MCSE Course

For a few years now, the premium Microsoft Certification you can gain is the MCSE (Microsoft Systems Engineer). People with this certification can add ‘MCSE’ onto the end of their name and can expect a good paying job, whilst earning the respect from their peers within the IT industry. In order to become a fully qualified MCSE, you need to take and pass seven exams, each of which will cost you around $130 each.

Not only that, but you can expect to fork out more cash for training materials, study guides, books,  training simulators, the cost of travel to get to and back from the exams, and more. This soon adds up to the point where we are talking thousands of dollars.

While this is no doubt initially expensive, there’s not getting away from the fact that its a great career move, expecially if you’re in it for the ‘long haul’. Also, Once you are employed as an MCSE, earning back the cash you spent on training should only take a month or two at most. This being said, it is worth taking note that there is quite a significant gap between the MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) – which requires that you take and pass only 1 exam, compared to the MCSE which requires you take and pass 7 exams.

Filling the Gap between the MCSE and MCSA

The large gap between the MCSE and MCP has been taken up by the MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator) certification. The MCSA eradicates the analysis and design parts of network infrastructures, and generally concentrates on managing and troubleshooting system environments. The idea behind this is simple; You don’t really need to know how to analyse and build network infrastructures if your job is to maintain them, and nothing more.

Business’s have now realised that is far more cost efficient for them to hire an MCSE to build the network, and then replace them with an MCSA to maintain it for them. Only when something goes wrong with the infrastructure do they need to call out an MCSE, and even then they are only hired for the sole purpose of fixing it and then sent on their way. It makes sense, if your an MCSE then you don’t particularly want to be doing a job an MCSA is doing (or specifically getting paid the same as an MCSA), and if you are an MCSA then you can’t expect to recieve an MCSE’s salary – you also can’t expect to be able to fix the network should the infrastructure decide to stop working, and if you do, or have the ability to – then you should be looking at becoming a certified MCSE.

MCSE BrainDumps, and why they are a BAD idea:

MCSE ‘Brain Dump‘ websites are all over the internet nowadays, however, as an educator myself, i highly recommend steering clear of these sites for the following obvious reasons:

1. MCSE brain dumps, believe it or not,  are a violation of the Microsoft Non-Disclosure Agreement, which is a fundamental requirement of the Microsoft Certification exam criteria.
2. MCSE Brain Dumps basically enable people with no qualifications to become MCSE certified, which completely depreciates the value of the certificate for all the honest hard working IT professionals. A result of this, is that employers will perviece the MSCE certification to be of ‘lower value’, offering lower salaries to everyone, whether they are legitimate MCSE certificate holders or not. It’s imperative that we try to maintain the value of being MCSE Certified, and people who use Brain Dumps basically dilute the situation. Brain Dumps = ‘Lose – Lose’ situation.
3. To be an MCSE Certified professional, you NEED to KNOW the technology with a high level of understanding, comprehension, and expertise. MCSE’s are expected to respond quickly to critical real world situations with knowledge, expertise, efficiency, speed and accuracy. You will gain none of these qualities using Brain Dumps to cheat your way through, and pretenders will be sniffed out quickly, and subsequently sacked from their job, gaining a bad reference in the process.
4. Sharing MCSE brain dumps, exam questions etc with other people, or actively seeking out ‘cheat sheets’ in order to pass the MCSE exam without studying is simply cheating. Your cheating the examiners, your cheating future employee’s, and most importantly, your cheating yourself. Have you ever cheated at a game when you were a kid and won as a result, and then wondered why you got that ‘guilty’ feeling afterwards?.. its because you know you didn’t win on your own ability. Well, passing the exam using brain dumps will give you the exact same feeling, except this time you’ll be faced with employers who will actually expect and require you to have a certain level of ability. Why not just take the time to study, understand, and comprehend the Microsoft Technologies? You’ll feel a lot better when you do pass, and of course – you’ll be able to actually do the job your going to be paid to do.
5. Passing the MCSE with hard work, study, and determination will help to uphold the value of a MCSE qualification, not only will this benefit you personally by having a sense of achievement, employers will also value the certification higher, and as a result MCSE certificate holders salaries will go UP and not DOWN.

Its a no brainer really, cheating might get you in the door, but it’ll get you booted out twice as fast.

The average salary a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) earns, in 2009, is $64,000 a year. This figure is taken from an ‘average’ based on job salaries with the term MCSE in them.

