Well As I had mentioned Previously as part of my goals I have scheduled my Exam for this Friday. From the report from my last attempt on this exam I missed it only by a few points so I am brushing up on the points that were a bit weaker according to the report. Right now I am going through all the documentation I have on those topics and reviewing them and any scenarios where they may be used in the exam.

Will post an update this weekend after I complete the exam. Wish me Luck!

Well as I had stated before, I have been working on getting certified. With several different ones in mind. But given my new position, I figured the Microsoft route would be most beneficial right now and would apply most to my current environment. That and the fact my exposure to network infrastructure in this position is minimal to non-existant the Cisco certs can be put on hold a little while longer. But with everything that has happened in the last 6 months that was kind of hard.

But I took a big step towards my goal about 2 weeks ago. I wrote the 70-290 Microsoft exam, and I passed! It was funny after reviewing the transcript online I realized it has been almost 10 years exactly since I wrote my first certification exam for Microsoft back in the days of NT 4.0.

So with that feat done I have my goal of writing 1 to 2 exams a month does not seem so hard I took about 3 weeks of prep for this exam by reading the ms press book and preparing with simulation exams. That seemed to be what worked best for me as I wrote the exam in about 1 hour.

Now on to the next exam which is the 70-291. I have already booked it for December and am working on prepping for it now.

Will keep you all posted on the progress and outcome.

Ok with everything going on from the move back to the US and the job hunt I had to put the CCNA study on hold for a little while, just couldn’t put my head down and focus on it properly, I thought I could bang through a good chunk of it on the plane ride over from the UK as that was nine and half hours to kill, but no luck, I started but just couldn’t focus, not to mention I did not sleep a wink on that flight, which made for a very long day.

But now that we have been back for a little while, and I am in somewhat of a routine as far as the job search goes, I decided to start to tackle it again as it can only improve my prospects at getting a job.
So as of Sunday night I started to go through the material again, and I have gone through 2 videos of the 2nd disk from trainsignal so far, and plan to finish it off before the end of the week so I can start the practice exams and schedule the real thing in the next week or so. After I get through this I will probably start to tackle the MCSE.

OK, as I have been writing of late I am looking into getting my certifications up to date, as we are suppose to be doing it through work, I am a little weary of getting started on the MCSE, I have finished one of the books, and was getting ready to schedule the exam, but there is a possibility that I may be in the next round of training with work, so I decided to hold off on that for the moment.

I have decided then to go for the CCNA instead as in terms of value it probably makes more sense, and is in higher demand. The CCNA can be done in one or two exams depending on your preference. I am going for the one exam approach. I think it makes the most sense and is the most cost effective option. the exam itself is only about $150. That being said one exam and your certified as opposed to the MCSE which is about 7 exams to get your full certification.

I started reading the material on the 26th of January, and my plan is to take the exam by the 24th of February. So roughly a month time frame to get up to speed and prepared for the exam. From the resources I have found the exam itself is between 55-60 questions and there is a 110 minutes to complete the exam. You need to score an 85% or better to have passed.

Now I am not completely new to Cisco, I have worked with them in the past but it has been about 4 years since I have had to work on a router or switch. I did take the course through the Cisco academy about 6 years ago at McGill University in Montreal. I passed the course, but never got around to taking the exam. So in essence it is kind of a refresher, as I probably know most of the stuff just have remember how to do it again.

as part of tools I have gotten I am currently reading the “CCNA : Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide (Exam 640-802) , 6th Edition” by Todd Lammle. I am also using Dynamips Cisco Router simulator to practice as it simulates almost exactly the router environment as it uses actual Cisco IOS.
I will keep up my progress and list things I have found along this adventure, hopefully by the end of it I can say I am officially a CCNA? we’ll have to wait and see.

Ok, well I managed to finish off the study book, was a long 14 chapters, 18 if you count the appendices. I have managed to do a couple of practice tests from the CD that goes with the book, and am doing pretty well, about an 89% pass rate each time I do the test. I think I will try and schedule the actual exam around the time I get back from Denmark. I think if I force myself to do it I will be ready to go for it. It is like a lot of the self help and getting things done books and people say, if you give yourself a deadline it will take as long as you give yourself. So if you set a target too far ahead you will only get there when the deadline gets close, and if you never give yourself a deadline it will never get done.

I think this is fitting given the recent link to Tim Ferriss and his pilot for his show.

Well I am in the beginning process of going for my MCSE. but at the same time I have always been looking at other ways of making money besides working the usual 40 hour week or more…

A such I came across the book the 4 hour work week, which I had mentioned in a previous post. I like the ideas presented in the book still trying to put some of them in practice. As such I am looking at other avenues to generate some income one of them would be this blog, others I am looking at are online photo stock sites, and investigating a few others right now. Will keep you posted with the outcome of what works and what doesn’t.

One of the other things I have come across in my research over time is also the Bank on yourself concept which is something that intrigued me when I came across it, and there is not that much clear information out there. I will go into more detail on that in a future post as it deserves more dedicated space to that subject.

But at this point as it relates to the Blog, I have already signed up with Google Adsense, and am running a feed through feedburner as well. So far have not seen any monetary results from this but if you have any ideas or suggestions please share them with me?

Ok, So I have been trying to get on this track to get going with my Certification, I picked up the set of books about 2 weeks ago. And brough 1 along with me during my trip to Tulsa. I didn’t even manage to crack it open once during the 2 weeks.

So I am now back home and it is now the second week home, I have managed to get through 2 chapters so far. well not completely through but I am at 2-30 in the book. I am hoping to try and manage at least 1 exam each month but that might be hard with travel for work. But that is my goal for now lets see if I can keep on track to do it or not. will keep this updated with my progress.

So as I mentioned earlier I am in the process of pursueing the MCSE 2003 Certification. I had previously Completed the training for the MCSE on NT 4.0 but never finished all the exams. partly because I had already started to work in the field and found that at that time the certification helped but experience counted for more. I had also completed the training for the CCNA course back in 2003 but that too I did not have time to take the exams as a result of my work schedule. In My current position, the management goal is to have our whole team (approx 10) people trained and certified on MCSE 2003, CCNA, and ORACLE DBA by the end of next year. The schedule is quite aggresive but the plan would be to attend 2 week bootcamps for each of these certifications. unfortunately one of the drawbacks is that the company would like us to sign an agreement to the effect that we wont leave after getting the training, or else there will be a financial penalty. With that in mind, hence I am starting to pursue the training on my own, I have usually managed to read the books and do the practice exams and that usually prepares me enough to take the microsoft test. Hopefully that will still be the case