Is the MCSE certification helpful to career path & salary? 1

[missandrea]

I've recently researched getting into the IT industry in Denver, CO, by taking a MCSE training class. My background is: Finance grad., independent business for 8yrs., banking/securities industry for 4yrs. No previous IT experience. Just looking for a change in career and more exposure to tech. Is this a good way to start? Is salary potential good?

 

[butchrecon]

An MCSE is a good way to have doors open up to you. Problem is if you do not have the experiance to back up the MCSE you may find it harder to retain a good job than some one with experiance and no MCSE. There are a ton of "paper MCSEs" out there. They are individuals who take courses and study books to pass the exams. Problem is, with out experience you may find yourself lacking when it comes to job performance. If you are gonna get certified I would suggest setting up a home network so you can have some experiance in the field to go along with the certification.

 

[BZJavaInst]

Read all the comments in the "Some Honest Answers" thread.

Brian

 

[RikQuik]

Yes, it is a good start. However, don't expect to recieve tons of job offers afterwards. Taking classes and getting certified is great, but then you lack real world experiance. Given a choice between the two, most managers will go for the experiance. How do you get the experiance? Take a low-paying job in somebody's IT department. Most of the people that I know that are successful in this field have done this, and it pays off really well. I know of an acoounting guy who started off at 8.50 an hour 3 years ago, and makes 50K+ now. Oh, and you can ignore those people and surveys that tell you that MCSEs make 70k, because they don't. The ones that do have several other certs to go with it. So, get the cert, and take a low-paying job. It may hurt for now, but in 2-3 years it will pay you back.

 

[Voyager1]

As I have told many, many people while managing a CTEC training facility, the certification will not get you a job. What it will get you is more attention than uncertified folks, and the chance to land an advanced interview.

RikQuik's comments on salary are fairly accurate, but remember that it is very regional, so what you can expect to earn will depend greatly on where you earn it.

Good luck - it's all worth it! - Bill

"You can get anything you want out of life, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want" - Zig Ziglar

 

[mbarlam]

After being Microsoft Certified, my salary have doubled twice. However, as this process was happening, I was also getting "on the job" experience. You will get the interview based on the MCSE or MCP but you will get the job based on your experience. It's also a good way to really embed this information into your brain.

 

[chiph]

> Just looking for a change in career and more exposure to tech. Is this a good way to start? Is salary potential good? <

Missandrea -

Have you given any thought as to which area of IT you want to get involved in?

The &quot;hard&quot; areas are
Programming (client-server)
Programming (Web-based)
Quality Assurance
Systems Administration (networking)
Systems Administration (desktop PCs)
Database administration

The &quot;soft&quot; areas are
Implementation
Customer relations
Technical writing
Technical sales


If you want to work in the &quot;hard&quot; area, it helps if you have a thick skin. It seems that most people in those areas have their social filters placed on the &quot;input&quot; side of their brains, not the &quot;output&quot; side like most people. So we tend to speak our minds, and say things that would normally be considered insulting. The &quot;soft&quot; area people are more normal since they deal with customers and business people.

So far as the money -- it can be pretty good, depending on your location, skill level, and reputation. Some of the magazines (like ComputerWorld) have annual salary surveys. Maybe you can find one on the Internet. Visual Basic Programmer's Journal just published theirs, and the nationwide average was around $58,000, with a very few individuals in the six-figures (consultants with MBA degrees).

Your experience in banking and finance is a plus. This will allow you to speak to business people in their own language to find out what they really want, plus explain the limitations of what they're asking for.

Chip H.