Reply to: Free/cheap certifications etc

[ladymuck]

GDPR?

Free course here: https://info.varonis.com/gdpr-attack-plan

Blog post from the author with some extra background: https://www.troyhunt.com/free-course...r-attack-plan/

I did a sample test for the Foundation certificate (this course, which has a reasonable fee for distance learning and includes a remote proctored exam) and got 75% without reading the material.

GDPR goes live in one year - lots of projects wanting people with relevant skills

[fatJock]

While I was waiting for my LTD admin I did a few bits on AWS using acloud guru courses. Cheap and the exams weren't tooooooo expensive.

I did Solutions architect and developer associate after a few (3-4) part time weeks of study.

Was far more useful to me as a PM than Prince 2 that I've held (and refreshed) for 10 years+

All in all, two certs for less than £500 including exam fees was worth the investment. Once you pass those you can join the APN and sit lots of online partner type quals for nowt.

[TheFaQQer]

Have you tried doing a search?

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...rse-first.html

[Platypus]

MongoDB University - FREE
CodeSchool - very cheap

[DimPrawn]

Free training video!

Should come in useful for the next "gig"

[SeanT]

Make your way through some Coursera and FutureLearn stuff.

[SeanT]

yeah, the world really needs more Ansible playbooks, well written or otherwise

[dstumps]

It depends on the client obviously, but you could come at it from another angle. For example, if you got to grips with something like Ansible and published a few playbooks on GitHub which gained popularity, the stars are as good a sign as a piece of paper that you know what you're doing. Just a thought.

[northernladuk]

Yeh know that. Got the knowledge just no certif. Agencies/clients seem to like.

Free trial is only 10 mins max 200 mins. So one course then. $30 a month thereafter.
Be interested to see how that compares with safari books online - loads of courses on there.

Saying that, I get it for £131+vat but Im sure thats $300 normally.....

Looks like MS are between £80 and £110 each. Not bad.

Red Hat one is something stupid like £400 last time I looked. Bit steep that.

It's a days billing. If it helps you get off the bench a day earlier it's worth it. Think about the bigger picture.

[psychocandy]

Certs, without knowledge are worthless for a contractor. For knowledge i find https://www.pluralsight.com/ decent, they offer free trial, if JSA can't cover the sub, just keep creating new accounts for the free trial.

If you want certs without knowledge MSFT ones are piss easy and there are rather comprehensive dumps with the answers out there, last time i checked they were like £80/exam and you can do them from home.

Yeh know that. Got the knowledge just no certif. Agencies/clients seem to like.

Free trial is only 10 mins max 200 mins. So one course then. $30 a month thereafter.
Be interested to see how that compares with safari books online - loads of courses on there.

Saying that, I get it for £131+vat but Im sure thats $300 normally.....

Looks like MS are between £80 and £110 each. Not bad.

Red Hat one is something stupid like £400 last time I looked. Bit steep that.

[sal]

Certs, without knowledge are worthless for a contractor. For knowledge i find https://www.pluralsight.com/ decent, they offer free trial, if JSA can't cover the sub, just keep creating new accounts for the free trial.

If you want certs without knowledge MSFT ones are piss easy and there are rather comprehensive dumps with the answers out there, last time i checked they were like £80/exam and you can do them from home.

[psychocandy]

Indeed. You could argue that if you are being interviewed by someone in a certain knowledge area they'll be able to recognise a free certification a mile off so not all that useful. Have a look on what's on YouTube as well. You might have to dig through some dire ones but there are some good training/tutorials on there. If you watch enough of them you'll be able to at least speak the right lingo in interviews which will count for more than just waving a free cert.

Safari books online, as I mentioned, is brill though.

I got a special offer a few months ago. £150 I think it was per year with the same price for ever. I think the normal price is double.

The interface is a bit crap but there are tons of books and tutorials on there.

With a bit of fiddling you can run the offline app on a kindle too and download the books to there (albeit you have to read with their app).

[northernladuk]

£75 per week only goes so far NLUK!

(although I havent signed on yet - may well do in the next few weeks though!)

Indeed. You could argue that if you are being interviewed by someone in a certain knowledge area they'll be able to recognise a free certification a mile off so not all that useful. Have a look on what's on YouTube as well. You might have to dig through some dire ones but there are some good training/tutorials on there. If you watch enough of them you'll be able to at least speak the right lingo in interviews which will count for more than just waving a free cert.

[psychocandy]

Like to see you are investing properly in your career PC

£75 per week only goes so far NLUK!

(although I havent signed on yet - may well do in the next few weeks though!)

[psychocandy]

Look at Ansible and Docker they're very popular of late and great to know when need to get stuff done, Devops is gaining in popularity so if you can look to see what they're looking for in terms of skill set and build from there.

Yeh considering some of the DevOps stuff. Chef and Puppet also.