MCSE

got a job in London as Network Manager after leaving the RN, got medical discharged after 8 years, so got the full ressetlment whack. Chose to do a MCSE course in Cape Town, fully worth it, did not have to pay a penny towards it, as ressetlment payed for the course, and accomodation (5* president Hotel for 6 weeks) and the company i2ko international, pay for the flights. took all 7 exams while i was out there and qualified as an MCSE, got 5 job offers within 3 weeks of getting back home.

 

Well Done G_J!

I know that you're in the minority. There is an increasing momentum of employers reluctant to employ people after they have completed boot camps for the simple reason that they are not experienced.

I know of 3 different guys who run their own very successful companies in Wifi networks, Network Security and Cisco routing who have told me they will not employ boot camp graduates as they've got no experience. The only way they'll get experience is by making mistakes and a lot of employers are reluctant to do that!!

The jobs are there undoubtably however. People need to realise though that it is very very difficult to walk into a job starting off on 40k. You need to get the experience and those jobs don't pay very well!!!

I would be very interested in what you thought of the I2KO courses though Geordie. I'm considering using my ELC to do some of the courses.

 

couldnt praise i2ko highly enough, top quality instruction, usualy classes of 5 or 6 people in, so you get plenty of 1-on-1 tution. i know they have grown since i did the course, think they have more instructors, (was only Zolly the mad hungarian teaching when i was there) .
you get all the books and cd's thrown in as part of the course fees, full set of MCSE books would probably set you back over £150 ovewr here.
As for the courses, i think they have nearly 95% sucsess rate regards the mcse qualifications.

here is there website for you to check out
i2ko International

Probably i should of said in my previous post, that i had privious experience in Networking and Security, and Installing and Maintaining witch also helped me with getting a job.

 

When you putting the barrel on then? :lol:

 

G J

I'm looking at a career in IT security when I leave the mob and although part of my role in a previous post was ITSO I don't think that role was anywhere near adequate enough. Based on your experience would you say MCSE would be enough of a qualification for this area or would you recommend undertaking something else?

What does the industry think of A+, Network+ & Security+? Are they worth doing? What about the GIAC qualification?

I am expecting to be working more with IT in my next draft but with only 2 yrs left to do I need to know where I should be concentrating for relevant qualifications.

 

Apparently one of the best fields to get into is Citrix. Try looking at this.

A+ etc is very basic.


Cheers
Greendeath

 

Only just found this site. Left in '04 and went into the IT security world. As a qualification CISSP is also worth a look. It depends on what you are going to specialise in Documentation or Techie (both if you want big bucks).

 

I would agree many companies, especially the smaller ones are not that keen on taling on any one without experience, larger companies are better in general as they can afford the overhead, and realise that if they don't do the on the job training element no one will and the pool of experienced labour will shrink and become unaffordable. Equally traing companies that want serious cash for their services know that they have to be able to show the job opportunities for potential clients otherwise they are not going to pay for the training.

IT service industry work does seem to be feast or famine, there are times when business is good and every one is buying so there are lots of jobs but a mate of mine was spent some time on short term contracting sfter the Dot Com bubble burst.

Good luck

 

The job I'm doing is involved with network support and comms. I will be doing a couple of courses (A+, N+ & S+) at the end of March but it seems as if they are cut down a bit. I think that's the typical mob attitude of teaching just enough to do the job but no more as a way of saving money. I guess a period of self study for anything missing and then take the exams would be in order. Then during resettlement follow that up with MCSA/E or CEH. Has anyone completed the CEH that has any comments to make?

 

When you mention courses, are they the standard week long jobs done in fareham? or are they Civvy courses? If they are the latter they should give you everything to pass the course (apart from reading up the material as homework). If it is the same ones I did for a sys Admin role on a couple of comms systems they do provide a grounding.

You can sign up to various internet sites which do a 'question of the day' which are good for revision.

If you are persuing your exams as part of your resettlement, have a word with the resettlement office, you may be able to get them to provide you with the publications associated with it (Prep Gold for ..... books, I was able to sign one out for my CISSP revision. they do others).

I looked at CEH, I did not have the appropriate techie background, have you been involved in Penetration testing? Experience again is normally required by companies. The life of a Pen tester is a lonely one with a lot of time spent on the road and living in hotels. ( no sympathy for them as they get paid oodles with experience). If you are at the tri service base near Bedford that does the RNITSO course see if you can get hold of someone within the RAF test team based in Digby.

Your ITSO ecxperience is useful as a indicator of your ability to enforce procedural security on IT systems. If I had my time over again I would have used my ability to get hold of The Manual Of Protective Security (HMG), the 440 is subordinate to this, not easy to get hold of from a civvy contractors point of view. Look into CESG memorandum, some of which are NPM and can be downloaded off the net.

MCSA/MCSE are always a good route to follow if you have the background experience, from your profile you may well have. There are 2 modules within the MCSE that are security specific as well.

Have you any UNIX experience or knowledge. If you do it is handy to mention on the CV, potentially look at one of the UNIX + type of exams or something a bit more in depth. UNIX/LINUX and the other flavours are an up and coming area.

If you have any contact with companies which are providing tech assitance or implementation get info from them. Networking is the buzz word, and it works. They may even take a copy of your CV. Most companies pay a bounty to staff who find people which they can employ. It saves them money in paying for Recruiting agencies.

A bit disjointed in answers and guidance but I will try to give you a lead if I can. A lot of people helped me before I left, so its good to give some pay back. Its not a hard life being a IT security Consultant trust me! Just busy at times

 

To add to the above there is also a course run by CESG in implementing security in HMG, that covers all their memoranda and the current guidance on various aspects of Infosec. It's also the basic groundwork for registration as a CLAS consultant.

CLAS is a bit more ITSO (documentation) oriented than CISSP but there is a market out there for it, prediminantly in the firms which cater for the public sector.