Deciding on an Elective ? This might help

I guess one of the big dilemmas some all the students will be facing is making a choice between the different electives. All the three options among Security +, SQL 2005, and Exchange 2003 will lead to a MCSA and a MCSE. But which is more relevant to your job profile and your career ?

Maybe this data will help. Big Thanx to Tim for compilin this data.

What he has done for us is collected all the job posts for 'network administration' on WORKOPOLIS over a 30 day period. Then he has listed the number of times employers have listed various keywords as part of job requirements.

Keywords HITS COURSE

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UNIX = 82 -N/A-

LINUX = 59 LINUX +

LAN = 55 NETWORK +

SECURITY = 50 Security +

Cisco = 40 640-802 (CCNA)

Active Directory = 38 270,284,290,294

EXCHANGE = 29 70-284

BACKUP = 29 270, 290, 284

MONITORing = 27 270, 290

SQL = 21 70-431

VOIP = 18 -N/A-

TROUBLESHOOT = 18 A+, N+, MICROSOFT, CISCO

FIREWALL = 15 270, 290, N+, A+

WAN = 14 CCNA

VPN = 13 291

BLACKBERRY = 7 -N/A-

Cluster = 4 293

VM = 3 -N/A-

gROUP pOLICY = 3 290, 294

A+ = 2 601 AND 602

N+ = 2 N+

Of course this data is not exhaustive. Plus, if you are going to be starting as a Systems Support specialist then you want to consider doing your own research for a different job profile like `System Technician`to see what is important for the jOb requirements. Please share your research with me so that we can let the others know too.

:) Happy Holidays