Are you Microsoft certified?

[TimberWolf]

I thought this topic had been covered here before but couldn't find good threads. In some respects it makes sense to be MS certified if you are working in an MS shop and where traditional qualifications have eroded in value, or are out of date.

If you have been MS certified:

• What certifications have you obtained?
• What did it cost?
• How long did it take?
• Is there a cheaper alternative to being ripped off attending courses run by wide-boys, e.g. buying the study materials and sitting the exams independently?

Or is MS certification a waste of money? E.g. because your certificate will be of interest mostly to historians shortly after you have finished paying when product or certification++ comes out, oh what a waste of money I was robbed.

[jmo21]

There are 2 schools of thought here:
1 - totally worthless
2 - yeah, not bad as something extra on your CV
(I suppose there is a 3rd - yeah, they are great etc, but those guys are idiots)

I would fall in the second category, they are good to have but don't rely on them thinking you'll get a job because of them. I look at them as a something extra on my CV that show's an interest in my work and bettering myself, over and above just being a 9-5 type.

For some companies, they are definite pluses as they count towards a companies MS Gold Partner status (number of people needed with certs) but this is only if you are permy.

My first job out of uni, we were put through the MCSE in NT4, went on a couple of courses. Would never pay for those out my own pocket totally not worth it.

I've since done MCSD's in VB6 and the first lot for .Net paid for by permy companies (books, exams, trancenders)

Bought myself some books and trancenders for the latest .Net exams for bench time, but haven't really bothered with it

[stingman123]

I did my MCSE in 2002, mainly because I was working on large scale AD nationwide rollouts and found I was getting lost with all the jargon, also as the SPOC onsite, all the techie question were usually forwarded to me.

Anyways 7 exams and £3500 later I had my MCSE and prepared to jump into the hotbed of geeky jargon, only to fine that if I had done a self study of DNS, it would've answered most of the probles facing me at the time.

Most of the stuff I learned was never used, and was never used my employers who wanted MCSE qualifications, however it paid for itself withi a few months and I ca still roll of the odd geeky sounding jargon every now and then.

Has it been of any use? I'm now an Implementation PM and having to translate most of the geeky speak to stakeholders is one of my tasks, so it sounds like I know what I'm doing and getting paid well for it. So yes, it was worth it at the time, don't know if I would evey do it again though.

[Moscow Mule]

Conversely, some of the IBM certs are actually worth doing from a knowledge point of view - I just can't be arsed.

[suityou01]

Why can I not vote in this Poll.

[FSM with Cheddar]

Only ever been asked once if I have any MS certifications. I said no they are a waste of time, and I got the gig.

[merrsh1]

I've got an c# MCPD and yes they are definitely worth doing. A few reasons:

1) They show you can probably do the job to an employer.

2) If two people have the same qualifications or experience you will probably get the interview if they aren't certified.

3) Most people just do the same kind of work day in day out, to get certified you have to understand pretty much the whole framework, not just 10% you deal with.

4) They make you a better developer, the work required to pass is significant.

5) Most importantly any advantage is worth having...

[jcw1407]

Unfortunately I have little choice in the matter - if I want to train using Microsoft curriculum I have to be an MCT. Similalrly with IBM and RedHat - still my list of certs is impressively long

[Mich the Tester]

Why not get a fake certificate? It works for Bob Shawadiwadi and at least two very large well known consultancies I shan't name for fear of being sued, but both of them were caught supplying fake CVs to my last clientco and nobody batted an eyelid.

[the_duderama]

Have the MCSA in messaging but i can't be bothered to do the MCSE or the new ones. I hate doing infrastructure/server stuff now - I did it for about 8 years. Looks like networking/VOIP is the way forward for me.

Problem with the MCSE stuff is that you'll only either be:

Installing new stuff/upgrading - interesting but now rare.
Patch management - yawn.
Backups - yawn and urrggh.
Desktop/end user support - just urrrghhh.
Dealing with bad 3rd party software

Also you're really just an expert user on some software written by microsoft, but i quess you could say the same for alot of other stuff in IT.