[AccessD] OT: What are you lot doing now and then?

Randy,

>> The information and materials presented in the courses are very
good,  however, in order to pass M$ exams, I highly recommend using
third party study guides and brain dumps as study aids. <<

All right, I'll bite: what's a 'brain dump', eh, Precious?

Steve Erbach


On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 08:23:53 -0500, Randall Anthony
<randall.anthony at cox.net> wrote:
> Steve,
> 
> I'd concur with the advice you were given.  It definitely helps to get
> the job.  Unfortunately most of the companies I've worked for did not
> pay for keeping up your skillsets, the attitude being "I'm not going to
> pay for your training so you can get a payraise by going to work for
> someone else".  However, there seems to be a change in that attitude.
> Most of the classes I've taken so far have had people that were there
> via their company, because they had to learn new technology in their
> job.  Especially in the ASP.Net and VS .Net classes.
> 
> Others have posted that most companies expect OJT to fill the bill.  I
> don't mind that, that's how I learned VB and ASP.  But, when you are
> supporting Access2.0, SQL 6.5, and ASP, it's kind of hard to learn .Net
> when the company won't or can't afford to buy upgrades.
> 
> After going through most of the process of this certification, I am
> going to make it a point to keep up with new tech via certs, or at the
> least A+ certs, in order to avoid my present situation from happening
> again.  I like being an Access developer, however, diversifying my
> portfolio, so to speak, should increase my marketability and
> portability.
> 
> As for courses, yes I've attended 8 out of 9 courses setup to take the
> exams for MCDBA.  The cost included books, training materials and exam
> vouchers, and is about $1k per class.  I took a professional loan via a
> financial institution specializing in student loans like this.  Compared
> to the cost of an online/accelerated MBA at around $30K, or the more
> prestigious executive MBAs offered around here (William & Mary, UVA) at
> about $125K, I think it's a relative bargain.
> 
> A note of caution.  The information and materials presented in the
> courses are very good, however, in order to pass M$ exams, I highly
> recommend using third party study guides and brain dumps as study aids.
> 
> I hope this information helps you out.
> 
> Randy.