As part of my career development, my employer was kind enough to send me to an Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) training at one of those Apple authorised training centres. Yes I do have some basic to intermediate experience with Apple products and environment but to go to a formal training and get certified is a real step forward for me. Plus this certification doesn’t come cheap, RM2670 for the whole package, something I don’t have lying around. If it wasn’t for my company I don’t know if I’ll ever get certified in anything.
Anyway me and another colleague of mine went for the three days Mavericks 101 course in Wangsa Maju. We covered pretty much everything there is to know about the operating system and Macs in general. Some of them I already know, others are new knowledge to me. The trainer was okay I guess. I just wanna complain about the food or lack of it. I can’t remember the last time I went to any training and not being served food of any kind, not even water. We had to pay for breakfast, lunch and tea ourselves. I mean these course doesn’t really come cheap you know, the least you could do is serve mineral water for goodness’ sake.
A month later we were to sit for the ACSP certification test. My colleague, Shah started studying the very next day after the course. I only begin studying the week before. Lucky for me my other colleagues and boss at work was very understanding and they spared me some work at school so I can study a bit which I did, all day until late at night. By the end of the week, my head is filled so much with Kexts and Frameworks it just might restart into verbose mode.
The exam was 2 hours with 80 questions and the passing mark is 75%. Shah took about 40 minutes to finish the test. Me being the careful one, took slightly over an hour. In the end I got 90% correct while Shah got 93%. Not bad considering her studied a month earlier plus he got a bunch of spot questions right from the Internet the day before (why you never share we me dude?). While I’d like a higher score to be frank I’m just relieved that I passed. The ACSP test cost USD250 (almost RM1,000) each and I hate to be paying to sit for the repeat paper myself. The only caveat though I will be bonded with the company for the next 1 year so I can’t go anywhere until then. Not that I have any immediate plans to leave. My philosophy at work is if my employer treats me good and fair I will have no reason to leave. So far they have been nothing but supportive and more than fair with the wages and rewards.
So now I’m a certified Apple professional. Send all your Apple and Macs problem this way people! (charges apply #LOL)
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