apple certs
 

so i was looking into maybe getting some of the server certs that apple offers and getting like an MCSE equivilent for the mac side.

I already have the OS cert and the desktop hardware cert

I took them at a comp tia testing center no problem, passed the tests and have been renewing them year after year online

now i was looking at the 10.4 server essentials certification and well it seems you have to take a 4 day course to get certified. I understand that something hands on with an instructor is probably the best way to learn something, but I figure this cost a bit of $$$$

it seems they have a help desk specialist, technical coordinator, and system administrator

If I got the server cert I would be a technical coordinator since I already have the OS cert

then after that i could get the administrator certs and get it all.

Has anyone on this forum got these?

refer to http://train.apple.com/certification/macosx.html

It seems to me like you have to go take a course to get certified they don't offer any other training material. Is this the case?

I'm finally working towards them. After a million years I figured it was about damn time. Seemed like a good idea to legitimize my skills for my resumé. Let's face it, I don't want to live in NC much longer. :)

On a random whim I took the "Support Essentials" exam with no problem a month or so ago. Rather than spend the ca$h on "Server Essentials" training, I just bought the book that they use to train from (LINK) and bought myself a copy of 10-client Tiger Server off eBay for $200. Once that gets here (today? tomorrow? Monday?) I'll get into it and then shortly take my "Server Essentials" test and my ACTC. I don't think I'm going to have too much of a problem.

Now, the ACSA is something else altogether. I'm not sure what I'll do about training at this point. I'll think more about it once I get the ACTC.

Of course, by the time I finish all this, it'll be friggin 10.5 time. :rolleyes:

To date I've not bothered with the 2 hardware related certs. Didn't know if it was worth it.

thanks for the link to the book, if my work will spring for the training maybe ill go to the training. otherwise ill get the book. as for tiger server we have an educational site license so i can load it on any mac at work and mess with it.

do you have any idea of what it consists of? is it like a 4 day boot camp and then the exam, or if you complete the course do you get certified? Back, back in the day way before OS X, the old apple cert was actually a hands on exam. You met with the instructor and they qualified you based on what you knew and what they taught you and if you were able to learn. Since then it has all gone comp tia.

that was my other concern, do these expire like the other apple certs?

I got the hardware because we wanted warranty reimbursement when i worked for an aasp, and now that i work for a self maintainer they really like getting warranty checks from apple to put in our budget.

i agree i think i would like to hit one of the coasts in a few years and thats why i am getting certs. i am going to get my mcp or msa also, the microsoft ones aren't that hard, but i don't feel like going full blown mcse. i was also looking at the linux plus ones.

i figure ms certs + apple certs + a linux cert should land me a decent paying job somewhere.......hopefully

I don't know much about the courses other than they are pricey and I'm not willing to spring for them yet. From what I gathered simply taking the course was not a guarantee that one got certified at the end. I feel this way becuase Apple has been attempting to make inroad towards bringing Apple Certs into the forfront of their IT "Prosumers". It seems like every related item I read makes a point of letting me know that Apple Certs have grown 300% in the last X years. Of course, that might be a good indicator that they aren't being picky and folks get certified simply by taking the course. I don't know. The course outline should tell you if you get to take the test at the end. I suspect you do. I had to laugh when I took the Support Essentials exam, it was on a Window box.

yeah the apple exams have the same old MS feel to them as well. A lot of times you are answering what apple thinks is the right answer, which may not be the best solution to the problem

I am going to order that book and start messing around with server, I have a dual 2gig G5 in the office and a G4 QS pretty much doing nothing other than we use it to make master images for the labs on them. I can load OS X server on the 2nd HD on the G5 and try to push stuff out to the g4 and so on and so forth.

if my work will spring for the training I'd go just to see how worth it, it really is. Epson does something similiar. You go to a three day seminar on espon printing, learn how they work, how to fix them, and how to work with epson. There is a test at the end but the instructor pretty much just walks you through the answers. if you are going to spend the time and money to get certified they let you. I am sure its not that simple with the apple cert, and I will say that the apple hardware test was one of the harder hardware tests I have ever taken. the OS test was okay, not too easy not too hard, there were some questions about user management I didn't like, seemed kind of iffy on the answer selection. That is just how testing goes though.

