Anyone been on a Computeach course?

[elnino]

Hi, has anyone on here been on a comuteach course?. The reason I am asking is because one of thier advisers came to see me today about doing the A+ leading on to a mcse. I know they are expensive but I was wondering if anyone that has been with them could tell me if it was worth paying extra for the support they offer, and if the support really is as good as they say. Cheers Simon.

 

[Astaroth]

I had a meeting with one of their advisors over doing an MCSE as well... personally I didnt like their hard sell techniques which continued for weeks after me saying that I had decided against it. The IT industry (like most) goes in cycles of wanting paper over experience and then experience over paper. At the time I had no formal experience to count on but they were saying that the MCSE would allow me to walk straight into a highly paid job. A few phone calls to companies later and not a single one would take an MCSE without at least 3 years experience in any role above a help line advisor.

 

[elnino]

Thanks Astaroth, you say you had no formal experience which makes me think you do now, so which route did you choose?. I have no formal experience either.

As for going straight into a high paid job (I know I wont) I was advised differently. The guy said after doing the first 3 modules which get you to A+ level you can seek employment in a low paid I.T job. Then when going through the last 3 levels you are gaining experience as you study towards the mcse to get a higher paid job.

 

[Mr Cat]

I did one in the 90's for cobol and pascal...(don't ask!) - anyway - I found their way opf teaching to be very good which I was kinda surprised at as they introduced concepts before diving in at the deep end...

tho, I didn't finish the course (personal reasons) and I ended up not paying for the course despite getting some diplomas from it!

 

[Johnny Thunder]

I did the MCSE course in Windows 2000.(didn't finish)
They promised the world. When I started on the course, I was about to be
made redundant and they told me that they would be willing to put me
straight in touch with their careers department, which they did.
The careers department got me absolutely nothing.
I applied for approximately 35 jobs, and managed to get 1 interview.
Their careers department never even bothered to get back in touch with me.
The one interview I did have, I asked for feedback.
I was told that my interview techniques were excellent, but the MCSE would mean
nothing even when completed unless I had a few years experience.
I was also told, that to potential employers, I was just a 34 year old sparky
who wanted to play with computers...............
So I rapped the course, and started my own business in Electrical Contracting.
Oh, by the way, the one interview I had resulted in a job offer.
A helpdesk on £11000 per year.

 

[nsherin]

Doesn't sound too good, that MCSE exprience you had, Johnny - that job offer sounds like a joke in terms of salary! I've thought about doing one myself, but then there is the constant upgrading of your qualifications everytime Microsoft releases new client/server versions of Windows. So many job specs in adverts seem to inisit on MCSEs for some reason. I'm probably just going to take the 'hands on experience' route to be honest and not bother with an MCSE unless I can get a company to pay up for it

 

[Uridium]

Have worked in IT for 15 years, mainly Banking contracts, now working for EDS. I went down the MSCE route many years ago as the company were paying and got an MCSE in NT4 (you had to work for that one, not like the easy XP one's nowadays!)

I can honestly say that not once has the MSCE made a spot of difference (half the time i forgot to even put it on my CV)

On the job experience is all that any decent IT employer wants nowadays as they know full well that anyone can pay a few hundred ££'s and take an MSCE boot camp, come out with a certificate and still know nothing.

If you really want a job in IT the best way forward is a 1st line helpdesk job get some experience in real world IT and work your way up.

 

[Mr Cat]

Have worked in IT for 15 years, mainly Banking contracts, now working for EDS.

you poor bloke working for them - must be one of the worst IT companies to work for...

 

[RichB14]

Not as bad as SCC I can tell you

 

[Uridium]

you poor bloke working for them - must be one of the worst IT companies to work for...

Compared to who?

Cap Gemini?
Getronics?

No issues with EDS myself at all. EDS also seem to get the best (read interesting) contracts as well.

 

[Mr Cat]

Compared to who?

Cap Gemini?
Getronics?

No issues with EDS myself at all. EDS also seem to get the best (read interesting) contracts as well.

IBM global services...

anyway, I've worked for eds for over 6 years now...

night on 30k for doing mundane tasks...I'm not gonna complain too much tho...

 

[meansizzler]

I just started studying for A+ myself, I know a lot about computers so I just looked on amazon for a good book and decided to just read through that, i enquired about a doing the A+ course wiht a training company "Pitman Training" and they said it would cost £900 for both the hardware + OS course, which would take 2 months, but it's too much, anyway I should finish reading through that book in a month or so, and I will do some practice tests that come with it and prolly book the exam for May, you can do the exam with "Thompson Premetric" it will cost about £105 for each part so £210, there are like 10 places in london to do it so i'm happy, if you want more info then check out the comptia website, oh and if you want the course outline you can get some free study guides, PM me and I will give you the link...

