Jason Alba - Pluralsight Jibber Jobber, Author and more

Jason Alba - Pluralsight Jibber Jobber, Author and more

Last year I wrote a review of Pluralsight and as much as I love learning new technology this past year and especially the past few months my focus has been on non-technical skills. One of the authors I was most impressed with was Jason Alba. Jason seems to create about one new course a month for Pluralsight, he is the creator and founder of JibberJobber.com and the author of a number of books.

I am very impressed with Jason's presenting style. He is engaging, entertaining and honest. His courses are great. I have listened to all of his current offering at least once and a number of them more than once. Currently he has 26 courses available on Pluralsight:

Presenting to the Boss(es)  
Prioritizing Tasks and Managing Time for Greater Productivity  
Working and Communicating with Different Personalities  
How to Be a Great Mentor: Get More out of Mentoring  
How to Be a Great Mentee: Get More Out of Mentoring  
How to Get Your Next Promotion  
Creating and Leading Effective Teams for Managers  
Working on a Team  
Marketing and Selling Your Own Products and Services  
Customer Service for Software Developers: Delighting Customers  
Resumes and Self-marketing for Software Developers  
Becoming a Better Listener
LinkedIn: Proactive Strategies
LinkedIn Strategy: Optimize Your Profile  
Management 101  
Leadership: Getting Started  
Effective Phone Skills  
Onboard Yourself: What to Do After You Land Your Dream Job  
Designing a Killer Job Search Strategy
Developing a Killer Personal Brand
Relationship Management and Tracking for Your Career
Writing and Marketing a Book  
Career Management 2.0  
Effective Email Communication  
Informational Interviews  
LinkedIn Fundamentals

Jason's courses range from 1 hour 8 minutes to 2 hours 47 minute currently. He teaches on a wide range of skills and competencies that will help you grow, but not just in your abilities at work these skills can transfer to all areas of your life.

And one of the greatest things is that if you are not a Pluralsight subscriber you can get free trial subscription currently up to 10 days or 200 minutes of learning. And all of Jason's courses come in under that 200 minute mark. But I will warn you once you start learning with Jason or Pluralsight you won't want to stop you might become hooked and want a subscription so you can continue your learning. You have nothing to lose just go to Pluralsight click on Sign Up and choose the free trial option. Give it a try you will not be disappointed.

Books by Jason Alba:
51 Alternatives to a Real Job
I'm on Linkedin -- Now What: A Guide to Getting the Most Out of Linkedin
I'm on Facebook--Now What: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook
Storytelling About Your Brand Online & Offline: A Compelling Guide to Discovering Your Story
Vault Career Guide to Accounting: Get the Inside Scoop on Careers in Accounting
I've Landed My Dream Job--Now What: How to Achieve Success in the First 30 Days in a New Job
Launchpad: Your Career Search Strategy Guide

Pluralsight - Service Review

Pluralsight
The World's largest teach and creative training library! 

This has been one of the greatest tools for my career development. I happen to be very lucky in that for a number of years now I have had full access to this site provided for by work. First through TrainSignal before it merged with Pluralsight. But over the last few months I have discovered that there is much more than just technical skills to be gained from this site, there is a wide range or personal and professional development courses.  These non-technical courses go way beyond just technical chops.

My first introduction to this learning method was the old CBT Nuggets. But having used Pluralsight now for 4 years I believe it is by far the best player in this market. At work I had 4 title changes in under 4 years and I attribute a lot of that advancement to being able to train at my own pace and stay on top of new technologies by using courses on this site.

Over the last few years I have done courses on Server 2012, SQL 2012, vmWare, ITIL, Storage, System Center and more. Now occasionally you will find authors or instructors who just do not do it for you. But of the 58 courses I have completed since the TrainSignal-Puralsight merger there have been very few that I did not enjoy. But it was much the same at university, you will find some course instructors you love and work through most or all of their courses because the teaching style is so engaging.

