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Passed my Mac Cert exam today. 9L0-401

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anyone else thinking of taking it, make sure you study command line interface stuff and networking.

It asked more questions in those categories than any other. Surprised the heck out of me.
 
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What type of stuff did it cover for the terminal and networking? Are they general networking?

What about the terminal? General unix commands, like navigation, file management, cron jobs?
 
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I would say its probably general networking, but it seemed hard to me (networking is my weak area, I knew that already).

For networking it covered three areas: network configuration and troubleshooting, accessing network services, and providing network services.

many questions about installation, users, file systems, permissions, printing... a few troubleshooting questions...

it was all multiple choice, but many questions had a "choose two or three" answers... some gave you a picture to look at and the question was based on that picture. about 74 questions in all.
 
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Do you think doing this Apple Cert was forth the effort. As in do you think you'll get much use out if it now that you have it? I'm asking cause I was thinking of doing some of the Apple certs. I don't work in the IT industry or anything. Just asking cause I'm a Mac user who really wants to increase my Mac knowledge.

And by the way congrats on passing the exam.
 
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Do you think doing this Apple Cert was forth the effort. As in do you think you'll get much use out if it now that you have it? I'm asking cause I was thinking of doing some of the Apple certs. I don't work in the IT industry or anything. Just asking cause I'm a Mac user who really wants to increase my Mac knowledge.

And by the way congrats on passing the exam.

I think it's worth it, because I too wanted to dig deeper and gain a better understanding of macs and OSX. I am not in IT yet either, but I am trying to better myself for a job change... My professor in college told me in an email that if you want to get in IT, certifications are a good way to open doors.

There are some other cool mac certs to take, so I may take another one.
 
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My professor in college told me in an email that if you want to get in IT, certifications are a good way to open doors.

In a perfect world I guess your professor is correct.

When my company sits down to hire and all the talk from the applicant is around a cert we generally take note that you don't have any real knowledge that would help support our environment. We also have 3 separate test scenarios used to judge applicants. We've had to crack down like this because too many people take exams and can't backup their book knowledge in the real world.

FWIW I'm a Network Engineer and I have passed plenty of Cisco certs.

EDIT: Congrats by the way
 
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I agree, many people can pass the test, and have no real world experience. but how can they get that experience when no one will hire them?

The cisco certs would be great to have, but I'm a networking noob. It's my weak area... so I will work on it. :)

I recently took the Network+ test and failed that one. lol
 
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I agree, many people can pass the test, and have no real world experience. but how can they get that experience when no one will hire them?

The cisco certs would be great to have, but I'm a networking noob. It's my weak area... so I will work on it. :)

I recently took the Network+ test and failed that one. lol

My old company used to say "Not our problem". Most kids I know now in IT do internships and such, but supposedly IT is coming back as far as new jobs and such.

Congrats btw!!!!
 
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I've started building a Network Lab (found some used Cisco routers and switches on eBay) and that opened the doors that had been closed to me for 4 years. I had some experience but no certs (going for the CCNA).

Macgig, If you work for Apple, do you need to have the Apple Cert?
 
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nope Im not working for apple. Not even in IT yet.

I'm stuck in that catch 22... two certifications, lots of college courses, some experience but not a lot. I have done some freelance work for friends, others.

can't seem to get a foot in a door... been on a few IT interviews, no luck getting hired yet.
 
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In a perfect world I guess your professor is correct.

When my company sits down to hire and all the talk from the applicant is around a cert we generally take note that you don't have any real knowledge that would help support our environment. We also have 3 separate test scenarios used to judge applicants. We've had to crack down like this because too many people take exams and can't backup their book knowledge in the real world.

FWIW I'm a Network Engineer and I have passed plenty of Cisco certs.

EDIT: Congrats by the way

Sign me up for an interview. A company that doesn't rely on certs as their key to knowledge and hiring. That is one thing that ERKS me to no end. All of these companies that I interview for, they don't take the time to see if you actually have the knowledge. They see that someone has a cert, they hire them on the spot.

I have CCNA, A+, and MCSE under my belt, + linux, I don't have the certs now because I can't afford it, and when I go into a place to interview for a job, I get turned down because I don't have a slip of paper, but some joe shcmo comes in with a cert he bought his way to, and he gets the job, of course the guy has no real hands on experience or anything like that.

The last IT job I was working at, I was replaced by some doofus that didn't know his **** from his hands. This was all because he had a certification, they thought that he was more determined and that he had proof of knowledge, even though I was manning the servers, I was the whole reason they were up and running. They hosted an ISP and websites and I was the heart behind it all.

I worked with the dude for a week and he knew nothing at all. I just hate it when companies think a slip of paper makes a world of difference, like it symbolizes that you know what you're talking about, some cases it's true, but I find that there are more times where people just pay for it and they have no knowledge except what was written in their book, or they read cram sheets.

I think it's cool that a company would actually TEST someones knowledge before hiring, completely ignoring the cert.
 
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nope Im not working for apple. Not even in IT yet.

I'm stuck in that catch 22... two certifications, lots of college courses, some experience but not a lot. I have done some freelance work for friends, others.

can't seem to get a foot in a door... been on a few IT interviews, no luck getting hired yet.

I totally know how you feel. Hang in there you'll find one eventually. Getting this cert will definitely help you get that edge. Sucks allot, but what can ya do?
 
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seems to me that all the certs and college courses mean nothing without experience. Guess I need to get that somehow... freelancing I guess? Problem is I work a full time and part time job, so freelancing would be job 3... so I don't have much time to devote to it.
 
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interesting, apple no longer ships out printed certificates. I got a pdf file of it in a email to print myself. Guess it's a cost cutting thing?
 
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Macgig Congrats!!

I've worked in IT forever, and prefer Apple to MS, but state of WA is in bed with Balmer, so no chance of getting to work on Apple at all. If i wasn't so old, 57 next month, I'd prep as you did/are, and look for Apple helpdesk work.
Q, did you study on line, or attend class to get your cert?
Good Luck!!
 
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macgig
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well, i've used macs for 17 years, so Most of the stuff I knew... just had to brush up somewhat.... I bought the apple training series book (Mac OS X Support Essentials), reviewed it for a month, then went to the local community college and took the prometric exam. And bingo, passed. :)

it was a cool experience, I enjoyed the process.
 

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