Is certification for professionals only?

[lp86]

I am not an IT professional in any way but I am considering becoming MS Certified. I am wondering which direction to go and I'm undecided about which qualifications to get.

Will employers frown upon the fact I have MSC instead of a regular university degree or is it generally an all round good thing to have, with or without a degree?

I really thought I would check and see if you guys think it would worth while before investing in the certification.

 

[dyarwood]

I would suggest that if you are not an IT professional then a Microsoft Certification is not really necessary for you. MS Certs take a lot of experience and a lot of indepth knowledge. Are you trying to break into the IT industry? How much IT experience in the differing areas do you have?

 

[NickFerrar]

I would say the typical route to go would be degree>entry level job>experience>certs

I don't have a degree myself but I think the more senior you get the more handy they can be (when looking to switch jobs). I really don't know why some senior support jobs require a degree as well as experience and certs but I guess they just use it as a filter.

Certs without experience aren't going to help you much

 

[EliseFreedman]

I think it depends what job you are trying to get.

I recently did some MCP's via computeach. I already had some industry experience though. However, the vast majority of Computeach students do not have any IT experience. I know of a few people from the courses who managed to get jobs in the IT industry without previous experience. I think it depends what type of jobs you are looking at and the kind of salary you are hoping to get. Its likely that without previous experience you are probably looking at a trainee position or a helpdesk position to start off with. I dont know what job you are currently doing but not everyone can afford to take a salary cut necessary to gain that first job in IT. Having an MCP or two should definately help. I know that when we were all looking for jobs, employers were often impressed by the fact that we were willing to invest our own time and money to do the courses.

 

[lp86]

I does depend on the job I want. The difficulty or duration of the examinations are not a problems I am concerned with.

I'm hoping that certification would get me a better opportunity to break into the industry at a low level, mostly for experience, so then I can move on to bigger and better things.

 

[iGeek]

You can try a company called myitcareer.co.uk - they helped me get certs and training at the same time. i was abit skeptical at first when i spoke to an advisor about the guarantees they had but i think i nailed 2 birds with 1 stone coz they adviced me on what certs 2 take n got me work experience as a part of their programme.

hopefully that helps