IT certification

MCITP Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Tech Cert Takes Shape

Last week, Erwin Chan posted about this emerging Windows 7 certification to the Born to Learn blog. While the complete and final requirements have yet to be determined he does say that “Candidates wishing to pursue this certification can safely proceed to prepare for 680: Win7, Configuring and 685: Win7 EDST” (where EDST is eponymous with the certification’s own name).

Here’s what this utterance tells me:

• Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring will either be a pre-req or an outright requirement for this cert.
• Exam 70-685 PRO: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician (beta period ended on 10/16/2009, but the final version isn’t out yet–here’s the beta blurb) will be an outright requirement for this cert.
• It’s possible Microsoft might pull some kind of additional rabbit (another exam) or might also offer value/platform added versions as they did with HP exams for the Vista iteration of this exam.

My best guess, however, is that when the 70-685 goes into final form, the two preceding exams will constitute the requirements for the MCITP Win7 EDST certification and people will also be able to earn same. I think what Mr. Chan meant by his blog post was “Hey! We’re almost finished. You can take 70-680 right now and then 70-685 when it’s available to earn your MCITP Win7 EDST cert ASAP.”

Those who are interested can — and perhaps should — do exactly that!

MS, Prometric Team Up to Offer Student Exam Discounts

What with Prometric being Microsoft’s primary global testing center operator nowadays, I guess the two companies simply had to team up to make their recent “learn.grow.succeed” program workable. Here’s the deal:

• Visit the afore-linked Student Discount page
• Check out the discounted exams available (2 for MCITP, 8 for MCSA, 6 each for MCDST and MCAD, and a whopping 55 for MCTS), then click the Get Discount link on any given exam to sign up
• Provide your name, e-mail address, and country to get up to 55% off on any or all of these exams, which you must then take on or before June 30, 2010 (the fine print also reads “You MUST present a valid student ID card at the time of the exam to get the student price”)

The logo for the new student exam discount program

I’m also guessing that it will help if the e-mail address you provide includes the domain name of an accredited college or university, as has been the case with other previous higher-ed offerings from MS and Prometric — even though this isn’t spelled out explicitly anywhere on the related Web pages (I’m going to try to sign up for a discount voucher in the absence of such an address, and I’ll let you know what happens).

Discounts apparently vary by country of location, with 55% off as the cap (that’s $82.50 off, for a total exam cost of $67.60, if that discount level applies in the US). Because MS varies its charges from country to country, and generally charges less for exams outside the first world, it makes sense to me that they would vary their discount by location. I can only hope they’re giving those from the poorest countries the best student deals.

Check it out!

Need a cheaper MCP exam? Ask an MCT

MCT stands for Microsoft Certified Trainer, and these stalwart and knowledgable professionals make up the backbone of the classroom training industry for Microsoft certification exams. I stumbled across this tidbit of information in the Born to Learn blog while trolling for topics to write about. Their entry is named “Exams: Why Pay Retail?” and it explains that MCTs can offer discounts of between 10% and 20% (the actual amount varies by country), as well as a 40% discount on any MeasureUp 60 Day Online Practice Test (this program gives you 60 days during which you can take as many practice exams on your topic as you like whenever you like).

How to take advantage of this offer? Ask an MCT for a discount voucher through the MCT Rewards program. Here’s what such a voucher looks like, grabbed straight from the aforementioned Born to Learn blog on this subject:

MCT Discount Voucher

With most MS exams now going for $150, this will save you $30. It’s not enough to retire on, but it ain’t bad either. Now all you have to do is find an MCT…and perhaps you can get lucky even outside the classroom!

ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 Accredited Certifications

I got an e-mail last week from Microsoft indicating that “Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Windows Server 2008 Server Administrator and Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Administrator certifications are the first two Microsoft product-specific IT certifications to receive the ANSI accreditation” for personnel certifications. Having been dimly aware of this program for some time I decided to dig in and find out who else offers IT certifications that meet these international standards for certification program acceditation.

See ANSI Accreditation Services for more info on the overall program. To understand the benefits see “Why Seek Accreditation?“ A complete list of accredited organizations is available on the”List of accredited certification bodies” page on the ANSI Website.