An example of how good some of these courses are, a few years back one of my first tasks after moving to the Senior team was to build our VDI Virtual Desktop Infrastructure using vmware view. I watch the course through from beginning to end. Watched it a second time and made notes for the step by step install and configuration process. Within a few days I had our environment up and running, and it is now time to upgrade to Horizon View.

As mentioned earlier, lately I have been focused on more non-technical courses. Jason Alba has some amazing career development courses. There are a number of excellent management or leadership courses available and new courses coming online often. And currently there are almost 60 career development and management courses available.

And one of the greatest new features is native apps for iOS, Android and Windows phone, and with the native apps the option for offline content to work while travelling or to save data usage on your devices.

I attribute much of my success over the last 5 years to using this tool and for the price point you just cannot beat the breadth and depth of courses available to help you grow personally and professionally. This would be an excellent resource for any developer, programmer or IT Infrastructure professional to have access to. You can also start with a 10 day free trail so why not give it a try and check out a course or two?

Reviews of Pluralsight Courses and older Trainsignal Courses now on Pluralsight.

15 Years of Continuous Learning

15 Years of Continuous Learning

Working in IT continuous learning is a way of life. I was recently encouraging members of my team to pick 1 hard skill and 1 soft skill course to add to their goals for this year. I logged into Pluralsight to share some ideas. I was surprised when I saw that I had 579 hours of training and 264 completed courses. I recently completed the LinkedIn Learning course: Gaining Skills with LinkedIn Learning by Oliver Schinkten, and it got me thinking about learning over the years. 

I have loved Pluralsight, and especially courses by Jason Alba, I wrote a piece on why I enjoy Jason’s courses so much and an overview of Pluralsight many year ago. Back in 2013 Pluralsight purchased IT Training Network TrainSignal, which I had access to since 2010, And the learning history was brought in. So, I have 579 hours and 264 courses over 15 years across the platform. Many great skills, technologies, soft skills and sometimes just a refresher.

An example of how I used Technology training from a past job. Many years ago, when I moved from Service Desk to the Senior team one of my first task was to build a VMWare VDI Environment, I watched the course beginning to end, watched it again taking specific notes, then built out the environment without any issues. 

What I love about IT and now management is the need for continuous learning. I often state if I ever came into money the first thing I would do is go back to university. I have an uncle who is 93 and takes courses every fall and winter semesters at UW and Laurier, he has added 3 degrees since retiring. Back in 2006 I believe he was the oldest active student at UW and wrote about him for the student paper; Possibly the oldest active student at UW - Lucien Guillaume. I spent over 20 years as an undergraduate because I was not sure what I wanted to do with my life and just loved learning, I wrote a piece called; 20 Years After - Reflections on Life, the University and Everything. It was always my fall-back because of a natural talent, and it has provided lifelong learning opportunities. I now have access through work to LinkedIN Learning and have completed 8 courses over the last 6 months on that platform. I am grateful that most of my corporate career I have been at employers that support and encourage learning. And I am thankful my current employer is passionate about it. Even curating thematic content every month for us.

No matter where you are in your career or what your job is I encourage you as I did my team this year, pick a course or 2 to learn and grow. The benefit personally, and professionally is well worth the time and effort. And here is to the next 500 hours of learning!

Linux Server Skills for Windows Administrators - David Clinton from Pluralsight

Linux Server Skills for Windows Administrators
David Clinton
Pluralsight

I will be honest and say that I have started studying Linux a number of times over the last 10+ years. I have managed a few systems running Linux but for the most part have been a Windows or ESXI administrator for most of my corporate career. I have intended to go deeper with Linux often but it always falls to the back burner and the next thing I know a lot of time has passed. I do not see that happening now, for a number of reasons. First in my new role on a DevOps team it is time to buckle down and really get more proficient with Linux. Second David's teaching is so engaging that I am really excited to work through his material; this course was awesome, his new course LPI: Linux Essentials and his book Teach Yourself Linux Administration and Prepare for the LPIC-1 Certification Exams: Complete. Quick. And other stuff he has under development.