 

[elnino]

Thanks guys some good advice there from people in I.T. I am now thinking about going with learn direct or comptia and going for the A+ and N+ which is what I told computeach I wanted to do in the first place. Now Ive slept on it I can see the adviser (salesman) has tried to sell me something I didnt want. Nice big comission he would have had out of the £5000 they wanted.

 

[meansizzler]

tkae a look here for more info, you should browse through all sections..

http://www.comptia.org/certification/a/default.aspx

 

[Uridium]

Something that is still virtually essential in the real IT world that none of these training courses ever teach you is DOS.

Buy yourself a decent DOS/scripting book and it will give you a good headstart over the MSCE boot camp crowd when you go for your first IT job

 

[meansizzler]

Something that is still virtually essential in the real IT world that none of these training courses ever teach you is DOS.

Buy yourself a decent DOS/scripting book and it will give you a good headstart over the MSCE boot camp crowd when you go for your first IT job

#
well I got a book that teaches A+ and you have to learn some dos commands, like FDisk and all that command line stuff. not got to that chapter yet, one thing abou the A+ is that it does not mention anything about SATA or PCI-E, i think the course needs to be revised very soon, as people coming fromm the A+ going into a job would be clueless when they see an SATA or PCI-E Port...

 

[Uridium]

PCI-E and SATA are pretty much non existent in the business world of IT. most PC's are just bog standard desktops with IDE disks and integrated graphics (what else do you need for MS office, a few VB apps and a bit of terminal emulation)

At the back end servers all use Wide ultra SCSI disks.

 

[pringtef]

...anyway, I've worked for eds for over 6 years now...

What do you know, three EDSrs in the one thread!! Six years and counting with them now. Good company to work for.

 

[meansizzler]

PCI-E and SATA are pretty much non existent in the business world of IT. most PC's are just bog standard desktops with IDE disks and integrated graphics (what else do you need for MS office, a few VB apps and a bit of terminal emulation)

At the back end servers all use Wide ultra SCSI disks.

Still, for an IT technitian you need to know about that stuff, also most business desktops built by HP and IBM feature SATA drives, not to mention that PCI-E x 16 are also used for RAID cards...

 

[HMHB]

Still, for an IT technitian you need to know about that stuff, also most business desktops built by HP and IBM feature SATA drives, not to mention that PCI-E x 16 are also used for RAID cards...

You also should know how to spell technician
Sorry mate, couldn't resist that one !

 

[Uridium]

Still, for an IT technitian you need to know about that stuff, also most business desktops built by HP and IBM feature SATA drives, not to mention that PCI-E x 16 are also used for RAID cards...

Not the manky old IBM M42 desktops and clockwork Proliant 3000r's where I'm currently working!

Best place to keep up with "Current" Desktop technology is your own gaming PC!

 

[Uridium]

What do you know, three EDSrs in the one thread!! Six years and counting with them now. Good company to work for.

EDS rock...........

..........until i can get a job with IBM anyway.

 

[John Simon]

#
well I got a book that teaches A+ and you have to learn some dos commands, like FDisk and all that command line stuff. not got to that chapter yet, one thing abou the A+ is that it does not mention anything about SATA or PCI-E, i think the course needs to be revised very soon, as people coming fromm the A+ going into a job would be clueless when they see an SATA or PCI-E Port...

Dude

Have a look at the net(type net from dos) commands (spend an evening here) have some fun with net send. Look at tracert - find an app on the net that does a visual of this. Look at TCP/IP, DDNS move away from the stand alone pc concept. Remember always you are a hamster on a wheel + see it as a plus, never stagnant, enjoy.

 

[meansizzler]

You also should know how to spell technician
Sorry mate, couldn't resist that one !

Well I needed to know, thanks as I was unsure how to spell it..

 

[meansizzler]

Dude

Have a look at the net(type net from dos) commands (spend an evening here) have some fun with net send. Look at tracert - find an app on the net that does a visual of this. Look at TCP/IP, DDNS move away from the stand alone pc concept. Remember always you are a hamster on a wheel + see it as a plus, never stagnant, enjoy.

I'll take a look into it, i've done a few ping test to a web server so I can get a good value for my Routers MTU