Here’s a partial rendering of the ANSI Accreditation Directory that includes only IT-related credentials (a total of 29 organizations appear in that list, which means that IT related entries comprise just under 25% of the total present):

• ASIS International (information security certs: CPP, PSP, and PCI).
• CompTIA (A+, Network+, Security+)
• SANS GIAC (GSEC, GSLC)
• ISACA (CISM, CISA)
• ISC-squared (CAP, CISSP, ISSAP, ISSEP, ISSMP, SSCP)
• Microsoft (MCITP: Enterprise Admin, MCITP: Server Admin)
• PMI (PMP)

While this isn’t exactly a “who’s who” of IT certification organizations, it isn’t exactly chopped liver, either. Cisco’s missing, but with Microsoft and CompTIA both now present, two of the three biggest overall programs are represented. I’m also fascinated by the heavy presence of information security programs in this line-up, including the entry-level CompTIA Security+, ASIS, GIAC, ISACA, and ISC-squared.

Somehow, this also makes Microsoft’s disclosure that it plans to seek ANSI accreditation next for its “Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Specialization” credential — despite its age and possible decrepitude — a lot easier to understand. I’m guessing there must be a requirement for ANSI/ISO/IEC accreditation for infosec certifications somewhere, in some government’s or other official body’s canon of requirements for infosec practitioners. And sure enough under US Government Recognition the Department of Defense appears under the heady “government agencies…closely associated with ANSI accreditation.” Obviously, information security plays into this association in some form or fashion.

I’ll report further on this phenomenon as I learn more. This is enough information to be intriquing, but not yet enough to be satisfying, so I’ll keep digging. Stay tuned.

Great Cert Prep Advice From CertMag

As somebody who’s dispensed a great deal of advice on how to prepare for IT certification — including three or four editions of a book called IT Certification Success — I’d like to think that I can recognize good examples of the genre from other writers as well. In that spirit that I call your attention to Luis Carselle’s recent story for Certification Magazine. Entitled “Learn Smarter: Preparing for a Certification Exam,” it appeared on the Web site on 9/25/2009 and will also appear in print in its October issue.

One of the sections in the story I like best is called “Years Before the Exam,” which digs into the kinds of jobs that actually require certification before individuals can practice or perform them. Aside from the kinds of positions we all know require such vetting — commercial pilots, physicians, therapists, and so forth — a growing number of technical positions in and around IT are starting to fall under this kind of umbrella. I also know of lots of companies that require their field engineers, system engineers, and senior technical support staff to earn and maintain certs in the areas, platforms, or products with which they work.

Carselle goes on to lay out tasks and objectives on a timeline basis, to describe what candidates should be doing to prepare for an exam six months out, three months out, and so on, all the way up to the day before an exam. I can’t say this story is complete or even comprehensive. But the advice it proffers is generally good, and definitely worth reading. If you need some information and inspiration to help you gear up for your next cert exam, give it a once-over. You may even decide to return back to it as you march down the timeline to exam day.

The MS Cert Exam Beta Invite Process Explained

Hooray! Liberty Munson of MS Learning has posted a peachy explanation of how the invitation process works for some of the many Microsoft certification exams that get introduced and updated all the time. Here’s the banner for this latest posting on the Born To Learn blog, posted 9/25/09, and entitled “Understanding the Beta Invite Process.”

If you’re interested in finding out about beta exams, it’s a good idea to stay tuned to the “Born to Learn” blog anyway, and you’ll also want to check in on the certifications postings there as well. In fact, a quick jump over there right now shows a recent (9/17/09) posting on the Windows 7 Professional exams (685 and 686) that explains how people find out about open betas so they can sign up and particpate, primarily by filling out an SME (subject matter expert) profile and indicating interest before the beta exam sign-up period begins. There’s even a Beta Exam Announcements blog where you can find out about all the ongoing and upcoming beta exams at Microsoft at any particular point in time.

Now that you know how to find out about exams, how to get considered, and where to look for information, all you need to do is get lucky enough to check about one week in advance so you can indicate interest, and snag an invite or get a beta registration code. Good luck!

MS Plays Contrarian for “Careers of the Future”

In a recent MS PressPass posting entitled “Message to Students and IT Pros: Prepare Today for ‘Careers of the Future‘” Microsoft appears to be taking an interesting and contrarian slant on IT jobs as it attempts to stimulate interest and investment in Microsoft Learning offerings. MS interprets the results of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics July Household Survey to indicate that “computer systems design and services” jobs have increased vis-a-vis those for 2008. They also cite a July Fortune story “Where the tech jobs are now” to indicate that “unemployment among tech workers [is]…less than half the overall U.S. jobless rate” with further mention of that story’s subtitle — “At least 400,000 jobs are going begging, even in this economy.” Then comes the kicker: this situation reflects “the ever-changing nature of the tech industry,” where “even during lean times companies have a hard time finding the right candidates to fill certain technical positions.”

