June 11, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I just passed the 70-444 test to finally earn the MCITP: DBA SQL Server 2005. Having experience with it greatly helped me pass the test (and a little praying too :). I have not worked on every aspect of SQL 2005 so my studying was more focused in that aspect. Which also showed me how much I was not familiar with and gives me more of a desire to work more with SQL. (Now to convince an employer to let me:).
From your post I would follow the advice of the others on this post to sit the SQL 2005 test. Then study and work with 2008 more and sit the upgrade test. That is the path I want to take.
This also gives you the opportunity to be certified in both. Which how that actually benefits you is being discussed in many other post in this forum :).
Hope this helps, good luck in whatever path you decide on.
Study material I can tell you that http://www.MeasureUp.com does a good job in preparing you for the test going into the first one at least. They give you good descriptions to why the answer to the question is the correct one and why the others are not. I bought a book for the first test that gave me 20 day access to the web site.
Shawn Melton
Twitter: @wsmelton
Blog: wsmelton.github.com
Github: wsmelton
June 11, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Hi Melton, Congratulations for your success. 🙂
The link which you have provided here is very useful. Thanks for that.
I am in some what similar situation as you. I also didn't work on all aspect of SQL Server. So, I am trying to learn more about it and collecting as many info regarding SQL Server as possible which is also suggested by GilaMonster and Steve.
You may find some nice links on http://delicious.com/krkansara11/SQLServer
Also, you can visit http://delicious.com/krkansara11/MicrosoftCertificate
"Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits"
June 16, 2009 at 6:16 am
Kruti
I am going to give you a different perspective. Why get a cert for an old product if you can spend your money now, on a recent product an platform? we're in a bad economic. Boost your resume and knowledge and get the cert for the most recent technology, MS-SQL2008. I personally consider a waste of money spend money on SQL2005 and then SQL2008; you can study by yourself SQL2005 but get the real tests for SQL2008. I am MCTS on SQL2005 and was facing same issue...I decided SQL2008 is the way to go giving the case is a new technology and will boots my resume also.
Just my 2 cents.
June 16, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Hey jocampo, r u going for certification for 2008 or going to upgrade your 2005 certificate?
"Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits"
June 17, 2009 at 4:06 am
HI;)
I'm very new in this forum and I also want to go the way MCITP in SQL Server 2005 and then Upgrading to 2008.
For me it was a long way to go for these exams but i did the MCTS very well by the self paced training kit. I build a developer station for me to take the practice tests. These helped me very much to handle and to come familiar with SQL Server 2005. I also regulary watched videos of jumpstarttv these are very helpful... In august i want to take the 70-443 exam and hopefully i pass it. I tink if you have the time and the recourses you will pass and take your way:-)
Yours Frank
June 17, 2009 at 9:35 am
kruti (6/16/2009)
Hey jocampo, r u going for certification for 2008 or going to upgrade your 2005 certificate?
Hi Kruti
So far, I just passed 70-431 so I'm MCTS only but I've being reading and bought the books for the other tests as well. I do not see useful invest so much money on SQL2005 and then upgrade, sorry, is kind of stupid for me 😉 ... i prefer move to SQL2008 and get all the certs based on latest technology. Also, I think you need less exams for being MCTP on SQL2008 than SQL2005
June 17, 2009 at 10:07 am
Congrats for passing the exam!
I'd agree that moving to 2008 makes more sense. It kind of "includes" all the 2005 knowledge.
June 17, 2009 at 10:50 am
The upgrade to SQL 2008 is only one test, so it's very little money for a lot of added value. If you go out looking for a new job as a DBA, you will likely see more employers looking for someone certified in SQL 2005 than in SQL 2008, at least for a while. Both would definitely be better. Look at this way, if you and another applicant seem to have the same skills and experience and the only difference is that your certification is in SQL 2008 and his is in both SQL 2005 and SQL 2008, who do you think will have the edge?
June 17, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I have my MCITP in SQL2K5 and SQL2K8 by way of the single upgrade exam 70-453. That single upgrade exam gave me both my MCTS and MCITP in SQL2K8. So instead of having two certs I have four just from taking one extra exam. Looks pretty good on a resume. We're pretty far from SQL2K5 being obsolete. I work for a government agency and most of their production servers are shamefully still SQL2K. SQL2K5 will be around for another 5 years at least.
