When you take most Microsoft exams, you will become either a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) or a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS). The MCP is usually associated with the Windows Server 2003 and XP operating system for skills to successfully implement a Microsoft Product or technology as part of a business solution in an organization. The MCTS is usually associated with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista is for professionals who target specific technologies and want to distinguish themselves by demonstrating in-depth knowledge and expertise in the various
Microsoft specialized technologiesThe MCTS is a replacement for the MCP program.
When you become an MCP, you do gain certain benefits from Microsoft. They include:
Of course, the MCP and MCTS is also smaller steps to get the more sought after Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certifications.
For more information about the MCP, visit Microsoft’s MCP website at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcp/default.mspx. Of course, to help prepare for an MCP, check out the Exam Cram from Que Publishing. A good one to start with toward your MCITP would be to use the Exam Cram MCTS 70-620: Microsoft Windows Vista, Configuration book to pass the Microsoft 70-620 exam.
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Patrick Regan has been a PC technician, network administrator/engineer, design architect and security analyst for the past 16 years after graduating with a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Akron. He is currently a senior network engineer at Pacific Coast Companies, supporting a large enterprise network. He holds many certifications including the Microsoft MCSE, MCSA, MCT; CompTIA's A+, Network+, Server+, Linux+, Security+ and CTT+; Cisco CCNA; and Novell's CNE and CWNP Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA).
Over the last several years, he has written several textbooks, including Troubleshooting the PC, Networking with Windows 2000 and 2003, Linux, Local Area Networks, Wide Area Networks and the Acing Series (Acing the A+, Acing the Network+, Acing the Security+ and Acing theLinux+). He has also co-authored the ExamCram 70-290 MCSA/MCSE Managing Linux+ and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment, 2nd Edition and authored the ExamCram 70-620 Microsoft Windows Vista, Configuration. He is currently writing the study guides for the A+ certification exams for Cisco Press and the ExamCram 70-643 Windows Server 2008 Applications Platform Configuration.
The opinions expressed in this Weblog are those of the writer and may not represent the opinions of Network World.
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How important are certs?
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There's lots of debate right now whether certifications are valuable or not. Microsoft might give out goodies for their certified professionals and that's cool (and good business), but what are your thoughts on the value of certs in general. Are they still as important as they used to be five or more years ago?
How important are certs?
This blog entry is to a question that was asked about how important are certs today and how they compared to five years ago.
Overall, I do believe Certs have value. However, only certain certs are worth having, while many are not. However, it is almost getting to a point that you will need to have a cert to be familiar with all the certs that exist today and which ones are applicable to a specific job of which skills they offer.
Are certs as important as they were five years ago more? I think so. For many people new to the market, they are used to get their foot in the door. They also push people to maintain the technical skill and knowledge. However, as with the so-called "paper certs" that Novell became known for years ago, most of the good jobs (with good pay), you need to also have two other things: experience and soft skills.
As with most certs, I sometimes wonder why the certificate vendors focus on certain things and not others. For example, with the Microsoft certs, Microsoft has a tendancy to focus on new technology, as a push to get a new version of the operating system or program out to and accepted by the general public. However, they often overlook the basics. For example, while Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 certs focus on some of the bells and whistles, they don't focus on some of the basics such as NTFS permissions. In the courses and the exams, NTFS and share permissions are barely touched. However, you would think that NTFS permissions is an essential area that any administrator will need to know. Of course, that is where the experience comes in to make up for those areas that are barely touched. Also with any IT technical job, while you will always have the basics, but you will may have all of the basics, you need to have experience to figure out solutions to new technical problems and to come up with create solutions for every business problems.
The other part that makes a successful IT person is the soft skills, which determine how well they can communicate and how well they work with management, co-workers and customers. There have been a good share of technical people who figured they can ask for any salary and expect to be treated like gods just because they have the knowledge. In today's modern business world, the soft skills are just as important.
As with Microsoft starting to offer MCP's access to technical articles that were only available to the Microsoft Parnters is long overdue since it is the MCP (and MCSE's) who are often try to fix a wide range of problems but often the solution can only be accessed if you paid a couple hundred dollars for technical support. If an article exist to fix or over come a problem, it should be accessed by whomever needs it to overcome that problem.
My next blog article will talk about looking for a job and balancing certs, experience and soft skills.
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