Is the MCSE courses worth doing?

[Gazza AK47]

Well?

I ask because, before I sign up and spend the huge amount of money and take time out of my private life to do it, are they worth doing? If anyone has done the course, what advice can you give?

Would really apprciate the help/advice.

Gaz

 

[Jai]

i have the entire set of books if you really want to do it........

 

[Gazza AK47]

i have the entire set of books if you really want to do it........

,,,,,,but is the course worth doing for a job in IT? I have seen the books and know that they are massive, make war and peace look like a comic!!!

 

[bulldog5046]

i havent done an MCSE but i am keen to however £3k puts me off lol

i'm already in an IT job so it would be to further my career rather than get me into one... i dont know what to suggest...

 

[Gazza AK47]

Thats my point, I know enough about PCs to get me out of trouble and have even set up a couple of laptops at work (Peugeot PPS2000, IBM Thinkpads) on the internal networks.

It is a costly course to do, I know that much as well, and i'm 70-80%sure I want to do it, but its the "Are you doing the right thing? and is it worth the cost?" questions that are niggling me at the moment.

Aaaaargh!!!!

 

[thepottleflump]

I did an MCSE in 1999 (paid for by my company) and it was worthwhile then, I personally don't think the same applies today. Cisco CCNP would be a better bet.

 

[soap_dodger]

Cisco is very boring though. Well, I thought it was.

 

[Helz]

Just don't do an academic IT course, it's very dull and pointless

 

[jug]

problem with MCSE is there are far too many people who have done it. these days you need an MCSE for many helpdesk jobs, either employers dont understand whan an MCSE is or they know they can get people with MCSE's to do crappy 15k support jobs. since employers seem to fill these positions i assume the latter is the case.

i cant see the point in doing an MCSE only to get a crappy helpdesk job answering basic questions all day. if an MCSE meant you got the chance to design an internaitonal active directory organisation stucture (and got paid enough to live off) then i'd say its worth the time and money, but thats sadly not the case.

a degree is a better investment of your time and money, although IT related degrees are also suffering the same merket saturation these days.

 

[thepottleflump]

Cisco is very boring though. Well, I thought it was.

It probably is but an CCNP/CCIE is more likely to earn you £60k/yr than an MCSE ever will. It's also requires a bit more skill, MS is doing a great job hiding everything behind GUIs dumming it down, atleast with Cisco you've got a command line to work with.

 

[Liam]

You need tons of alphabet acronyms to get paid big bucks.

The reality is experience is worth more than bits of paper, get the cert but you've no experience means you'll get a job with a lower wage than your getting now.

Liam