Games IT Training - architect / TOGAF

[Scouse]

So, I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on purchasing some training for TOGAF.

It's not cheap - I'm looking at £3k+ to do a 3day intensive (12 hours a day) course in Blighty. Or I could do 6 days in Goa or Shimla in India for about the same sort of price (give or take a few hundred quid).

Anyone done this? Anyone involved in designing enterprise-level architecture? Any tips you'd want to share?

There's bonuses and pitfalls for both options. If I went to the one in blighty it'd be at Firebrand. The quality of their training is good, the 12 hours a day really crams it into your head. I'd take the two exams and if I failed them I could always redo the training for free (though I'd have to pay for accomodation and exams again).

I did my MCSE in Koenig in India in 2003. Went to Shimla for six weeks and hit the books hard. If I went to India I'd be either looking at Goa or Shimla again - it's a six-day deal (day to turn up and get ready, four of study and exams and a day to fuck off again). So more relaxed. I daresay the training won't be quite as good as in Blighty but the extra day might make it equivalent. It'd also be 1-on-1. Downside is that if I fuck up then that's it.

Upside is that if I do decide to do india I can spend an extra few days on the beach or doing this. Although Tam might leave me in a fit of jealousy.


Whadda people think?

 

[Bodhi]

Can't give any insight on the training courses you mention, but I have worked as a Solution Architect for about 7 years now, first architecting VMware solutions and all the associated hardware needed, and now for an ERP Vendor working on their Cloud product. It has it's challenges and stresses but overall I enjoy it, you get to work with all sorts of people and my current role takes me all over the world, which is a nice perk

I've never been particularly interested in having people working for me, am far more interested in being the font of all knowledge as it were (or a Shaper, if you read any of Belbin's work on Team Roles).

All training for the current job was internal, but in a previous life I did the HP Enterprise Architecture training, which seemed pretty good. Only issue was that I was working with schools so mostly looking at the low end Proliant stuff, whereas the training was all about Integrity and Superdome - so completely useless for my day to day role.....

 

[Scouse]

Can't give any insight on the training courses you mention, but I have worked as a Solution Architect for about 7 years now

Interesting. How did you land that gig? Work your way up the ladder (which ladder?)? Where you currently working?

 

[Talivar]

Belbin sooks, i got the stupidly named Plant role QQ!

 

[Bodhi]

Interesting. How did you land that gig? Work your way up the ladder (which ladder?)? Where you currently working?

I actually moved over from a fairly uninspiring career in Sales, turns out I was too honest for that The company I was working for was struggling and actually let me go and called me back 6 weeks later as they were looking for a Server Product Manager, I'd impressed the rest of the Infrastructure guys and they put my name forward for the job, so I ended up going back. Stayed there for 3 years, building knowledge of Servers SAN and VMware until the company hit trouble again and I fell out with the Sales Director (I got a disciplinary for working from home when it was snowing, then another for walking too slowly - I shit you not) so I jumped ship to where I am now.

Currently at a medium sized ERP vendor who specialises in Manufacturing, I initially moved to become a Manufacturing Consultant, but there was enough technical work for me to focus on that. After a year or two working on hardware sizing and our E Commerce and Integration I took on responsibility for our Cloud solution, and then it all went mental. Made Principal Architect after 9 months working with the Cloud, so feel quite pleased with myself

As I said I love the job, you need to be quite thick skinned as working with both Sales and Operations, the shit can tend to flow both ways. Other than that though, I think the only thing that could tempt me to move would be if my golf got a lot better and I could do that professionally, but I suspect there's more chance of me one day typing posts like this on an iPhone

Any questions about it all just yell!

 

[Jupitus]

I actually moved over from a fairly uninspiring career in Sales, turns out I was too honest for that The company I was working for was struggling and actually let me go and called me back 6 weeks later as they were looking for a Server Product Manager, I'd impressed the rest of the Infrastructure guys and they put my name forward for the job, so I ended up going back. Stayed there for 3 years, building knowledge of Servers SAN and VMware until the company hit trouble again and I fell out with the Sales Director (I got a disciplinary for working from home when it was snowing, then another for walking too slowly - I shit you not) so I jumped ship to where I am now.

Currently at a medium sized ERP vendor who specialises in Manufacturing, I initially moved to become a Manufacturing Consultant, but there was enough technical work for me to focus on that. After a year or two working on hardware sizing and our E Commerce and Integration I took on responsibility for our Cloud solution, and then it all went mental. Made Principal Architect after 9 months working with the Cloud, so feel quite pleased with myself

As I said I love the job, you need to be quite thick skinned as working with both Sales and Operations, the shit can tend to flow both ways. Other than that though, I think the only thing that could tempt me to move would be if my golf got a lot better and I could do that professionally, but I suspect there's more chance of me one day typing posts like this on an iPhone

Any questions about it all just yell!

Blimey - not bad for a complete loafer nutjob

*Frees Bodhi Again*

 

[Shagrat]

Belbin sooks, i got the stupidly named Plant role QQ!

hehe, it had me down as a Completer/Finisher

 

[Talivar]

Wonder if many organizations put a lot of faith in things like that and the colored leadership style test

 

[TdC]

All our people in architecture roles are TOGAF certified. I happen to have a fairly low opinion of most if not all of them. I suppose having the cert does not one a retrad make, but then my company is just supremely unlucky. Ah well. Also I guess you could call me an architect too. I'm not certified but I am the only person who knows anything real about both the field of work, the middleware we use and what our customers want to do with it. Maybe I should go to India too

 

[Jupitus]

Maybe you should!