This course comes in at 70 minutes. It was so engaging I worked through it twice in a very short time. I made a few notes in my training notebook in Evernote and started a new notebook quick reference Linux commands with brief notes. It must be Davis's years in the front of the class but his course is one of the best I have ever done, that includes 20 years in University, 3 year college program, and numerous courses either live, live virtual classroom or self-paced like those offered through Pluralsight. I can say that for the first time I am excited about learning Linux and believe that I will be able to do it.

This brief course is more than worth the time, it worked as a quick refresher, and I learned a few new tricks. And I highly recommend it!

Books by David Clinton:
Teach Yourself Linux Administration and Prepare for the LPIC-1 Certification Exams: Complete. Quick.
Learn Amazon Web Services in a Month of Lunches
Practical LPIC-1 Linux Certification Study Guide 1st ed. Edition

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide: Clf-C01 Exam

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate Saa-C01 Exam

Ubuntu Linux Bible

Linux Security Fundamentals

Solving for Technology: How To Quickly Learn Valuable New Skills In A Madly Changing Technology World

Manage AWS Resources Using Ansible

Keeping Up: Backgrounders to All the Big Technology Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore

...

Pluralsight Courses by David Clinton:
Linux Server Skills for Windows Administrators
LPI: Linux Essentials (010-150)
Linux Encryption Security (LPIC-3 303)
Linux Network Security (LPIC-3 303)
Linux Server Virtualization (LPIC-3 304 Part 1/2)
Linux High Availability Cluster Management (LPIC-3 304 Part 2/2)
Network Vulnerability Scanning with OpenVAS
Using Docker on AWS
Protocol Deep Dive: SSH and Telnet

...

Related Articles:
Review of Pluralsight Service

Teach Yourself Linux Administration and Prepare for the LPIC-1 Certification Exams: Complete. Quick. - David Clinton

Teach Yourself Linux Administration and Prepare for the LPIC-1 Certification Exams: Complete. Quick.
David Clinton
Bootstrap-IT
ISBN 9781329803701
ASIN B01AVG4URG

I need to be up front with you. I have always been a little leery of Linux Certification. I have been a Windows Sys Admin for years now, I spent a few short years supporting Apples OSX, and though Linux certification was on my wish list, it is something I have started a number of times but never seen through to completion. Because I only ever managed a few systems or applications that ran on Linux I always figured out what I needed to know, but never took the time to go further. 

But after doing David Clinton's 'Linux Server Skills for Windows Administrators' on PluralSight I had a hunger to know more and go deeper. And I am very thankful I have. I have not written my exams yet but they are on my training plan for this year. This book is the most compact, and easily digestible of the CompTIA Linux+, or LPI-1 book I have ever tried to use. Within a few hours I was up and running with a vm within a vm and working through the exercises. And at the end of each chapter is a test to check your knowledge. If I did not score at least 75% I redid the chapter.

No based on my learning styles I learn best from reading and second best from hands on doing. With this book I was able to maximize my learning. With the hours I spend going through this book I feel like I have a better grasp of Linux than working doing it a bit here and a bit there on the job of the last dozen years. David states in the introduction: "Now, about this book. I chose to have the chapters closely follow the LPIC exam topics. Not only will this make it much easier for you to study for each of the two exams required for LPIC-1 certification, but I believe that the exam objectives are actually nicely aligned with the tools you'll need in the real world. Whether or not you end up taking the exam, if you manage to learn this material, you'll have done yourself a real favor." And I completely agree with his assertion. He also says: "If you want to really "get" this stuff, you'll have to roll up your sleeves, open up a terminal, and do it. As soon as you finish a chapter or a section, try out what you've learned on a real living, breathing Linux system. Even better, take on your own projects. Be ambitious. Be adventurous. Take (managed) risks." And I found that to be true, every time I tried to study Linux before using this book I always worked with a GUI, but by following David's guidance I worked with a command line only version a little every day for weeks until I was immersed in it.

