Why waste your time & money......

[EddieJ300]

Why waste your time & money getting certified? There are no job offers for entree level. There are folks with 3 - 5 years of experience that have been laid off. So when an entree level job offer does come open they will fill it with an experienced person who is currently laid off. EddieJ300
MCSE A+

 

[NickFerrar]

Well you have more chance of getting a job with the qualification so it's better than nothing at all, even if it is of increasingly small value without appropriate experience.

They just need to stop the training companies advertising along the lines of 'train with us, get qualified and walk into a $50k job' because it just wont happen under the current economic conditions. Hopefully people with enough sense to do an MCSE would have enough sense to not get taken in by such claims but stranger things happen.

 

[astull]

"So when an entree level job offer does come open they will fill it with an experienced person who is currently laid off."

Not ncessarily, i applied for a job that i had virtually no experience with (windows 2000 network), just college classes, book learned, and a little hands on exercises. ( no MCSE either just A+) Once i had the job i found out that i was chosen over a man with many years experience. His downfall, he wanted too much money. This is the best paying job i have had to date, so for you newbies, just keep looking. There is something out there for you.

 

[jtb]

why get certified? because it's part of your career plan.

no career plan? build one before you spend any money.

Where to start? your local public library (or, if you're a student, your high school, college, or university career center).

I'd also recommend the book "What color is your Parachute?" as your primary textbook for "job-search 101".

Well, it worked for me...

JTB
Solutions Architect
MCSE-NT4, MCP+I, MCP-W2K, CCNA, CCDA,
CTE, MCIWD, i-Net+, Network+
(MCSA, MCSE-W2K, MCIWA, SCSA, SCNA in progress)

 

[heftyprawn]

You're missing the point of getting certified, some certifications such as A+ are entry level but others such as MCSE were never meant to be entry level. An MCSE is supposed to represent 2+ years experience and what is happening now is that employers are demanding the experience to back up the certification which I personally think is a good thing. I'd like to see the likes of Microsoft demanding that you prove a certain amount of experience before taking the exams but it won't happen because it's a nice easy way for them to make money.

 

[KraGiE]

Honestly, Microsoft can't demand you to show your experience background before you get certified. They don't conduct the tests. And imagine the workload of employees to verify each resume that goes into their offices. The tests will end up being way more expensive than necessary.

I agree though. If you don't have 3-4 years experience, then an MCSE will hurt you more. Since you don't have the experience to back up your certification, it's more like a piece of paper you can't use. A guy tried to get hired at my place with an MCSD in Visual Basic 6. I asked him a few questions, and looked over his resume. He said he didn't know vb6 com or vb6 ado, but he knew c#. I asked him why he showed me his MCSD in VB6, and he said because he took the test, and it shows he's a good programmer. I then cordially asked him to leave, and tore up his resume in front of him. He went to my HR personell, and I told the HR guy that basically...He needs to be taught a lesson on what it means to be an MCSD. We ended up hiring this girl that was a junior in college and just wanted to experience what it was like to work with a team. She's doing great now, and in a few years, she'll be ready to get certified.

I think being certified is just like a college degree. With it, you get paid more, but it doesn't mean you're smarter or better than anyone else. It's just a credential. Regarding laying off skilled programmers...

Think of it this way. There's x amount of employees, and y amount of work. You lay off those that aren't pulling their slack. Or to cut costs. Times are rough, and there's a bunch of CS majors running around monster.com. Getting certified is not always about finding a job. I have a job, and I'm getting certified. It should be more of a status, and it should be done more for yourself than someone else.

 

[RaZICT]

Don't know about the rest of the world but here in Australia those that are after IT ppl use the MCSE to sort through the resumes they get. Its simple here, if ya havea MCSE you make the short lists, you don't then you don't even get in the door.

And yes I am on my way to getting myself MCSE'd because I don't have any of these tests under my belt at all, but yet I am sitting here admining 2 x citrix servers on win2k terminal server and also about another 8 win2k data servers. yet I have been told by other ppl that I am not good enough to handle citrix servers cause I have not done the tests.

 

[svanels]

1) The other ppl can handle the citrix servers?
2) If they can, are they certified?
3) If you answer both questions with no...(which is probably so) most likely they don't know nothing about computers also. Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr