What IT Certificates do you have?

Security+
CISSP
CISA
MCSE 2003 Security
CCNA
CCSE+ (Check Point cert)
Prince 2 Practitioner

Have a few others for some random products like Altiris. The main use for qualifications/certs are when you apply for new jobs as they get you noticed enough to get an interview. For day to day work they really aren't of much use, mine benefit my company more than me as they use them in marketing material and in the case of the vendor-based ones as a way to get additional discounts on the software/hardware they resell.
 
steve-h said:
wait what?

i was thinking of going for a couple certs... could you explain further?
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Yeah i'd say that almost 1/2 the people out their with "IT certs" haven't actually studied for them. Instead they've gone and got TestKing, Pass4sure or one of the many that are out their, learnt the pattern of the question & answer sat the exam and passed witha very good score!

Boot camps are just as bad if not worse, a friend of mine got sent to the US to do a 2 week boot camp - In 2 weeks he went from having no formal IT quals & only a small amount of experience to being an MCSE +Messaging +Security

I know my current employer doesn't value IT certs they want hard experience and that's all.
 
To echo what Mr_T said:

I have an MCSD.Net from a few years ago.

I wouldn't take any other MS Certs, and would certainly not rate anyone WITH MS Certs (now I know just how easy they are to obtain).

My next stop is some accountancy exams to go alongside my business experience. At least with them they're:

a) reasonably difficult to get
b) reasonably difficult to cheat in
c) valued in the finance industry
 
Btec National diploma for ICT practitioners (Or in other words I done the Become a Pc technican at Huddersfield technical college)

Was a laugh but I didn't learn a thing!
 
Experience and Certification obviously makes you stand out from the crowd so I dont understand people who say experience is better ? There's no harm in backing up experience with a couple of certificates.
 
I think it helps as a foot in the door but I have no qualifications in IT or any training for that matter. I had a 5 year career in IT which I ended last year and once you've got some experience under your belt in a particular field you can specialise.
 
LordSplodge said:
Why did you list the MCSA when you have an MCSE? You didn't list all the separate MCPs :P :D

I prefer to use my many, many years of experience but I do have a few qualifications to back it up:

MCSE + Security
ITIL v3 (Foundation)
VCP

and up and coming:

MCTIP Enterprise Messaging Administrator
MCTIP Enterprise Server Administrator
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Simply because it is a qualification. As is the MCP. If you look on the transcript you'll see them listed seperately. You don't loose your MCSA when you move to MCSE.

Forgot to mention I have a very old NVQ 3 in IT as well.

:D



M.
 
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Mr_T said:
Yeah i'd say that almost 1/2 the people out their with "IT certs" haven't actually studied for them. Instead they've gone and got TestKing, Pass4sure or one of the many that are out their, learnt the pattern of the question & answer sat the exam and passed witha very good score!

Boot camps are just as bad if not worse, a friend of mine got sent to the US to do a 2 week boot camp - In 2 weeks he went from having no formal IT quals & only a small amount of experience to being an MCSE +Messaging +Security

I know my current employer doesn't value IT certs they want hard experience and that's all.
Click to expand...


Well since there are a lot of simulations coming into the questioning it's made it a lot harder to go down that route. I'm sure there are a lot of people that do it this way but I did it the old fashioned way trawling through books. I was lucky on a couple of the exams and scraped a pass (especially when one exam broke but that's a different story).

I remember there was a lot of legal wrangling with Testking and Microsoft - can't remember the outcome though.



M.
 
Couple of MCP's but that was only due to previuos employer wanting to use the Micrcosft logo also have a CLA.

I am with everyone else don't really think Microsoft exams are worth much. People can quite easily get through most of the exams without even touching a computer!

You just cannot beat experiance and someone with a keen intrest in IT.

Only exam currently i would consider is a CCNA.
 
Miguél said:
Experience and Certification obviously makes you stand out from the crowd so I dont understand people who say experience is better ? There's no harm in backing up experience with a couple of certificates.
Click to expand...

True, but in my own experience with this I've known many people who I've worked with who refuse to learn anything different because "their qualification or tutor told them otherwise".

Classic example of this was about 4 years ago with a bloke who had achieved some qualification in Webdesign that he gained in 1995 when it was 'ok' to design layouts with tables. Along came DIV's, the W3 standards changed to say using tables is wrong, yet Pete just refused to go along with this saying his qualification 'allowed' him to carry on webdesign using tables.

Experience AND the proof of being able to adapt to current IT trends and technologies outweighs.
 
I quit uni and never got a degree i decided i didnt want to be a programmer of the Java generation.

I currently have:

Mcse - messaging
CCNA
VCP
Mctip - ESA

I also have my compaq/hp hardware acreditation for what thats worth nowadays.

Everything seems to be going virtual atm as soon as microsoft pull there finger out with hyperv im sure everything will go that way :P
 
*walks into thread*
*looks at topic*
*unzips his fly*
*waves his willy around*
*zips up his fly*
*walks out of thread*
 
The best thing to do if any one agrees is post your qualifications, age, then post your job with salary and then area. Lets see if we can create a pattern here. I would like to think it's the people with the more qualifications that has a better job and more money, but we shall see.

I will start.

AGE: 24
SALARY: £18K
AREA: UK, NorthEast
JOB TITLE: Network Technician
QUALS: NVQ L3, Foundation Degree Network Security, New Clait, ECDL, 11 GCSES A - C, 8 Years Experience.
 
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