Also, your salary may differ greatly depending on your company, location, industry, experience and benefits. It’s always worth reviewing your position within your company, and asking yourself if your salary is worth the job you do. Some companies will pay you less, but fund you to take more training, so in effect your salary ‘evens’ out. Even then though, its easy to get locked into a fixed wage contract for a specified amount of years, expecially if training is paid for, so make sure you are fine with the offered wage before signing, otherwise you may need to pay back a certain amount of money if you do decide to look for another job.

Demonstrate your profficiency in designing and implementing infrastructure for Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Based and Windows Server Based business solutions. The MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certification equips you with the technical know how and industry recognized qualifications to help you compete in modern day ‘Windows Server’ based environments.

LEVEL: 1 to 2 years of experience in installing, configuring, designing, and troubleshooting network systems.

AUDIENCE: IT Professional

TYPE: Microsoft™ Certification

It’s advisable to fully prepare for and understand the exam process. You can find a variety of practise exams online, simply by searching in google for MCSE Practise Exams. Some you have to pay for, others are free…. but normally limited in some way or another. I always advise that students take as much practise questions as possible, and if available, buy an MCSE simulator which will simulate ‘real world’ problems you’ll encounter once you start working as a certified systems engineer.

MCSE Jobs are suitable for anyone who has passed the MCSE Exam (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer). There are several methods to obtain your MCSE credential, many of which i explain on this site:

MCSE Online Training
MCSE Boot Camp

You can also obtain your certification by attending University or College, but from my own experience the majority of people gain their certification via either online training, or attending a boot camp. Whichever way you do your training, most people take advantage of tutorials on the internet, and also some online practise tests. It’s worth noting that you do not need to enroll in a formal class to take the training and to successfully get MCSE Jobs.

MCSE Job opporunities are in high demand, and the demand grows each year as more individuals become a part of the growing job market.

When looking for MCSE Jobs, you’ll find results in many places, from local newspapers to online classified ads.

If you are MCSE Certified, there are several job opportunities that are available to you, ranging from Systems Administrators, Server Support Technicians and Network Admins to name but a few.

MCSE Jobs are fantastic opportunities that will last for years, if not a lifetime. The job market and demand for people with this qualification is in high demand, and the market shows no signs of dwindling as companies continue to expand their network infrastructure. The great thing about gaining MCSE Certification is that you can apply for a broad range of jobs straight after passing the exam, and you’d be hard pressed to find a modern day company that does not have many MCSE Jobs available throughout its IT sector.

Looking for an MCSE Job? Check this site for information, and employers seeking for MCSE Certified professionals.

I’ve received a load of e-mails lately asking what the best MCSE books are to buy, to help pass their MCSE exams, so i thought i’d make a post here to help you make the right decision.

I also took the liberty of asking a few of my colleagues which MCSE books / resources they used to help them pass their MCSE exams, so i could get a broader view on which MCSE Books seem to be delivering the best results, and you can find our Top 3 books below.

Before i go on to the list, i must stress the importance of buying at least one or two books to supplement whatever training you’ve chosen / enrolled in. Books are great for recapping on things you’ve learned through the day, and they are also really handy for taking with you on the train / bus / in the car etc. There will also come times where you’ve learnt something specific, but feel you need to recap on it to fully understand it, books are great for this as they often provide detailed explanations of everything, some of which might be explained in a slightly different, but easier to learn way than you’ve previously heard.

I used to sit with a cup of coffee on the sofa at night after doing my daily training and just flick through some books, recapping on what i’d learnt that day. You’d be surprised how many little useful things these books contain.

MCSE Books : TOP 3

There are literally hundreds of MCSE online training courses to choose from. The great benefit of choosing to learn online, is that you can do this from your home, and you don’t have to worry about traveling to and from a campus or a boot camp every day.

Why should i choose MCSE Online Training ?

There are many positive reasons to do an MCSE course online, to name a few:

• Most courses require  no previous knowledge to enroll in.
  
• You can drastically advance your career by gaining certification that will help get you the job you want, or promoted in your current job.
  
• You can still work at your current job while doing the training at nights and on the weekends. No need to lose your monthly pay packet in the name of education!
  
• Most online courses are available to use/view 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You are not restricted to when and where you choose to learn.
  
• You can train in your own time and at your own pace. You don’t have the pressure of a lecturer or teacher constantly watching your progress.
  
