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by stuart mcgie 1 view

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I?m in an interesting dilemma. With the job market going soft more and more companies are upping the stakes on job requirements, normally I would just shrug it off but in one discussion I recently had with a headhunter I was told to get my MCSE in Windows 2000. This is were the confusion comes in, I?ve been working with W2K in several environments including fresh installs to upgrading complete live systems.

After about a year of W2K experience in the OS, SQL and Exchange I thought I would do some studying for the W2Kpro test, as I thought no real surprise in understanding the info. My issue is with headhunters that don?t educate the potential employers with the value of on the job experience as appose to certification.

To be honest this certification will not benefit any future employer or myself? Any thoughts.

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by terrence l. gabriel

My view is that certs are overblown by a cottage industry getting wealthy selling the training material designed to get us all $100,000 a year jobs.

Certifications, like college degrees are a credential. Nothing more. They attest to a certain level of knowledge and in some cases a level of practical experience. No one really believes that part, but CompTIA for one really pushed the "experience" quotient of the certs they offer. Headhunters are sales people always looking for the newest "buzzword" in order to give them an edge over the other guy in placing people. Next week they will be selling Chevys at "Honest Bob's Used Cars and Ticketron Spa."

There is a discussion going on right now on another thread in this board about the CompTIA "Server+" cert. The main issue of that discussion should be and seems to be the worth of such a beast. It is one thing to claim the need for "credentialled" individuals is pressing, quite another to convince hiring managers they mean something.And that is where the real argument about certifications lies. There is a history in this industry of certs being completely useless because they have no "practical performance screen" involved. The main exception is the CCIE and a few other vendor's high end qualification products.

It might be that the headhunter you refer to is merely suggesting you "get credentialled" so that your expertise is quantified. No employer is going to be very impressed by someone with no experience and a cert,but the cert backed with intelligent answers and a depth of understanding that only experience brings is a very useful tool to have.

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