I have heard that David is currently working on textbooks for the advance Linux exams and I know I will use those once I have written these exams. His writing style is easy to digest, it is clear, concise and to the point. It was by far one of the best certification books I have ever used, and I currently hold 37 certifications and have written nearly 50 exams over the last 10 years. I can highly recommend this book, if you are new to Linux or already have a lot of experience and just want to achieve the designation this book will be a great resource for your exam prep.


An excellent resource that I can highly recommend.

Note: Since writing this review I have found out that the book has been republished as: 

Practical LPIC-1 Linux Certification Study Guide 1st ed. Edition
David Clinton
Apress Press
ISBN 9781484223574

ASIN B01N8YV1N3

It was by far one of the best certification books I have ever used, and I currently hold 37 certifications and have written nearly 50 exams over the last 10 years.

Books by David Clinton:
Teach Yourself Linux Administration and Prepare for the LPIC-1 Certification Exams: Complete. Quick.
Learn Amazon Web Services in a Month of Lunches
Practical LPIC-1 Linux Certification Study Guide 1st ed. Edition

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide: Clf-C01 Exam

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate Saa-C01 Exam

Ubuntu Linux Bible

Linux Security Fundamentals

Solving for Technology: How To Quickly Learn Valuable New Skills In A Madly Changing Technology World

Manage AWS Resources Using Ansible

Keeping Up: Backgrounders to All the Big Technology Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore

...

Pluralsight Courses by David Clinton:
Linux Server Skills for Windows Administrators
LPI: Linux Essentials (010-150)
Linux Encryption Security (LPIC-3 303)
Linux Network Security (LPIC-3 303)
Linux Server Virtualization (LPIC-3 304 Part 1/2)
Linux High Availability Cluster Management (LPIC-3 304 Part 2/2)
Network Vulnerability Scanning with OpenVAS
Using Docker on AWS
Protocol Deep Dive: SSH and Telnet

...

Related Articles:
Review of Pluralsight Service

Practical LPIC-1 Linux Certification Study Guide - David Clinton

Practical LPIC-1 Linux Certification Study Guide 1st ed. Edition
David Clinton
Apress Press
ISBN 9781484223574
ASIN B01N8YV1N3

I reviewed an different edition of this book, and then found out about this new edition. Other than formatting changes the changes are minimal. So here is my review. I need to be up front with you. I have always been a little leery of Linux Certification. I have been a Windows Sys Admin for years now, I spent a few short years supporting Apples OSX, and though Linux certification was on my wish list, it is something I have started a number of times but never seen through to completion. Because I only ever managed a few systems or applications that ran on Linux I always figured out what I needed to know, but never took the time to go further. 

But after doing David Clinton's 'Linux Server Skills for Windows Administrators' on PluralSight I had a hunger to know more and go deeper. And I am very thankful I have. I have not written my exams yet but they are on my training plan for this year. This book is the most compact, and easily digestible of the CompTIA Linux+, or LPI-1 book I have ever tried to use. Within a few hours I was up and running with a vm within a vm and working through the exercises. And at the end of each chapter is a test to check your knowledge. If I did not score at least 75% I redid the chapter.

No based on my learning styles I learn best from reading and second best from hands on doing. With this book I was able to maximize my learning. With the hours I spend going through this book I feel like I have a better grasp of Linux than working doing it a bit here and a bit there on the job of the last dozen years. David states in the introduction: "Now, about this book. I chose to have the chapters closely follow the LPIC exam topics. Not only will this make it much easier for you to study for each of the two exams required for LPIC-1 certification, but I believe that the exam objectives are actually nicely aligned with the tools you'll need in the real world. Whether or not you end up taking the exam, if you manage to learn this material, you'll have done yourself a real favor." And I completely agree with his assertion. He also says: "If you want to really "get" this stuff, you'll have to roll up your sleeves, open up a terminal, and do it. As soon as you finish a chapter or a section, try out what you've learned on a real living, breathing Linux system. Even better, take on your own projects. Be ambitious. Be adventurous. Take (managed) risks." And I found that to be true, every time I tried to study Linux before using this book I always worked with a GUI, but by following David's guidance I worked with a command line only version a little every day for weeks until I was immersed in it.