• Many online courses will contain a mix of written material, and video lessons. You can pause, rewind, stop, playback the videos until your certain you’ve learnt the material, so no need for frantic ‘note scribbling’ like you’d have to do while listening to a real lecturer.
  
• You can learn from wherever you want, all you need is an internet connection. You are not restricted to just learning from home.
  
• You’ll save money. Most online courses are cheaper than their campus based counterparts, and you’ll also save a lot of money because you don’t have to travel each day to learn.
  

As you can see, choosing an MCSE online training course to do your MCSA / MCSE really is a no brainer, if you are a self motivated person then this type of training is perfect for you. Some people prefer this method of training as they prefer to work in a no pressure environment, and as such normally better results can be achieved this way.

As an alternative, If you are the type of person that needs to be ‘pushed’ to learn, then i do recommend that you try and find an mcse boot camp to do your  training, as you’ll always have someone monitoring your progress and providing a certain amount of pressure so that you keep on track with the course.
It really depends on what type of course suits you better as a person, you will know better than anyone else what kind of training would suit you best.

There are quite a few places online, that will provide you with some free MCSE Certification Training. Personally speaking, I would not recommend that you use this kind of free training as the ONLY material you use to learn your MCSE, but it’s good to use as an addition to, and a supplement to any other training you may have signed up for.

Generally speaking, most free mcse training resources will only offer small ‘snippets’ of the full training you need, and not an entire course, so i must stress that if you are really serious about gaining your mcse certification that you consider finding a full course to enroll in. In the meanwhile,  you can find plenty of free resources via google, and you can also get some free training here:

Microsoft Certifications MCSA MCSE MCTS and MCITP

Another option you may want to consider is to ask your current employer (if you already work within the IT sector) to help fund your mcse training. If you currently work in the IT sector, or wish to be promoted into an IT job, it’s worth asking your current employer / company if they will either pay for your training entirely, or at the least fund part of the training for you. You’d be very surprised how many companies will put you through the training course at no cost to you, as this will broaden your ability to function within their company, so its really worth asking and if anything, will show that you are willing to learn and progress up the ladder.

An MCSE Boot camp is a fast track option to consider when trying to gain your MCSA / MCSE certification. There are many boot camps to pick from and you can normally find a few companies from each major city running them. You can find some companies on this site advertising their MCSE Boot camps, and you could also try searching google for MCSE Boot Camp + “your city name here”.

When choosing which training course to opt for, there are two main factors to consider; Price and duration. Generally speaking, the ‘faster’ the boot camp is to complete, the more it will cost. This is because you are generally subjected to a more intensive based training regime, which will usually take up most of the day for several consecutive days running.

There are boot camps out there that last only seven days, and then you will be ready for your exams… personally however, and talking from experience,  i would only recommend these types of training courses to people who are very highly motivated and already have at least ‘some’ experience in a windows networking enviroment. Seven days is not a long time to cram all that information into your brain!

Other boot camps can last from weeks to months, generally speaking these don’t cost as much, but you’ll also likely spend less time each day actually at the camp, giving you more time to revise what you learned that day in the comfort of your own home. This way is often better as it allows your brain time to accept and remember the new information.

There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to learn via a boot camp, you just need to pick an MCSE Boot Camp that suits your pace of learning, and fits in with your schedule.

MCSE Training Course Outline
In order to obtain your MCSE Certificate, candidates must pass 6 core exams and 1 elective exam.

The first set of core exams are focused mainly on System Networking within the Windows Server 2003 environment, the 4 required exams that pertain to this criteria are listed here:

• MCSE Exam 70 – 290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment.
• MCSE Exam 70 – 293: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure.
• MCSE Exam 70 – 291:  Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure.
• MCSE Exam 70 – 294: Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure.

MCSE candidates must also sit an additional core exam, focusing on the client operating system in order to complete their MCSE Training. The required exam that pertains to this criteria is listed here:

• MCSE Exam 70 – 270: Installing, Configuring, And Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

In addition to this exam, candidates must also sit 1 more ‘core’ exam focusing on Design. The required exam that pertains to this criteria is listed below:

• MCSE Exam 70 – 297: Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure.

Finally, MCSE Security candidates are required to take an ‘elective exam’, listed below:

• MCSE Exam 70 – 298: Designing Security For A Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network.

Once all of these exams are passed, your MCSE Training is complete.