For those of you looking to increase your worth by way of certification, it may be a difficult road to travel if you don't know someone that has already been down it (or at least done some research on the subject). I've spent, and continue to spend, 1000's of hours researching certification websites; collecting and comparing data related to those sites.

Knowing which study guides you can, or cannot, use may be as easy as knowing that specific terminology on the website instantly throws up the proverbial "red flag" in your mind; or it may be so difficult that you won't know that you've used illegal braindumps until after you've taken the exam. By the time you've taken the exam, however, it's too late. At this point, you've potentially put your certifications at risk and you may have devalued the certifications of those that did take the time to research legitimate sites.

One topic I see pop up from time to time is that of the superficial "Catch-22" many individuals feel they are faced with when looking for tools to study with. Here is a sample of a conversation I recently came across:

The only way to know if I'm studying with braindumps is to know what questions and answers are on the exams, but I have to take the exam before I will know which questions are on it. I'm not going to take the exam without first studying for it, so I won't know if I'm using braindumps until after I've taken the exam.

Believe it or not, if you take a little time to research the website you want to buy study materials from, you will often find a plethora of information that will benefit you; but you do have to know what to look for and you definitely have to know what information should be discounted. If you can't make a clear determination on your own, you should think about soliciting the help of someone with experience in this area.

This is just another of the many reasons I started allowing people access to the research I have personally spent 1000's of hours on. I understand that many of the certification websites are not easily discernable and that often people will just "take the chance", hoping they will be ok.

So, for those of you that are looking to add worth to your career, believing that there is no way to clearly determine the value of the study materials you're using will actually have the opposite affect. Make sure you don't put your certifications at risk, do the required research before you just jump into something you have little knowledge of.