Ken Dwight's paid course for beginners?

[altrenda]

I find it interesting, with this guys name in the heading for everyone to see, that no one has stepped up and said "I've taken the course and it's totally worth it. I make so much more money now, it changed the way I do things ."

No one here has done more than watch the free one?

 

[acscva]

I did one of his in person training courses in 2013. Keep in mind I have been in the computer business for 28 years. I learned only a couple of things but if you are new to the business you will probably learn quite a bit. He has provided some good reference information and continuing information on newer viruses. Also anyone that takes his class will get 4 months of RepairTech subscription which is $100 value.

 

[cmonova]

Scott beat me to it with his post…I also attended Ken's course and have 20+ years experience but knew many were talking about it and decided i'd go and find out for myself just how good it was.

There were a couple things I learned or maybe brought back to my memory from years past that had been lost so that was a good thing.

Plus, I would not look at it like "well it cost $450, is it worth it"….Because it's not like you pay $450 and sit with Ken and he just tells you things for 8 hours. You are there with other professionals who have a variety of experience and will ask questions or bring up situations also. To me that is more learning in itself. Or if you are fortunate enough to be there with seasoned professionals like ACSCVA then that is an added benefit cause you can pick his brain on breaks or at lunch to learn even more.

Now the video route I am not positive about value vice the live course as I have not watched the videos. But, the live course is worth the cost.

 

[ccritchie]

I can vouch for Ken and his course. I work full time in IT, and I was fortunate enough to have my company pay for the course as a CPE. I can tell you that it was well worth my time to sit under Ken's knowledge and expertise. He has been at this longer than most on this forum, and his knowledge of the Windows operating system is pretty deep. While I, too, felt fairly confident in my malware removal skills as well as the tools available at that point, what I learned from Ken was a specific diagnostic and troubleshooting process to go through which would help me to be more effective and efficient than just running x tool, then y tool, then z tool & hoping that I got it all.

Also, having completed the course I now have a resource in Ken when I come up against something totally new & emerging (e.g. Cryptolocker or Poweliks). There's a good chance that he's already heard about it and is working on a process for removal.

Some of you are balking at the price, and I can understand that. As small business owners, we often don't want to spend money, especially on training, unless we have to. The price is not unreasonable at all in the corporate realm, especially when you consider the expenses involved in flying to a city, renting a venue & hoping to have enough people show up to make it profitable.

I mean, why should I pay a technician $100-$200 to remove a virus from my computer when I can just go on bleepingcomputer.com, print out a removal guide a do it myself? That's just waaay to much money being charged to fix my computer, right? Our customers pay for our expertise in order to get the job done right. Though I have knowledge, skill and experience, I am willing to pay to learn from someone who has more knowledge skill and experience than I do. Malware is not going away, and indications are that it will become more pervasive and more insidious. Investing money in my skill set will, in the long run, make me more profitable at what I do. That's why I think that the class is worth the money and the time.

 

[ccritchie]

Also, just to clarify... I don't believe that Ken is offering his full virus remediation training seminars on video. He has in the past offered something like a 1 hour session introduction to get people interested in the full day seminar. This may have been offered on Technibble or ACRBO. He has also offered the full-day seminar (actually, 2 4-hour live sessions over 2 days) online as an alternative to the in-person seminar, but I would imagine that you still get the interaction with him that you would get in the on-site training.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I see what the above guy is saying. But I would also argue that if you after a couple of times dealing with things, you would have a pretty good idea what to expect. I know clients pay us to know how to do things they can't, but if you are tech, you have to have the mind for it, and a mind for problem solving. I went to school for 4 years and got my bachelor's degree. I learned a lot of concepts and things. But honestly, 99.99% of what I know as a tech is because of on the job training. In other words, sitting down in front of issues, and searching enough and being patient enough to figure it out, or messing up enough times to say well, don't hit that button again. After a few go arounds, you figure out what you should do and not do. Maybe the guy's class is worth it for some people. Myself, I'd rather put the money toward a vacation. My wife is already hinting about an Alaska Disney cruise.

 

[PCX]

Going from a one man band to an eight man team, I will tell you this. Early one, I would have never paid for this. Being a one man band, I had plenty of time to learn these skills, but not a whole lot of money to invest. After employing 2-3 techs, it still wasn't really feasible. Even now with several skilled employees, I find it hard to justify. However, if I were to hire a few new recruits (specifically as software technicians) and or I thought I had a tech that could use the help, I would definitely consider purchasing the webinar but I would not spend $500 per person on a course.

Here is how I see it, people with little experience could benefit from it, but chances are if they have not learned how to make money from the service, then they can't afford it. By the time you are making enough money to justify the cost, you probably learned a great majority of what you would have learned in the video. Even after you have a few employees, you are now training them in this area and chances are, they don't need to see the video. That being said, if we were talking about a video that I could keep and show my techs for the next 2-3 years, then sure, that could be worth purchasing.

 

[Rayspcsolutions]

I'm reaching out to you seasoned techs and experts...would it be worth it for me to spend the $450 on Dwight's class at such a low level of expertise? I'm afraid it will all be way over my head and that I'll waste the money.

I listened to the same 2 day webinar that @cypress mentioned and at the end of that he offered a discounted recorded workshop that he done a couple weeks before. It was $295.00 and you get with that a workbook and Virus removal toolkit. So I signed up for that and I think it was a wise investment for me and I already agreed with his philosophy that nuke and pave should be the absolute last resort but he does explain where it my be beneficial in certain circumstances.

He does get into the registry pretty deep but explains it well, plus you have the workbook to follow along with and that is what he is teaching from. But he goes through each key that should be looked at and examined and explains the where, why and whats of each of they keys. I thought I had decent grasp on the registry but I was surprised by what I didn't know.

Shoot him an email and see if the recorded workshop is still available

 

[cbsnyder87]

Wow, thanks for all the input!

After watching a couple of Mark Russinovich's tutorials and explanations of his Sysinternals software (which I've used before, but never understood the power of), I feel I can spare the course for now and just play around with Mark's software.

My real roadblock is with the Windows Registry...I'm not all that familiar with it, but maybe there's a book out there somewhere, or YouTube videos??

 

[cbsnyder87]

Edit to my last post:

I totally missed the entire second page of this thread when I wrote that last comment!

Had not seen all the positive input from those who have actually taken the course...that is some great information.

I am thinking I'll go with the course, especially after hearing some of Mark Russinovich's input that malware is becoming so complex now that most anti-virus misses them. They are dynamic and change their name on the fly, they adapt to your Windows' settings, and hide themselves in more and more ingenious ways. Seems like (as a start-up) I should be getting a good grasp on these things so I am set for those situations as best as possible.