress. Why do I have a feeling that I am going to be a heavy contributor to Red Bull’s profits over the coming year?

If anyone has any suggestions as to great study material for these exams please let me know. I hear that the Boson material is really good and I am thinking of attending their boot camp for the CCNP.

-RP