Comment Time to re-engineer myself... (Score 1) 326
There's a lot to consider when making this kind of decision. I read the open letter and response yesterday on coriolis.com. My first thought was: "I've started down a definite career path. Do I really want to make this kind of drastic change to another OS? Or should I just keep on trucking?" The implications are staggering. (To me, anyway.) Well, I used to be a die hard Mac user. I knew the ins and outs of the O/S, networking, applications... I did graphic design for Kinko's for a year and a half. I was a Mac Genius. (Not to blow my own horn, but I'm getting to the point.) During that time, I began making the slow change to the wintel platform. Now I'm an NT admin. I see no logical reason that I can't make the change again, save one: money. I'm well paid as an NT admin, and with little Unix/Linux experience, I foresee hard times ahead if I decide to make the switch directly. Hybrid environments are hard to come by, from what I've seen. (getting off topic.) Could I make the change? Yes. Am I prepared to make the change immediately? No. The MCSE got me a lot of money, quickly. I'm not entirely prepared to let that go yet. Especially starting a new life, getting married, moving later this year, massive car expenses recently... I need certification not just now, but for a while.
Political and social issues aside, I was less than pleased by Microsoft's response to the open letter. I say Microsoft's rather than Donna Senko's because she's just a pawn too. Nothing against her. The response seemed to say a lot more than it intended, depending on how you want to interpret it. My personal interpretation is that it read like a marketing press release. What I got from it is: "We're giving you the latest and greatest operating system, so you should expect support for the latest and greatest operating system." And to the MCSE's: "Since this is the latest and greatest product we offer, we need you to be able to support it." However, not giving your greatest public supporters the power of choice seems like good marketing and bad public relations. I know that I certainly feel left out in the cold. Who is to say that NT4 will no longer be a widely used operating system in 2001? Companies are slow to change. I know of organizations that have just recently migrated to Win95 on the desktop. That, and I expected to be certified for more than a couple years. I guess my knowledge will be ancient soon.
Another issue that kind of touched me was the whole "paper" MCSE argument. I have VERY strong feelings about this. Guess what folks? ALL MCSE'S ARE PAPER MCSE'S. I have never taken a MS exam without saying, "I know this is the right answer for the test, but THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT WORKS IN REAL LIFE!" And I KNOW there's an MCSE or two out there that will back me up on this. A lot of what is on the tests has no application in real life situations. It's all theory. Any employer worth working for will look at your expereience first, certifications later. (Unless of course, their boss told them "I want an MCSE..." or some other such nonsense.) Certification doesn't count for much in the higher level tech circles. Not to say that certification isn't vaild. I'd be nowhere without it. It certainly got me a good job. But I had to have the real-life skills to keep it. See what I mean? It's the paper that gets you the interview, it's the skills that get you the job, and keep it. (Sorry about the caps, but I get a little passionate on this subject.)
I guess the final question I have to ask myself is, in the long run, is it worth it to me to keep the MCSE? After considering all of the above, my answer is: No. I will let my MCSE certification expire, and persue other certs instead. Cisco, Solaris, RHCE... All just as valid, and more attractive to me.
The change begins... now.
--Written in my favorite MS application: notepad!--
--Come see my bad html at www.maxwells-alley.com! (hey... I'm still learning)--
Political and social issues aside, I was less than pleased by Microsoft's response to the open letter. I say Microsoft's rather than Donna Senko's because she's just a pawn too. Nothing against her. The response seemed to say a lot more than it intended, depending on how you want to interpret it. My personal interpretation is that it read like a marketing press release. What I got from it is: "We're giving you the latest and greatest operating system, so you should expect support for the latest and greatest operating system." And to the MCSE's: "Since this is the latest and greatest product we offer, we need you to be able to support it." However, not giving your greatest public supporters the power of choice seems like good marketing and bad public relations. I know that I certainly feel left out in the cold. Who is to say that NT4 will no longer be a widely used operating system in 2001? Companies are slow to change. I know of organizations that have just recently migrated to Win95 on the desktop. That, and I expected to be certified for more than a couple years. I guess my knowledge will be ancient soon.
Another issue that kind of touched me was the whole "paper" MCSE argument. I have VERY strong feelings about this. Guess what folks? ALL MCSE'S ARE PAPER MCSE'S. I have never taken a MS exam without saying, "I know this is the right answer for the test, but THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT WORKS IN REAL LIFE!" And I KNOW there's an MCSE or two out there that will back me up on this. A lot of what is on the tests has no application in real life situations. It's all theory. Any employer worth working for will look at your expereience first, certifications later. (Unless of course, their boss told them "I want an MCSE..." or some other such nonsense.) Certification doesn't count for much in the higher level tech circles. Not to say that certification isn't vaild. I'd be nowhere without it. It certainly got me a good job. But I had to have the real-life skills to keep it. See what I mean? It's the paper that gets you the interview, it's the skills that get you the job, and keep it. (Sorry about the caps, but I get a little passionate on this subject.)
I guess the final question I have to ask myself is, in the long run, is it worth it to me to keep the MCSE? After considering all of the above, my answer is: No. I will let my MCSE certification expire, and persue other certs instead. Cisco, Solaris, RHCE... All just as valid, and more attractive to me.
The change begins... now.
--Written in my favorite MS application: notepad!--
--Come see my bad html at www.maxwells-alley.com! (hey... I'm still learning)--