I have heard that David is currently working on textbooks for the advance Linux exams and I know I will use those once I have written these exams. His writing style is easy to digest, it is clear, concise and to the point. It was by far one of the best certification books I have ever used, and I currently hold 37 certifications and have written nearly 50 exams over the last 10 years. I can highly recommend this book, if you are new to Linux or already have a lot of experience and just want to achieve the designation this book will be a great resource for your exam prep.

An excellent resource that I can highly recommend.

Note: This book was previously published as: 

Teach Yourself Linux Administration and Prepare for the LPIC-1 Certification Exams: Complete. Quick.
David Clinton
Bootstrap-IT
ISBN 9781329803701
ASIN B01AVG4URG

It was by far one of the best certification books I have ever used, and I currently hold 37 certifications and have written nearly 50 exams over the last 10 years.

Books by David Clinton:
Teach Yourself Linux Administration and Prepare for the LPIC-1 Certification Exams: Complete. Quick.
Learn Amazon Web Services in a Month of Lunches
Practical LPIC-1 Linux Certification Study Guide 1st ed. Edition

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide: Clf-C01 Exam

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate Saa-C01 Exam

Ubuntu Linux Bible

Linux Security Fundamentals

Solving for Technology: How To Quickly Learn Valuable New Skills In A Madly Changing Technology World

Manage AWS Resources Using Ansible

Keeping Up: Backgrounders to All the Big Technology Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore

...

Pluralsight Courses by David Clinton:
Linux Server Skills for Windows Administrators
LPI: Linux Essentials (010-150)
Linux Encryption Security (LPIC-3 303)
Linux Network Security (LPIC-3 303)
Linux Server Virtualization (LPIC-3 304 Part 1/2)
Linux High Availability Cluster Management (LPIC-3 304 Part 2/2)
Network Vulnerability Scanning with OpenVAS
Using Docker on AWS
Protocol Deep Dive: SSH and Telnet

...

Related Articles:
Review of Pluralsight Service

Keeping Up - David Clinton - Backgrounders to All the Big Technology Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore

Keeping Up: 

Backgrounders to All the Big Technology Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore

David Clinton

Bootstrap-IT

ISBN 9798683548391

ASIN B08HL9WQ1H

I have been a fan of David’s writings and online courses since I first encountered them a few years ago. And thought I have not read everything he has written, what I have has been of benefit. And to be honest this one might have the widest readership yet. This is a book I am already recommending to managers, directors and CIO’s that are friends and colleagues. It is an excellent volume and great resource. The sections in the book are:

Preface

About the Author

I. THE BIG PICTURE

Understanding Digital Security

Understanding Digital Privacy

Understanding the Cloud

Understanding Digital Connectivity

Understanding the Business of Technology Research

Where Hot Trends Go to Die

II. BUZZWORD BINGO: QUICK AND DIRTY TECHNOLOGY PROFILES

Compute Platforms

Security and Privacy

Managing Data Storage

Working With Data

There are two sections multiple chapters and each chapter has several key sections. This is a book anyone in the IT field would benefit from reading. And It would also be of interest to anyone who uses technology these days. The first words in the first chapter are:

“Whatever your connection to technology, security should play a prominent role in the way you think and act.”

And further on he quotes an unnamed source:

“Select any two of privacy, security, and convenience. But you can’t have all three.”

No matter who you are it is likely you use technology in some way shape or form today. This book gives some broad strokes of what you should be considering and what you give away. I am constantly telling my kids there are no free apps, you agree to give them access to you and your data when you use them. This book highlights that and the need most of us have to use more caution. 

