Network Training is Hands-On

     Back in 2003 it took me almost a year to get my Microsoft Certification.  It was at the local college located in the city and it was in the middle of July.  The MCSE classes were offered on a rotating schedule and therefore, you were at the mercy of when the classes came around again.                 

     So the hot summer wind was blowing through the open windows in the classroom, and we were watching slide after slide of nomenclature, connectivity, disk space, and every little nuance that Microsoft throws at you for the exam.  Sure, we did a couple of exercises on our own with our little workgroup, when the lab worked.  We would spend time waiting for the instructor to get the domain going, waiting for desktops to connect to the domain etc.  Boring.

    After downing five cups of coffee and taking several breaks during the eight hour training day, Monday was finally over and only four days to go!  When Friday eventually came, we were so far behind due to mishaps and large class size that we didn’t get to leave until 6:00 pm, rush hour.

    When it was finally time to take our first test, Windows Small Business Server I believe, a lot of what we learned during the week was not even on my exam.  Not the instructor’s fault, but the way Microsoft distributes the tests.  That was it, I had enough.  Or had I?  Only a year of this to go to get my full MCSE!

  I then tried to do computer-based training at home where I could focus, pause when needed, go up online if need be etc.  The problem was, I had no lab setting and the PowerPoint-like training was just as bad as listening to an instructor regurgitate information.  I was close to how I thought training should be, but not quite.

    Years later, presently, I wanted to pursue my Cisco CCNA to add to my resume’.  So I recently went up on EBay to see if there was any low cost training CDs.  Some brand new training packages are $400 - $500 to start.  What I found next was nothing short of amazing to me.  I came across a full Cisco lab package including, Cisco switches, routers, complete with full duplex cards, current IOS, crossover cables, straight through cables, serial cables, console cable, two CDs worth of lab setup, exercises, documents and enough to keep you going for a year.  I paid $350 for this complete hands-on setup!  Now, I know many people in the networking field may find this not surprising, but it was a heck of deal to me when I think of the thousands of dollars my company had paid for my MCSE.  That, and once you leave the classroom, that’s it.  Most professionals will only be able to touch a lot of this stuff infrequently and only under stressful circumstances. 

    The fact that I have a full blown Cisco network to analyze, wipe out, reconfigure and take up and down as often as I want is worth the price itself.  But when I added an old laptop with XP and a $250 Dell Power Edge server loaded with Windows Server 2008 R2, and Exchange 2003, I am no longer at the mercy of classes that are ridiculously paced, overcrowded and expensive. Furthermore, I am able to host small study groups, so we can all proceed to upgrade our certifications together.

    So, for under $800 total I found it worth it to me and my sanity to have a real hands-on setup at my fingertips any time of day and at an affordable price anyone could swing in these times of tough job competition and economic uncertainty.  Happy Computing!