What is the benefit of Microsoft MCT certified?

Recently, a young IT professional starting out in his career asked us on Facebook: "What is the benefit if I get certified?" In the guest blog post below, MCT Ed Baker responds to this young IT pro's question. If you'd like to connect with Ed for more advice, please leave a comment or check out his Born to Learn profile.

Ask an MCT: "What is the benefit if I get certified?"

Why do we have to take all these exams?

I am lucky enough to teach for Firebrand Training, a Microsoft Learning Partner in the UK, and for the last 12 months also a Microsoft IT Academy. I split my time between teaching Server and Client courses to corporate delegates and apprentices. For the most part, the corporate delegates are only there for one thing – certification, that’s why they chose an accelerated programme MCSA Server 2012 in 8 days, MCSE in 13 or 14. Talking to these experienced IT folks about certification is, as we say, preaching to the converted. A large proportion pay for their own courses and know just how valuable certification is to a career. I know – because that is how I started on the road to becoming an MCT. Apprentices are a different matter. They're usually younger and working at their first IT jobs, and I enjoy helping them lay a good foundation for their IT career.

What exactly is the benefit of all this certification to young people? 

Well, I tackle it from a different angle on day one. I explain that it is my job to help apprentices achieve a certain level of competence and understanding in the technical areas, so that not only can they get a job, but more importantly they can do the job well AND keep it. I am not here to get them certified, but that if I do my job and they do theirs, they will pass the exams, and invariably they do. The 5 weeks of residential training cover Networking, Database, and Server Administration. The IT Academy e-learning also allows them to take the material and study at work or online at home to take those tests later.

If 500 young IT professionals apply for any technical job, all with similar résumé contents, then a hiring manager is going to put the certified candidates right at the top of the pile. In troubled employment times, employers can be very picky. Once you secure a job and prove that you can do the work it entails, you need to progress, show you can learn more and upgrade your skills for more responsibilities. How do you do that? Go and learn the new products with hands-on experience, and prove you can do the job by taking and passing the certification examinations.

Is that what you did Ed?

I started out on my IT journey as a Project Manager who wanted to make sure that all the technical consultants were not trying to add un-necessary days and weeks to my precious project plan. Once I got the technical bug and decided I wanted to teach what I knew, it was essential to be certified. I would not try and tell someone how to use something without being qualified. To be qualified, it is my assertion that a trainer MUST be certified and SHOULD be experienced in using the product in everyday situations, including the bad times when things are going wrong. How to get out of trouble when your Server goes down is a valuable skill.

For those who don’t want to teach, then certifying is just as useful. Microsoft provide access to a whole bunch of useful benefits to its certified professionals. The online transcript sharing tool allows a prospective employer (or current one) to view all of your Microsoft exam passes, current and past certifications and in the case of a trainer, the course you are allowed to teach.

What else does Microsoft give me?

As a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), you receive access to an MCP-only website with links to the MCP community. In addition, this site offers downloads of Certificates, Logos, links to a Certification Planner and many more useful bits and bobs. If you decides to become a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) or a Trainer (MCT), the other tabs on the site become available to you, along with their benefits.

So, if apprentices and those starting out in IT should get certified, is it just as relevant for those with many years of experience and practice behind them? In short, it opens doors that are firmly closed without a current certification. 

I had spent many years being self-employed and not needed to recertify every time a new version or product was released. I simply learned the products, tested them in a lab and then deployed and used them for my customers. When I decided I wanted to take a different career path, I found more than one prospective employer happy to talk to me and discuss options but not one of them would progress further until I was certified in the subject areas I was interested in.

As soon as I had gone away and gained the certifications for things I already knew I could do, the employers were offering jobs at the first opportunity. It is very difficult to make a hiring decision without some objective markers and certification is an effective marker of ability.

Isn’t it just a bit of paper?

For this reason it is imperative that the integrity of the certification system is maintained, if not, then there will be a larger number of ‘paper-qualified’ people around.  Without integrity, the certification process means nothing. As end users, we have to trust that the provider, in this case Microsoft maintains both the integrity AND the fairness of the exams and the process.

Anyone who has taken Microsoft exams in the last 12 months will have seen an enormous number of changes to the item types, just check out the Ask a Certification Expert (ACE) series of video clips to see what’s been happening. They even have their own outtakes video!

These changes have turned the new certifications into excellent examples of current, relevant and challenging tests. There is however a dark side, where the force is strong, sadly.

Some exam centres and administrator are not as vigilant as they should be and there are a number of websites, forums and other communities where the contents of exams are regularly exchanged. This is being tracked and tackled by Microsoft – They have a department and a manager specially employed to do this.  Check out this Born to Learn interview, too. It is also up to us IT professionals all to be on the look-out for such things. More importantly SEE it, REPORT it! If you don’t, you have no right to complain when someone else who you know cheated get the job you are after.

In a nutshell.

Certification get you.

1. A Job
2. A qualification
3. A better salary
4. A community to join
5. Microsoft MCP benefits

You know it makes sense.

Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net

Does Microsoft Certification Really Matter?

Does certification really matter? This is one of the most frequently asked and debated topic among IT pros and developers, whether they have college degrees or years of industry experience. You want to know if pursuing Microsoft certification is a good investment of time and money. MCT and Senior Consultant Jasper Kraak, who lives and works in the Netherlands, shares what he has witnessed in the industry, and why certification indeed matters. Read on:

Why Certification Does Matter

There seems to a lot skepticism on IT Certification and there’s probably a good reason for that. But that is not what I’ll be blogging about in this post. I’m looking for empowering reasons to DO get certified.

