Secrets of Certification Success
3rd Edition
by
Paul Dwyer
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0264-2
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information
storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who
may quote short excerpts in a review.
The following workbook uses the www.mytekmentor.com
“Secrets of Certification Success”
The process described herein can be used as a blueprint for success for any technical
exam that is available on www.selftestsoftware.com
Exam-Prep Workbook and Study Framework
© 2011 Paul J. Dwyer, All rights Reserved.
Pass Your First It Certification Exam in 40 Days or Less
Author: Paul J. Dwyer
Preface and Acknowledgements
I started out in Information Technology in 1980 as a Fortran programmer. I worked in several industries including pharmaceuticals, banking, finance and brokerage. I saw the beginning of the mid-range computers like the VAX from Digital Equipment Corporation and I saw their decline as microcomputers came along and they became the servers and desktops we see today. I have seen an incredible evolution of software and I remember how IBM introduced OS/2. They tried to maintain a proprietary architecture but then along came Microsoft and the rest is history. I’ve worked as a software development consultant for most of the nineties and up until now.
In 2002 I became a Microsoft Certified Trainer and that was when I learned about the value of IT certification. I had an incredible stretch of success where I obtained a string of certifications in a very short time frame. I developed a process which I now call my “Secrets of Certification Success”. I did not begin working on the idea of turning “Secrets of Certification Success” into a book until 2005. My first attempt at writing this book and trying to market it was not very successful but I came back to it in January of 2011. About a year before that I purchased the DVD, “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne and I was introduced to the “Law of Attraction”. Sometimes this book is pooh-poohed as a bunch of new wave hocus pocus but one person in the video started me thinking about dreaming big and making that dream a reality. That gentleman’s name is Bob Proctor. His famous phrase is “Tell me what you want and I’ll show you how to get it”. He also became the starting point of many serendipitous connections.
Bob introduced me to two gentleman named Jeff Vacek and Ken Preuss at www.inforenegades.com. They helped me put together my website at www.mytekmentor.com. They also showed me how to find something that I was good at, how to create a product and how to monetize it. That “something that I was good at” was my IT certification success and they inspired me to come back to and finish “Secrets of Certification Success”.
I had my website up and running by April of 2011 but I felt like I was “All dressed up with no place to go”. I was only getting a trickle of traffic to my website and no sales. It was then that the “connections” continued and again Bob Proctor introduced me to someone who helped me further along. That person is Vic Johnson. Vic sent me a video about a “great way to make money on the Internet”. Write an eBook!!!
My first reaction to this was Duh! This is no great revelation but then he told about how he published his book on Amazon.com and it rose to the top ten in its category. Bam! Here was something I had never thought of. I wasn’t sure that I could get my book into electronic format and then I came across my next great connection in Bo Bennett at eBookIt.com. He took my book and within 7 days I was published on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com and books.google.com.
My wife Mary has always stood by me through all my hair-brained ideas over the years and I’m grateful to God and His Son for having met her. We have three beautiful children in James, Caitlin and Michael. My success to this point and any future success only have meaning because of the family and friends I can share it with.
Finally I want to thank my parents, Bridget and James Dwyer and my brothers Larry, Thomas and Steven. We lived in College Point, Queens in New York City. Every part of my life has been blessed and they were start of it. Thank you.
For you the reader I thank you for buying my book. My hope is that it will bring some of the happiness and good fortune you are seeking.
Paul Dwyer
Introduction
If you are reading this you are probably thinking about obtaining technical certification and I suspect you are hoping that at least one immediate benefit of obtaining a technical certification is that it will enable you to make more money than you are currently making. I can tell you from my personal experience that this will only be the first benefit.
Certification will make you more money!!!
My name is Paul Dwyer and I am a Microsoft ® Certified Trainer. I do not work for Microsoft but as a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) I am allowed to teach over fifty different courses for which Microsoft has already designed and packaged all the materials, including labs, for teaching computer professionals. These courses are taught at Microsoft Certified Educational Centers all around the world. If a company is a Microsoft Certified Partner they can also teach courses as well. Most of the times these companies teach the courses on their sites but sometimes they arrange to teach the courses on the sites of their clients.
Just recently I taught a 3 day Microsoft VB Scripting course from my home using GotoMeeting and other technology. All the technology was provided by a Microsoft Learning Center and the course materials were provided free from Microsoft. Working from home those 3 days I earned nearly $1600. Would you like to be working for yourself rather than working for your boss? Would you like to be making from $400 a day to $1100 a day? Do the math!! On a regular basis over the course of a year that’s over $100,000 a year!!!
Would you like to have complete control over when you work and when you don’t work or take vacation? Would you like to not spend a single penny on marketing yourself and still have people contacting you about a need for your services? Welcome to the world of technical training and welcome to the quickest way to leverage your technical certifications. In order to become a Microsoft Trainer you need a Premier Microsoft Certification.
Currently there are four main areas of Microsoft certification:
