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They have an apprentiship program that includes a $15K, 3 week cram course
for the MCSE back in Atlanta or Birmingham, depending on the traing track I
choose. Their line is that after 9 months I start paying back their costs at
$150/month, which works out to 8 years plus to pay it off. They claim they
have connections with corporations in the western Washington area where I
would be placed after completing their program.

Having been unemployed as a programmer for the last 2.4 years, I'd like to
get feedback from anyone who has been through their apprentiship program
before quitting my low paying, but stable PC technician job to persue what I
consider at this point to be a high-stakes gamble.

No way.

What's been your experience with these folks or these types of programs?

All my past certs have been obtained through buying the books and
Transcenders to prepare for each cert, studying like all getout over 1 to 9
months and then passing the exams on the first try... works for me, but
unfortunately hasn't come with any corporate apprentiship programs when I
finnished. I suspect the cram course would prep me for the exam and that's
about it, so I find it hard to understand how that would be of much value to
an employer in an apprentiship program.

Update: Just got off the phone with them and they added that they have a
Distance Learning program available since they realize people would preferr
to retain their jobs while training rather than quit outright in order to
fly out and attend the 3 week course.

"kpg" wrote:

> No way.
>

> What's been your experience with these folks or these types of programs?

No experience - just this gut wrenching pain when I think about
$150 per month for 8 years! - How are you gonna pay for that
on Help Desk pay????

"kpg" <> wrote in message
news:...
> > What's been your experience with these folks or these types of programs?
>
> No experience - just this gut wrenching pain when I think about
> $150 per month for 8 years! - How are you gonna pay for that
> on Help Desk pay????
>

My student loans are more than that, and I'll be paying them for more than 8
years.

--

KB - MCNGP "silent thug" #26

first initial last name AT gmail DOT com

I didn't mention it in the earlier post but they're saying I'd be getting
paid $25/hr in the Apprentiship program. I can live with that tradeoff, but
I'm not about to pump $15 grand worth of debt into this if there isn't
something tangible like they're claiming they can provide. My problem is
that I need to verify their claims. Thus the posts in this newsgroup... I
need independant confirmation from someone who has dealt with this kind of
program. Who they went through... the quality of the training... whether
there's a requirement to stay with the employer and if so, for how long...
the quality of both their employer and the position they held as an
apprentice, even how long the apprenticeship lasts, since I wouldn't want to
be dumped and then have to start paying the $150/month.

"kpg" wrote:

> > What's been your experience with these folks or these types of programs?
>
> No experience - just this gut wrenching pain when I think about
> $150 per month for 8 years! - How are you gonna pay for that
> on Help Desk pay????
>
>

You're gonna learn a LOT more and spend the money more wisely if you will
just buy a couple of computers and network them. Set one up with W2K3 server
and another with XP PRO. (WAAAAAY less than $15K!!!) and then buy the books
and get to work. I even set up my XP Pro box with removable hard drives so I
could slam in a second server when I had to study replication, etc. By then
I also had a third machine that could still be a workstation. I basically
haven't read anything not windows related in the last eight years while
studying for certs. It has paid off though. For 6 yrs I climbed the ladder
from bench tech through onsite service for printers and computers, to design,
configure, install, and implement networks for our customers. I'm MIS for a
local Non-Profit Hospice agency. One network,...one domain...5 servers, 150
clients. I probably didn't spend $3,000 total for equipment and books(bought
all my own) and the company paid for the exam fees.

"Cautious for a reason" wrote:

> They have an apprentiship program that includes a $15K, 3 week cram course
> for the MCSE back in Atlanta or Birmingham, depending on the traing track I
> choose. Their line is that after 9 months I start paying back their costs at
> $150/month, which works out to 8 years plus to pay it off. They claim they
> have connections with corporations in the western Washington area where I
> would be placed after completing their program.
>
> Having been unemployed as a programmer for the last 2.4 years, I'd like to
> get feedback from anyone who has been through their apprentiship program
> before quitting my low paying, but stable PC technician job to persue what I
> consider at this point to be a high-stakes gamble.

> My student loans are more than that, and I'll be paying them for more than
> 8
> years.

ditto - for my wife's college.

But go into debt for a 3 week MCSE bootcamp?????

kp "I'm opening up a school" g

"Cautious for a reason" <> wrote
in message news:83FDFA98-999E-4780-9323-...
>I didn't mention it in the earlier post but they're saying I'd be getting
> paid $25/hr in the Apprentiship program. I can live with that tradeoff,
> but
> I'm not about to pump $15 grand worth of debt into this if there isn't
> something tangible like they're claiming they can provide. My problem is
> that I need to verify their claims.

It sounds like you're trying to talk yourself into believing their claims.
Ask them for some former students names and numbers, call them, and go from
there. Other than that, you're a grown up (I'm assuming) do what you want.

Yeah, that's what I did trying to break back into the programming arena. Box
1: Visual Studio.NET with the web server running my demo apps. Box 2: SQL
Server containing my back-end database.

Hasn't helped a lick.
I ended up taking a PC tech job, changing careers within the IT industry
because the programming side is being obliterated by outsourcing.




"Ronathospice" wrote:

> You're gonna learn a LOT more and spend the money more wisely if you will
> just buy a couple of computers and network them. Set one up with W2K3 server
> and another with XP PRO. (WAAAAAY less than $15K!!!) and then buy the books
> and get to work. I even set up my XP Pro box with removable hard drives so I
> could slam in a second server when I had to study replication, etc. By then
> I also had a third machine that could still be a workstation. I basically
> haven't read anything not windows related in the last eight years while
> studying for certs. It has paid off though. For 6 yrs I climbed the ladder
> from bench tech through onsite service for printers and computers, to design,
> configure, install, and implement networks for our customers. I'm MIS for a
> local Non-Profit Hospice agency. One network,...one domain...5 servers, 150
> clients. I probably didn't spend $3,000 total for equipment and books(bought
> all my own) and the company paid for the exam fees.
>
> "Cautious for a reason" wrote:
>
> > They have an apprentiship program that includes a $15K, 3 week cram course
> > for the MCSE back in Atlanta or Birmingham, depending on the traing track I
> > choose. Their line is that after 9 months I start paying back their costs at
> > $150/month, which works out to 8 years plus to pay it off. They claim they
> > have connections with corporations in the western Washington area where I
> > would be placed after completing their program.
> >
> > Having been unemployed as a programmer for the last 2.4 years, I'd like to
> > get feedback from anyone who has been through their apprentiship program
> > before quitting my low paying, but stable PC technician job to persue what I
> > consider at this point to be a high-stakes gamble.