As for training material, I have used Microsoft Press only and have not failed an exam yet. Of course I've been doing SQL Server since 7.0. Sadly, there was no training material for the upgrade exam 70-453, but if you are MCITP SQL2K5 certified, you shouldn't have much trouble with a little exposure to the new features of SQL2K8. That exam is not based on only SQL2K8, but is a comprehensive exam of all aspects of SQL Server and is more like an MCTS than an MCITP exam.
Good Luck.
June 17, 2009 at 3:41 pm
If you go out looking for a new job as a DBA, you will likely see more employers looking for someone certified in SQL 2005 than in SQL 2008, at least for a while.
Hi Robert
I respectfully disagree. Big companies (where the big salaries are) are using the latest technology. The company that I work for is pursuing for SQL2008 cert DBAs. That's true for small and medium companies which usually do not have the money to invest on upgrades.
Now, you are right on something, if you have both certs, that's the way to go. But if I already have the knowledge on SQL2005, why I would spend the money and time pursuing that, instead of looking for a SQL2008 cert? ... I would say , if you're in the middle of the SQL2005 road cert, finish it and then upgrade to SQL2008, otherwise, SQL2008 is the way to go.
June 17, 2009 at 4:32 pm
That's not accurate at all. Big companies that are totally on SQL 2008 are the minority, not the majority.
Firthermore, certification is supposed to reflect the knowledge and experience you have, not what you would like to have.
Let's give you another example:
Applicant 1 has a certification in SQL 2008, and when I ask him how long he has worked with SQL 2008, he says that he has only used it at home for practice, but he's been working with SQL 2005 for 3 years.
Applicant 2 has a certification in SQL 2005, and when I ask how long he has worked with SQL 2005, he says for 3 years and recently he has started working with SQL 2008 a little.
Which applicant do you think looks more appealing to me as the interviewer? The one with a certification that is backed up with experience or the one with a certification that isn't backed up with experience? They both have the same experience, but only one of them has a certification that has some real meaning behind it.
June 17, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Robert Davis (6/17/2009)
That's not accurate at all. Big companies that are totally on SQL 2008 are the minority, not the majority.Firthermore, certification is supposed to reflect the knowledge and experience you have, not what you would like to have.
Let's give you another example:
Applicant 1 has a certification in SQL 2008, and when I ask him how long he has worked with SQL 2008, he says that he has only used it at home for practice, but he's been working with SQL 2005 for 3 years.
Applicant 2 has a certification in SQL 2005, and when I ask how long he has worked with SQL 2005, he says for 3 years and recently he has started working with SQL 2008 a little.
Which applicant do you think looks more appealing to me as the interviewer? The one with a certification that is backed up with experience or the one with a certification that isn't backed up with experience? They both have the same experience, but only one of them has a certification that has some real meaning behind it.
My friend ... you're playing with words. Certs are one thing, experience is other. Besides, with Microsoft and Oracle test changes, certs are more and more difficult and just passing a test that proves at least, your knowledge is good enough to get the job.
Let me ask you this, when you go to an interview, and please be honest, are you going to say you have been using SQL2008 in your home? please! .... also, how long has been SQL2008 in the market? or, are you going to say you have been using SQL2008 for 5 years? lol ... your comment makes no sense.
I could keep talking and talking supporting my argument and you replying back, but big companies are deploying or planning to deploy SQL2008 and Oracle 11g. Oracle and MS-SQL is also pushing for that because everything is business; knowledge and market are hand to hand in terms of db technologies.
Finally, for an MS-SQL cluster implementation, you have no downtime on SQL2008 because the way you run the SetUp on both nodes, on SQL2005 you need to put the virtual instance down; big companies save thousands of dollar just with that, something that you don't on using the previous one. Think about it.
June 17, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I'm not arguing that SQL 2005 is better than SQL 2008, but I work at MSFT, and I can tell you that most of the large companies are not using SQL 2008 exclusively.
Certification was intended to demonstrate the knowledge and experience that you already have. If your knowledge and experience is limited to the study guides and pratice tests, then the certification is not worth much. But on the positive side, you will save $125.
June 18, 2009 at 11:46 pm
I believe that most companies are on SQL2005 and will not pass to SQL2008 if they really need to do.
But SQL2008 has many enhancements especially for the DB management area for DBAs.
So as a DBA you can force your managers for a better version.
And since SQL2008 is the last one with many features added over SQL2005, I prefer taking the SQL2008 exams rather than exams for SQL2005.
Eralper
June 24, 2009 at 5:06 am
Hi kruti ,
I also want to do MCTS with SQL server 2k8.
Can you please share if you have site or material ?
Thanks,
Vijimura
Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 44 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply