Re: "IBM i 7.1 Associate System Administration" cert -- MIDRANGE-L

Clay,

Sounds like the correct choice, and good luck! Clearly you know where to ask questions!

One think to be careful of, while all the the V5 knowledge you have will be valuable, the test was written for V7 so remember that.

Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects

On 8/26/2013 7:54 AM, Clay B Carley wrote:

Thanks, guys, for the replies.

Given my "experience", I hadn't even looked at the full "IBM Certified
System Administrator - IBM i 7.1" test yet. I'll look more thoroughly
at the outline and see what I can do. I just looked at the "Recommended
Prerequisite Skills", and the list does not describe me yet.

Where I am at in my career right now is a turning point, but that's
another story. My office does not use IBM i at all; and so far my
experience has grown from using the old 170 I picked up last year that
lives in my garage. Sure I've picked up some (old and outdated) books
to help me along the way... and of course the friendly folks here on
the Midrange list have been quite helpful as well.

Although my employer does pay for education, it's only for education
that is related to our work. As an ISP that uses Linux, that could be
any telecommunications related class or Linux admin type class; so I'll
be footing the bill for any of these certifications myself.

All in all, I think I'll go for the Associate certification for now. I
guess it can't hurt, right?

Thanks again guys,
Clay Carley
Sonic.net/ Sonic Telecom

On 08/26/2013 05:02 AM, Jim Oberholtzer wrote:

> " a bit more in depth than I though it would be"
>
> All the questions on the Associate exam were referenced right back to
> the educational materials provided by IBM to the colleges/universities.
> This year the content of those classes were updated and reviewed by
> educators and a couple of SMEs from the administrator exams ( I was part
> of that course content review ).
>
> IBM does provide much of the educational curriculum needed by the
> schools to teach IBM i, and there are many schools teaching it.
>
> The level of depth that the Associate level goes into is a direct result
> of the quality of the educational materials provided by IBM and the
> educators that teach it. There are at least 5 schools in the Upper
> Midwest ( USA ) that use this material and are turning out very high
> quality students.
>
> As a matter of note, all the questions on all of the IBM exams now are
> referenced back to documentation of some type that provides the
> answers. We spend almost as much time doing the cross referencing as
> actually writing and reviewing the questions for accuracy.
>
> Jim Oberholtzer
> Chief Technical Architect
> Agile Technology Architects
>
>
> On 8/26/2013 6:33 AM,rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

>> My employer paid for me to take the full "IBM Certified System
>> Administrator - IBM i 7.1" vs your "IBM Certified Associate System
>> Administrator - IBM i 7". They actually encouraged me to take it.
>>
>> I'll admit, the overview of associate one leads me to believe that it's a
>> little more in depth than I thought it would be.
>>
>> If I was spending the money, and I thought I could handle the full one
>> versus the Associate one, then I'd take that one instead. If, however,
>> you are a little newer and don't think you have the necessary experience,
>> then go for the Associate one.
>> I think being certified would give you a leg up with my boss.
>>
>> http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/certs/ps_index.shtml
>>
>>
>> ps: If you paste the text as is from the web site versus what you have in
>> the heading it would really help out google and IBM searches. I noticed a
>> vast difference.
>>
>>
>> Rob Berendt
>> --