For individuals it’s always good to stretch yourself; life begins at the end of your comfort zone. The harder you need to strech the more satisfaction you get out of the result. Maybe that’s even better than a higher salary or bonus, although I do not underestimate those benefits. Certification makes it easier to search for new jobs, you can show that you’re up to date in your field of expertise. Passing an exam is also an acknowledgement for yourself of which you should be proud.

I also think it’s normal to stay up to date, looking at my closest relatives (neither of them are into IT), they all keep on developping their skills and knowledge about their respective jobs. Even my 82 year old mother as a biologist…. 

She blogs and is active on LinkedIn. But especially in IT, you’re out if you’re not up to date, it goes with the job. About nine months ago I blogged that the “serverhuggers” will be the first to lose their jobs. Last week I heard a CIO/CEO say: “What’s the difference between Elvis and a Systems Administrator? The Systems Administrator is really dead!”

For employers it seems logical that they only want to hire qualified employees to manage their expensive hard and software systems. I’m always very unpleasantly surprised to hear that they just “trust” their people but have actually no idea what they are doing for their money. It’s ridiculous to have untrained and unskilled people manage very expensive systems on which the company relies for it’s primary business processes. As employers invest in new technologies, training is hardly ever on the budget. It’s time now to take that business serious, IT has evolved enough to get rid of the sociologist who happens to know something about Windows. Windows is not manageable through therapy (most of the time… J). Employers investing in people have a more loyal workforce, no, they won’t run after they took their classes and passed their exams.

For outsourcers, headhunters, employer agencies and companies like that, you charge your customers big bucks so you’d better deliver. I do not only want to see an impressive resume with projects, responsibilities and accomplishments. I want to see a steady list of Certifications matching the position, otherwise we have no deal. So you should demand of your candidates a proper set of certifications, moreover, it should be the first thing to look for in any resume.

I take pride in being an IT Professional with an outstanding track record of certification and through that achieving great results in projects and training. And that leads to being reckoned as expert and guru in my fields of expertise.

About Jasper Kraak, in his own words:

My passion lies with Microsoft Technology, which started with NT3.1. Since then I’ve always be a frontrunner in investigating the newest versions of almost the complete product line of Microsoft, resulting in multiple MCSE and MCITP certifications. I love to share my knowledge as a Microsoft Certified Trainer, speaker and blogger.

Lately I mostly work with Vitualization, Collaboration and Cloud Services. In my job as a Senior Consultant for Qwise, I’m also responsible for knowledge, ambition and inspiration for my co-workers. Connect with me at http://www.kraak.com/  

Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/orhttps://twitter.com/jasperkraak .

MTA Training Available at Commercial Test Centers

Microsoft Technology Associate  (MTA) has previously been available only to academic students, faculty, and staff. Now, anyone looking to explore a career in IT or to enhance their knowledge of IT can take an MTA exam!

MTA provides essential technology training and an industry-recognized certification to those just starting a career in IT - or for business professionals who want to enhance their career by adding a technology skillset. 

Twelve exams in three technology tracks -- IT Infrastructure, Developer, and Database -- cover cutting-edge topics (such as Gaming and HTML5), and foundational topics that provide valuable skills in traditional technology fields and the new world of cloud computing. By passing an MTA exam you become part of the Microsoft Certification Program. While building confidence and skills, you can find MTA to be a stepping stone to other Microsoft certifications such as Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) or Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD).

Microsoft Learning Partners who delivered MTA training and certification exams during the recent pilot received positive feedback from their instructors and their students. The training and certification sessions took place in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. The pilot partners agree that MTA provides a great opportunity for those who are interested in exploring a career in IT but have little experience with technology.

Ready to get MTA certified? Go to here to find out how.

As another boost on your road to MTA, Microsoft is offering a free second shot on certification exams that are taken at commercial test centers.

Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net

What Drives IT Certifications?

I stumbled across this interesting blog post today (http://scn.sap.com/community/training-and-education/certification/blog/2012/10/11/what-drives-it-certification). Why do employees, employers, vendors, and partners get certified? John Kleeman spoke to attendees of the European Association of Test Publishers (EATP) to find out. (As some background, the Association for Test Publishers (ATP) is one of the key professional conferences in the certification industry. Microsoft Learning typically attends ATP in the United States, but I would love attend the European version at some point!)

I was struck by the reasons that employees get certified and why employers want their employees to be certified.

Employees: Why do you get certified? Certainly, one key driver is to improve your job or career prospects, but it appears that another key driver is to learn and develop skills. Certification is hard--it has to be if it's going to differentiate you from others--so if you get certified simply because you want an objective evaluation of your skills, you're showing some serious dedication and commitment to continuous lifelong learning. Of course, this makes me curious about why YOU get certified? Does the idea of using certification to learn and develop skills resonate with you? What drives you to get a certification and/or maintain one?  

Employers: Why do employers want their employees to be certified? To improve performance, obviously, but it's clear that employers realize that certification is not a guarantee for success. That being said, it certainly improves the odds of success, especially for first time implementations of new technology. To me, that suggests that the most valuable certifications are those in newer technologies and that certifying early--when a new version of a technology is just released--may give you an advantage over those who aren't certified, especially in those in those organizations that are rolling out the latest and greatest. Hmmm... this seems to tie back to that idea of certification as a mechanism to learn and develop new skills. Very interesting, indeed.

What do you think about the key drivers of IT certification that John described? Did he miss why you get certified or why you want your employees to be certified? I'd love to hear your thoughts

Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net

Top Paying Microsoft Certifications - Must Read

According to the 2013 Global Knowledge Salary Survey, Microsoft offers six of the top 15 highest-paying certifications*! Here are the certifications with the highest earning potential for 2013:

6 of them are of microsoft.

Source: http://borntolearn.mslearn.net