The book is well written and engaging. It is easily accessible. It looks at the technology industry but much that is in this book is of value to even the home user. Considerations about the IOT Internet of things, connected home devices, devices listening and recording. Technology is great and has many benefits but can also be used for not so great things. This volume helps you surf the trends that are emerging and mainstream. And consider the pros and cons of each.

As stated, an excellent value for those working in the industry. But also, for someone looking to expand their base knowledge. I highly recommend this volume. 

Books by David Clinton:
Teach Yourself Linux Administration and Prepare for the LPIC-1 Certification Exams: Complete. Quick.
Learn Amazon Web Services in a Month of Lunches
Practical LPIC-1 Linux Certification Study Guide 1st ed. Edition

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide: Clf-C01 Exam

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide: Associate Saa-C01 Exam

Ubuntu Linux Bible

Linux Security Fundamentals

Solving for Technology: How To Quickly Learn Valuable New Skills In A Madly Changing Technology World

Manage AWS Resources Using Ansible

Keeping Up: Backgrounders to All the Big Technology Trends You Can't Afford to Ignore

...

Pluralsight Courses by David Clinton:
Linux Server Skills for Windows Administrators
LPI: Linux Essentials (010-150)
Linux Encryption Security (LPIC-3 303)
Linux Network Security (LPIC-3 303)
Linux Server Virtualization (LPIC-3 304 Part 1/2)
Linux High Availability Cluster Management (LPIC-3 304 Part 2/2)
Network Vulnerability Scanning with OpenVAS
Using Docker on AWS
Protocol Deep Dive: SSH and Telnet

...

ActiveBatch Advance Course from Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.

ActiveBatch Advance Course
Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.
Instructor Kathryn Ossandon

It has been a few years since I have taken part in a Live Virtual Classroom course offering. Over that time I have done a lot of self-paced online study. But there is always something about instructor led courses and labs that build that I get excited about. As someone who spent 20 years as a student in post-secondary education, and since then had done hundreds of IT courses, through CBT Nuggets, TrainSignal, Pluralsight, and more. One of the advantages of self-paced is not needing to wait on any stragglers. But the biggest advantage of instructor led is the interaction, sometimes with other participants, or as in this case just the instructor.

In this particular course the instructor was one of the best features. Kathryn Ossandon, she comes from technical support for ActiveBatch, and now focuses on being a Product Trainer. And she leads an excellent course offering. I believe this was the first course I have ever taken where time was not lost at some point as the instructor helped someone with their labs. The pace that the course was taught at was perfect. Of the 9 of us taking the course we had a range of experience with the products and a range of roles, from operations, administration to developer. And this course is designed in such a way as to teach what is needed to all three camps. 

The contents for the Advanced Course are:

It seems like a lot for a three day course spanning 24 hours. But the instructor had the labs open before class on days 2 and 3, and after class on days 1 and two. The instructor also closed out the labs during the teaching time, so students are required to focus on the teaching and not just keep ploughing through labs. The days were well structured and for the most part we really kept to the schedule that was communicated at the beginning.

Now I am on the operations or administration side of the house. I switched jobs about 18 months ago and have now been exposed to ActiveBatch. It is very different than the previous tool I used. But I really appreciate the design, functionality, and ease of use with this product.

For me this course was great because I have been support ActiveBatch for over a year. I have migrated a number of machines with Job Queues from one domain to another during an Active Directory collapse. During that project I had to remediate individual servers and a few hundred jobs. This course would have been very beneficial prior to that project. But even with that being said this course covers a lot of excellent material.

When I looked at the lab manual and saw 36 labs for 3 days I wondered how in the world we would get through it all. But the knowledge for the most part so nicely builds upon each other, block by block, and before I knew it the third day was done.

As a side not it is recommended that this course be completed with at least 2 computer screens. One for the Lab computer and one for the lab manual, alt-tab would just be too inconvenient, and you would likely fall behind.