I ordered the book off of amazon, paid like 30 bucks for it brand new too

gonna get server installed on a mac this week or next week and start studying.

Server is a slight departure from Client. It's like Client+. It looks so much like client that it's a little disconcerting. I really haven't done much but install it here at work.

My real work will be at home, I just got some more RAM, a power splitter, and a KVM for home so I could set it up and test it for real. So, we'll see.

yeah it is kind of funny how i have personally installed like 15 or more xservs in the past couple of years in server rooms and racks etc, but never really had to configure one. Mostly clients just wanted for me to set it up, or they didn't want to pay me my contract rate past the initial set up, or whatever

I have had some hands on with os x server but not to the extent where i can waltz right in and take the test with out studying like I did when I got my A+

my company is going to pay for the server test and give me mac to study with i just have to wait till after school starts since we have summer projects going on right now..

however, i joined the apple certified alliance and i got some discounts on training, training material, and even discounts on tests. Since you have the software (help desk apple tech) you can apply for this and get the benefits as well yellow.

check this out

http://training.apple.com/certification/alliance/

you also have to join the apple sales web which also gives certified professionals discounts on apple products. it seems like apple wants its certified it staff to keep buying and using their stuff

I am supposed to be listed on the alliance site but it hasn't updated or their webmaster is lazy or both lol. anyways good luck on your server test, i won't be taking mine until september or later even.

Yeah I already did.. there wasn't **** there that was interesting to me.
It's all rah-rah & buy-this Apple junk.

Well I get like 35% off of apple cert books and 40% off my next prometric exam, thats nice.

Oh, I was talking about the Sales site.

I hadn't looked too much at the site you linked. Just a cursory one to make sure my contact info was legit. My eyes ALWAYS glaze over when I hit the part of the web page in red:

GLAZE.

Unfortunately for the page, that's the first sentence. :)

About the only certifications that make sense are those required to get Apple to even talk to you for repair stuff.

Other than that, I prefer to focus on getting things to work, rather than to figure out what weird RDF-heavy answer Apple would like me to prefer.
So if they get to peddle more certification and brag about it -good for them- but I believe there are more interesting things to do with my time and money.

Working your way through "Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration" (by the late Michael Bartosh, O'Reilly) for example will do you a lot more good than most of the official Apple documentation, in particular because all of the official Apple stuff lives in complete denial of the remaining bugs and how to weasel your way around them.

Recently in one of my rare (though less lately) perusal for Mac jobs, I was surprised by the amount of jobs that actually list Apple certs as a plus, or in some cases a requirement.

To the uninitiated manager, director ACIO, CIO, whatever.. certs might actually do you some good.

Though I'm definitely going to pay as little as possible to get all the non-hardware related ones (skipping those), I'm still going to get them.

BTW, no interest in working for Apple. I almost consider that a step backwards. I prefer to be on the outside peering in. Plus.. I'm no engineer or a fun job. Support only. Not someplace I want to be. :)

Well, I know that at my work, and this is becoming the standard - When they post newly made positions, or when you are up for promotion the more credentials you have the better. In fact, point in case, most jobs do not even care about a college degree, they want certifications. I know several people with bachaelors degrees that don't have jobs in the IT field.

The fact that if you company pays for it, and they will help you get your initials in any certification means that you should take them up on their offer. Reguardless of what the certification actually means to you in the real world of work.

I know of so many IT workers out there that never took advantage of 'free training' where their company paid for their certs and their training. They thought their experience and their degrees would be enough. The fact is, if you want to become a self maintainer for apple you are required by apple to have at least one ACDT and/or one ACPT certified employee at all times, and if you work for an AASP you are pressured to have two on the payroll at all times. When I sub contract for the onsite company I work for, it gives them piece of mind and assures their customer's that a certified technician is going out to their onsite location. I do everything from home to small business, and I have already set up several secure networks for some small companies around town. I even get requested by word of mouth sometimes, and I even have a KC chiefs player as a client, but won't say his name since he prefers to live a private life.

The fact that the certification is on my resume makes it seem more official to people.