And of course, MS wants to help with this. They’re launching a new campaign called “Chart YOUR Career” where you can pick among a list of job roles to see what kinds of training and career development information is available for each one:

Chart Your Career job roles

Not only does Microsoft want to get you involved in related training and certifications, it is also offering exam discounts of up to 25% ($37.50 on a $150 exam in the US), and touting free software with classroom training (this has been Microsoft’s practice for those who take authorized classroom training for as long as I can remember, at least as far back as 1995). For each role, you’ll find a job description, skill sets, and various learning plans to help pursue that path into demonstrations of competence. Careful reading of the recitations from the various Microsoft executives involved in the press release indicate this information is aimed primarily at students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

This makes sense because those already in the workforce usually have to keep earning a paycheck and can only pursue new job roles part-time. Students looking for career choices could conceivably use this information to target specific job roles — and related certifications — as they work through their degree plans. Though Microsoft points readres to its programs for job seekers, as well as for IT pros and developers, this information is likely to have the biggest impact on those in the process of figuring out what to do with their professional lives. It should be interesting to see what kind of fruit it bears, and to see whether or not the roles that the company targets here translate into real opportunities for those who seek to fill such shoes.

Don’t forget that certs have perks…use ‘em!

In her own most recent blog on August 24 entitled “Remember to grab those certification perks,” fellow certification maven Anne Martinez of GoCertify.com offers some good advice about checking into the privileges that rank sometimes prefers. That is, you’ll often be eligible for various types of special information access (password-controlled Websites or forums, publications, and so forth), discounts on products or trade show attendance, inclusion in directories or online listings, and so forth, once you earn certain certifications.

How do you know if this means you? Dig into the information that the certifying body provides to tout its certifications, and/or to explain their benefits. Once you earn the credential, as with the old American Express ads, you get all the “rights and privileges” (yeah, right! ;-)) that pertain thereto. In some cases, that means a monthly magazine and a one-time shot at free software, but in other cases, it can mean discounts on products, training, or trade show attendance. You won’t really know what’s what until you check–so check, already! Tell ‘em “Ed sent me!”

An Old Concept Keeps Its Legs

Dear Readers:

After seeing Emmett Dulaney’s latest selections for “Books of the Week” in his latest CertCities.com Certs Column, I sent him the following e-mail:

Dear Emmett:
When I came up with the idea for the Exam Cram series in 1996, I was unable to sell the concept to any of the big publishers. Today, it’s part of the Pearson Education family of imprints and still going strong. Nice to see your capsule summary of the original concept in your latest CertCities column, which reads “The third edition of the Network+ Exam Cram by Mike Harwood is a good study book for someone who has been implementing and administering networks for quite some time and now just wants to get certified in it. [italics added here for emphasis]” That impetus drove me to create this series, and it’s nice to see it’s still alive and well, even though I’m no longer involved in it day-to-day.
Hope all is well with you, too.
Take care,
–Ed–

Indeed, it is nice to see that people still understand why I was compelled to create this series of books in the first place. I was frustrated that somebody like myself — an experienced professional with a good technical background who just wanted to know how best to deal with an upcoming cert exam — had to purchase and wade through a great, big, expensive study guide simply to glean the information about what was on the exam and how best to prepare for its rigors and questions.

If you’re looking for a good tool for cert exam preparation and an Exam Cram is available on your exam topic, it’s probably worth a once-over in a nearby bookstore, or a trip to Amazon to see if it gets mostly picks, or mostly pans. When its rating is mostly positive (like the Harwood book to which Dulaney rightly gives the nod in his column) it can be a valuable addition to your arsenal of cert prep tools.

HTH,

–Ed–

Performance-based MS exams take an 83 prefix

Call it the end of an era, or perhaps the start of a brave new world. Others who, like myself, have gone looking for MS Exam 70-640 (TS: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring) probably also walked away scratching their heads when they couldn’t find hide nor hair of this exam. A blog posted on MS “Born to Learn” yesterday entitled ‘What happened to “70-640?”‘ makes everything clear. This is a performance-based exam and as such is a relative rarity that will soon gain numerous other cohorts in the MS exam annals. As such, it gets a prefix of 83- (so it’s exam number 83-640), rather than the more familiar and expected 70-640. The exam is the same, and the same objectives still hold as described in the MS preparation guide (whose URL still includes the string ‘70-640′ BTW! ;-). You just have to scroll down further in the Prometric exam listings to get to those that start with 83- and to finally wind up at 83-640.

Sign up today! Who knew?