In November 2016, I took CompTIA’s Security+ exam. NB I did the SY0-401 syllabus; CompTIA replaced it with SY0-501 in October 2017, so some of the info in this blog post will now be a bit out of date. In brief, I think that this is a worthwhile certification. It emphasises breadth rather than depth, …
Tag archives: exam
Assessing ability
I’ve recently had a few conversations with recruitment agencies, where they’ve asked me to rate my IT skills from 1-5. However, I’m reluctant to answer, because I think the concept is flawed.
ITIL Foundation (2011)
I recently earned the ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management, after about a week of study. I’m currently job hunting, and I’ve noticed that a lot of adverts list this as essential. It won’t get you a job on its own, but not having the qualification might exclude you from certain jobs, if the …
Network+
I recently sat CompTIA’s Network+ exam. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and as I mentioned in 2012, passing this exam would give me 2 new qualifications: A+ ce and Network+ ce. I did pass the exam, but the CE side of it was sufficiently complex to warrant a separate blog post.
CWTS
Last month, I took the Certified Wireless Technology Specialist (CWTS) exam. This is issued by CWNP, who are similar to CompTIA, i.e. it’s a vendor-neutral exam rather than being based around specific technology (e.g. Cisco access points). The CWNP website says: “The CWTS certification validates the knowledge of enterprise WLAN sales and support professionals who …
CompTIA exams
Back in 2007, I passed the CompTIA A+ exams. Since then, there have been a few changes to the way these exams work. Unfortunately, CompTIA haven’t done a very good job of explaining it all; it makes volume licensing seem clear and simple by comparison! In brief, if you currently have the A+, Network+, or …
Microsoft exams
Last August, I did a beta exam for Microsoft. I didn’t pay for it, but I didn’t get a score either; the idea was just to test out their new software for doing simulations in the exam (rather than multiple choice questions). As a “thank you”, Microsoft then sent me three vouchers, each one corresponding …
70-621
On Monday morning I took the Vista upgrade exam (70-621). I passed it with a healthy margin (pass mark was 700/900 and I scored 820/900), so I’m happy with that, and it gives me two extra certifications: Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (Microsoft Windows Vista: Configuration) Microsoft Certified IT Professional (Enterprise Support Technician)
A+
I recently decided to sit the A+ exams. That’s partly because it’s always good to boost my CV with extra qualifications, and partly because I wanted to review that qualification: if I was recruiting, would this be valuable for someone else to have?
Windows Vista: first impressions
Two weeks ago I went off to a Microsoft event in Reading: “Ready for a New Day: Microsoft’s Launch of Exchange, Office and Vista”. That was quite interesting, and I came away thinking that there are enough useful features to justify an upgrade. They gave me a freebie copy of Windows Vista and Office 2007 …