Voldenuit-

You have a great point, for example, in one of the Apple tests is a question about ordering processors, they give you the scenerio on a high end desktop with the possibility of a bad processor. Now, if this machine were brand new and out of warranty I may just suggest eat the loss, stock the spare good parts for other machines and buy a new computer. That is the best answer sometimes on an enterprise level instead of paying 1000 dollars for a G5 processor. However, that is not an available answer to choose from. Also, in the MCSE tests there is a question about internet security, and the answer MS wants you to select is build an ISA server, when most smart people know a decent router will suffice in place of an ISA server and be cheaper and more practical solution. So, yes the certification tests may not teach you real world solutions, but they teach you solutions that the platform suggests. This is true with netware certs, microsoft, apple, linux, cisco, and citrix, etc etc - everyone does this.

My bottom line opinion is, if your company is going to pay for certifications and you do not take them up on it, it is your loss. Even if they offer to pay for them but not for the training, buy a book, take a little time out of your life and study and take it. Getting certified does nothing but help you.

I don't wish to work for apple either, I just want to have some sort of credibility. My friend who works IT for a design firm just got laid off. His design firm lost several large clients and they laid off a lot of people, and since they had less users to support they got rid of some of the IT staff. These things do look good on a resume.

I can't agree with you both more.

There are definitely rah-rah Apple/Microsoft lines of action found on certification tests that are ridiculous. I also think the fact that we can see them for what they are makes us even better candidates for certification, even if it is transparent (initially) to someone else simply basing our merits on the earned cert.

to be honest with you, the only cert I have looked into that actually does look like its real world is the linux one. though they have the flavor certs like fedora and suse, but the basic linux+ cert is flavor free, meaning its just seeing if you know linux well enough to pass the test. It also seems like one of the hard ones.

I know from using linux and OS X at times I get certain commands mixed up, one example that everyone always jokes with is

sudo rm -rf /*

or

sudo rm -R /.

same thing, different code.

I just got back in town from Chicago. Was there all week for the CCA course (Certified Casper Administrator) and I passed the exam. So, I am not CCA. I still need server to finish my ACTC and I think I am going to go ahead and get my network+. It makes sense to get them to just prove my overall solid background for what I do.

I just passed the ACTC 10.5 test today. Time to work on the other 3 tests that I need for system administrator.

My company pays for. I agree it's definitely worth being certified. Certs are valuable, and seems like Mac is making it's way more and more into the business world.

Congrats man! I am a sys admin with OS X servers and I managed probably 30 servers and 6,000 Mac clients. I am wanting to get my certs as well.

What did you use for studying? I think I am going to hit up my work for the Apple certified training courses. We got a local place that does that stuff around town.

I had work buy me the books from PeachPit Press. I'm excited to finally get to my certs. I'm fresh out of college. The company I work for secured a huge contracts with one of the local schools here to set up a Mac environment. I'm strong on the client side and I want to learn ALL I can on the server side

Yeah I picked up the 10.4 book from peachPit but never got around to finishing my ACTC. I have the OS cert already and the hardware ones, just not the server.

My work did spring for Casper Certified Admin over the summer though, so I can now add that to my credentials.

I would like to go all the way and get the Apple Certified System Administrator cert. Work will pay for all the certs I want. I've also been looking at some CompTIA certs as well. I know somewhere along the way I should try to go for a microsoft cert, but I have such a short attention span and reading those questions is torture. Besides there are so many ways of doing things, I'm afraid I would fail the test because I wouldn't want to do it the "microsoft" way.

I have my MCP in windows 2000 but it is expired. I will probably get around to updating that and getting a windows server cert.

I have the following so far

A+, MCP, Apple (desktop, portable, OS - Just need server), CCA, HP APS, Gateway, Epson, HP laserjet certs (I have a ton of these, probably all outdated now), and I have some other vendor and product specific certs.

I will get my OS X Server cert next definitely, and I would too also like to get my ACSA. I am getting so much hands on experience now being a directory admin for my job and managing 6,000 mac clients.

I am going to see if they will send me to server training class, my work will spring for that.

I am definitely going to work on the A+ next. I'm tossing around the Security+. I'm still deciding if it would be relevant to get my MCP on Windows XP or just go for Vista. We still support a ton of XP boxes and not that many vista boxes.