Overall I would state that this is one of the best courses I have taken since working full time in IT. This offering has great material, excellent schedule, and an amazing instructor. And I look forward to learning more as I support this product in the years to come.

(Prepared to start the final day of the course with a Coffee, Tea, fresh juice, and water. Because of the course time zone I did remote training from home.)

Inner Geek Updated - April 2017

Inner Geek Updated - April 2017

It has been a few year's since I updated this thread. I have now changed roles again and am in my third corporate It role. I am on a SysOps team with some great guys at an excellent organisation. With three young children my time to study and certify has changed radically. But I still love learning. I have done courses on Dell hardware, Oracle Software, VMWare VCP and more. So the journey continues. But a lot of courses and exams have taken place over the last 10 years. 

The certification's I have earned are:

Exams Written:

Implementing an Advanced Server Infrastructure - Exam 70-414
Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure - Exam 70-413
Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows 8 - Exam 70-689
Upgrading your MCSA to Windows Server 2012 - Exam 70-417
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator - Exam 9L0-510
Apple Certified Support Professional - Exam 9L0-403
Mac Integration Basics - Exam 9L0-263

MCITP - Windows 7 Desktop Administrator - Exam 070-686

Pro: MS SQL Server 2008 Design, Optimize and Maintain - Exam 070-450

MCITP - Windows Server 2008 Server Administrator - Exam 072-646

MCITP Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Administrator - 070-647

CompTIA Security+ - Exam JKO-015

MCITP Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician - EXAM 071-685

MCTS Windows 7 Configuration - Exam 070-680

Implementing Security in MS Win Server 2003 - Exam 70-299

MCTS System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Configuration - Exam 70-403

MCTS Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Implementation & Maintenance - Exam 70-431

MCTS Upgrading MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008- Exam 70-649

MCTS Implementing & Managing MS Exchange Server 2003 - Exam 70-284

Security 2003 Server - Exam 70-298

Active Directory 2003 - Exam 70-294

Maintaining Server 2003 - Exam 70-293

Server 2003 Infrastructure - Exam 70-291

Server 2003 - Exam 70-290

MCTS Deploying & Maintaining Vista Client Office System - Exam 070-624

MCITP Desktop Support Consumer Support - 070-623

CompTIA Network+ 2007 - JK0-012 JK0-010

MCTS Windows Vista Client Configuaration - Exam 072-620 & 070-622

MCITP Desktop Support - Exam 072-622

CompTIA A+ Depot Technician - Exam 220-602

CompTIA A+ Remote Support Technician - Exam 220-603

CompTIA A+ IT Technician - Exam JK0-601 220-602

CompTIA A+ Essentials - Exam JK0-601

Microsoft PowerPoint - Exam 810

Microsoft Outlook - Exam 813

Microsoft Access - Exam 807

Microsoft Excel - Exam 804

Microsoft Word - Exam 801

For the last few years my focus has been training for job skills and not really writing exams. Currently I am working through the Pluralsight PowerShell training path. Also I am working on self study for LPI-1 Linux Certification.

Articles in this Series:

Unleashing the Inner Geek

MOS Microsoft Office Specialist

Playing with Multi-OS's

Inner Geek - Validated

Inner Geek - On My Way

Inner Geek - Validated February 2008

Inner Geek - Validated September 2008

The Changing face of BRAM

Inner Geek - Updated February 2009

Windows 7 Beta Review

Inner Geek - Updated April 2009

Inner Geek - Updated July 2009

Inner Geek - Updated November 2009

Inner Geek - Updated December 2010
Mac VS PC an It Guys Perspective
Inner Geek - Updated June 2011
Inner Geek - Updated December 2011
Inner Geek - Updated December 2012
Inner Geek Updated April 2017

These exams were written either at a Prometric Testing Center or at a Certiport Testing Center for the Office exams. The Exams names that have links link to reviews of the books I used to prepare for those exams. These exams are a mix of CompTIA, Microsoft Exams and Apple certification exams.