Oh, they has the internetz there too

 

[Lakih]

You probably should @TdC Any cert is a good way to bump your pay and is a good head start if you apply for a new job somewhere.

 

[TdC]

Any cert is a good way to bump your pay

they didn't even bump me when I got my degree. unless by bump you mean "tried to fire"

thread's about Scouse though, not me

 

[Zarjazz]

Anyone done this?

Not me, in fact I have zero certifications or done any course like this.

Anyone involved in designing enterprise-level architecture?

That's pretty much exactly what my current job is. I designed and built our current cloud-base voice platform and now after the recent company acquisition I'm looking to scale our and the parent company's systems globally. They just won the contract to replace all of Regus's phone systems worldwide which is huge!

Any tips you'd want to share?

I'm curious to know why you think this course will help you? Is there some reason you think you're lacking or is it just a case of certification looks good on the CV? To be honest I've mostly found a broad knowledge of all the existing technologies applicable to the project, keeping up-to-date on new tech, and a healthy does of common sense go a long long way. Oh and never try to over complicate things, keep it simple.

 

[Scouse]

I'm just applying for a few design roles ATM. A TOGAF cert would be a nice stamp to have on the CV, that's all. It'll get me an interview, hopefully. Then I can wing it from there.

An extra £100/day on my rate would be very welcome.


Edit:

is it just a case of certification looks good on the CV?

Aye. I'm a contractor so a foot in the door is a valuable thing to have. It'll go along nicely with my MCSE, CCNA and Prince2 certs. Means I'll have most of my bases covered.

 

[Hawkwind]

Wonder if many organizations put a lot of faith in things like that and the colored leadership style test

My company did, been on 3 courses in 15 years that went over this. <- completer finisher which I did not agree with. Think I'm more Implementer.

 

[SilverHood]

I think the value of such training is both dependent on the person getting the training, and the organisation you are working for / applying for. If you are going to learn new stuff, be able to relate it to real business issues, then go go for it. Likewise, if the company you work for or aspire to work believes in such standards, then you are onto a win win.

My personal opinion of such training is rather low, but then I work in an industry where the majority of our enterprise solutions have evolved over the last 15 years, rather than been designed.

 

[Scouse]

Well, I'm off to the one in Bedford rather than Goa

I managed to get 'em to knock nearly a grand off their asking price tho. They like you to turn up on Sunday night if at all possible for orientation at 6, a bit of dinner and then start at 8 on the Monday morning but I'm off in Wales doing the Real Ale Wobble this weekend (hopefully with better weather) so it's highly unlikely that I'd be able to make that.

Hopefully next Wednesday I'll have a stamp on my CV

 

[Scouse]

Well, I nailed that. There were a load of guys who've been doing that job for ten years and little old me. They all scraped a pass yet I finished half an hour before them but scored in the 90's :/

 

[Shagrat]

Well, I nailed that. There were a load of guys who've been doing that job for ten years and little old me. They all scraped a pass yet I finished half an hour before them but scored in the 90's :/

they didn't have to give the examiner a blowjob to get their pass though..


grats anyway

 

[Zarjazz]

Well, I nailed that. There were a load of guys who've been doing that job for ten years and little old me. They all scraped a pass yet I finished half an hour before them but scored in the 90's :/

Thanks for the info. Now I'll know exactly how low to rate any applicants in the future if I see that qualification on their CV.

 

[Scouse]

Thanks for the info. Now I'll know exactly how low to rate any applicants in the future if I see that qualification on their CV.

Yeah. I kinda thought that.

But then it's a just framework - quite a good one as it happens but logically thought out and presented. I've just never seen the ins and outs completely before. For Tier 3+ companies really. The guys weren't retards so I was surprised when they only scraped through but then I guess I shouldn't have been - without blowing my own trumpet too much I pass all exams easily with minimal effort. Always have.

Did my CCNA with no prior experience from book in 3 days without cheating...

 

[Wij]

I've been a Solution Architect for more than 10 years and contracting for nearly 5 at it. I've never had a problem getting a contract without TOGAF certification and frankly any company that would throw my CV in the bin because I don't have it can fuck off. I know what I'm doing.

In fairness I know TOGAF plenty by now and do keep thinking of taking the exam but have better things to do like my current contract and the rest of my life.

You also need to remember it's just a framework. No company actually does TOGAF. Going through a full ADM cycle in a real company is about as realistic as being sent away on a 6 month retreat to meditate on the nature of reality.

 

[Scouse]

Absolutely @Wij. Completely agree.

I've been wanging around in IT totally accidentaly since I left university in '96 and have gone from "do everything" to pigeonholed crap. It's my own fault - in the last 9 years I've had 3 (maybe more) of them off.

'Cause I can. No kids.

But now I find myself in a particular market with people who like stamps (HR) acting as a gateway to opportunity. So get stamp = meh, phone conversation...