LOURENCOTECH Newsletter
March 8, 2010
Two good updates: As of December 2009, I became MCSA, and my transcript at the Microsoft MCP site now posts it; for employers only. And, now, I am currently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As I have family in 3 continents of this world, Brazil was long overdue for a visit. I am currently prioritizing study time between Microsoft exams, Red Hat, and CCNA material. New Horizons NYC has been great to me, specially Anne Gambina, my counselor; she has been patient, understanding, helpful, and truely encouring me to keep going. Thanks, Anne!
And of course, a huge thanks to my family for putting up with me, my sister Maria, and my parents! Love you all!
September 9, 2009
The MS 70-293 was a difficult exam; truely a beast. I was hit with 5 simulation questions; the most I've in an exam has been 3, so 5 was overkill. And as always, the material in the Microsoft coursebook MS 2278b was very weak in the following: Clustering, Network Load Balancing, ISA Server, and Certificates. I've been keeping statistics on my exams, and in the last 4, I've been able to finish them within 2 hours. This time, I actually ran out of time; utilizing the whole 2.5 hours.
My counselor at New Horizons New York and I discussed an action plan for me to take the CCNA exam. I am sure all Network Engineers out there had some butterflies when preparing for this exam. Because I am short in time I need it to overlap with my MCSE studies, not to mention that I also have to keep my Unix (Red Hat and Solaris 10) skills up to date. All together, very challenging, but any other way, it would not be fun! Our meeting yielded that I even though I have online access to the course, I do not have the studybook or the lab access. So I need to purchase them and its a whopping $440.00. The main objective here is the Network Simulator, important for the practicing of configuring switches/routers and IOS code practicing.
Well, it must be done, because my goal is to enter the market with a better status level and be able to properly compete for challenging projects that give a real sense of engineering pride to be a part of.
September 1, 2009
I lost my job early this year. I must say, the job market has been a ghost town.
I refuse to allow myself to return to work without my MCSE and CCNA. This is the time to do it , and so it will be done!
Thereafter, I had a temporary assignment with AT&T; it felt very uncomfortable being a replacement to hard working engineers on strike. I was not pleased at all, but it was dismissed. A job is a job, yes, but if it makes you uncomfortable in your heart, its not worth it. Plus a job should never be financially as a main goal; having pride and pleasure to go work everyday is a fortune itself!
Its been a long and studious summer. I have completed 1/3 of my MCSE goal.
By achieving passing of the following exams: MS 70-270, MS 70-290, and MS 70-291, I have a firm mental grip on my goal.
On 9/3/09 I will take MS 70-293; wish me luck!
When I complete my MCSE, it will onward to CCNA. Get it over with, once and for all!
And after that, my masters!
I read an article yesterday about Lin Giu, an engineer, now at Microsoft, from Yahoo. Responsible for Yahoo's massive goal to overcome Google, and at age 47 he is a master. I am much younger, but aside from my father , as my main IT inspiration, I found another. His education, his passion, his work ethics, and all together he has goals and perseverance. I want that.
Give me an office, my own space, my own test laboratory, and believe in me, and I will produce quality and challenging results.
I want these certifications so in the future I can work on challening, new and demanding projects, rather than the same day in and day out repetitive tasks that give no one any pleasure, and later lead to abusive behavior and non-caring for your work. I want something that inspires me each and every day. Some new learned all the time, and above all, very and very challenging; makes me think!
And those around me; to think!
Talk to you when I pass my 293!
jl
February 4, 2009
I have currently finished up at Exceed Education. Now available for work as of February 2, 2009, I have been busy at rebuilding my home lab. I have added more machines, to support VMware ESXi server and several more windows servers such as BDD (distribution points and sources), and WSUS for windows updates.
As it is normally with me, weightraining (weightlifting), is a priority. A yearly goal of weight gain, training, and then dieting, to yield a healthy and fit body. A fit body, a fit mind, and a fit spirit, as I am faithfully committed to a higher power (God), all in the goal of a healthy life. The point here, is to take advantage of the time made available to me to concentrate more on physical training.
Continue to fight on with school...boy! I have been going to New Horizons in NYC since 2004. New Horizons boosted my career! One thing I noticed after seeing several job ads and speaking to several agents, is the following (which many people will not tell you), employers use certifications as a way to separate the potential candidates for a job offer. In a pile of resumes, who's who and how to differentiate them so quickly. A process of elimination using keywords, and certifications is a very important keyword. So, I went and got myself certified in key technologies: A+, Network+, MCP, and now, I will be MCSE this year. MCSE consists of seven exams, and New Horizons works with Measureup.com to have students pass 3 mock exams with scores of 90 and above in order for a student to earn a voucher to take an exam. That means, without counting the exams that I will most likely not pass, I would have to take 28 exams total to earn my MCSE. Twenty one mock exams, plus the original 7, adding it all up to 28 exams, my friends. NOW, THAT IS COMMITTMENT!
As noted throughout the site, I have made many updates today. I have begun my tutorials page. I have many ideas to post and hopefully, it will help someone. That's the goal; to provide an education to techs out there who need more than just a tutorial, but a tutorial geared towards a job's work assignment.
I will return soon, we'll see how the site progresses. I do know that I need to start adding some original pictures, media, and a better site layout. Lots of work ahead my friends!
JL
July 21, 2008
Finally getting the chance to update the site...I have been so busy since very
early 2008 that I have nearly forgotten the site. But here it is, updated.
What's new, many things are new. A new job, at Exceed Education, a new
place to live, near the beach. And many new skills acquired.
Solaris 10: Basic administration and jumps.
Linux: Kickstart Server and deployment.
Ghost SS 2: Ghost Console administration.
Altiris v6: Imaging and Repackaging via Wise.
VMware: Built virtual machines via VMware Workstation.
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New Servers Added:
Solaris and Linux...added to a network of Windows Server 2003 Ent. Ed.
Studying of WinBatch and its WIL scripting, for the automation of Windows procedures.
Dowloaded and began testing, 30 day trial of AUTOMATE...a Tool used to automate procedures. Claims to be
widely used in the industry to automate processes and repeated tasks. Easier, as claimed, that WIL, and Batch files.
Also has profiler/scheduler/server, along with an IDE, based on drag and drop.
These two tools, WinBatch and Automate, are for the purposes of Deployments and Migration. For the proper back up
of data and easy redeployment of it. As well as settings to company wide, approved, applications, such as OFFICE,
OUTLOOK, ADOBE, LOTUS, and more.
Announcements:
Recently completed at New Horizons Technical Institute, NYC: MS 2277.
To be completed before Thanksgiving 2007, MS 2278.
These classes are towards my earning of MCSE, Microsoft's elite certification for Systems Engineers/Admin..