Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Master certification

cymatty

cymatty

cymatty

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Looking for jobs around work and many of the ones I am interested in are asking for good office skills. Now, I think I have these as I am currently using access to build a database and using excel to prepare reports using data importing etc.

I am worried however that there is no way to separate me from Tom Dick or Harry who turn up saying they are gods gift to excel when they cant even perform simple calculations. So browsing the web I came across this

Master Certifications

The Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Master certification helps demonstrate an individual's overall comprehension and expertise of Microsoft Office programs. Microsoft Office Specialist Masters have more than a working familiarity with Microsoft Office programs—they are technically skilled to take advantage of the breadth of features efficiently and effectively.

To earn the MOS Master certification on Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Office 2003, or Microsoft Office XP, you must pass the following MOS exams:
MOS: Word Expert
MOS: Excel Expert
MOS: PowerPoint
MOS: Access or MOS: Outlook
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Linky

Has any one completed this qualification, what are your thoughts on it and was it worthwhile?
 
I think you'd be looking at doing the 2010 exams tbh. But would this not make you a Master of desktop jockey support?
Will the master qual reward you enough to make it worthwhile?
 
JayMax said:
I think you'd be looking at doing the 2010 exams tbh. But would this not make you a Master of desktop jockey support?
Will the master qual reward you enough to make it worthwhile?
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We use 2003 in the office, in fact some people use 97. :eek:

So 2003 would be the most useful to me, even though it isn't the newest.
 
Often thought of it. But then I've never seen it asked for in jobs ads. only people who seem to do are trainers.

Anyone thats doing VBA in Excel or Access, they generally ask for that specifically, so some VB or .Net and some SQl might be better recieved.

MOS I think is good. But few know what it is.

BTW is Moss from IT Crowd names after this???
 
Mate what kind of pay does that job come with?

If I were you I would use or buy (I'm going on the buy front because you clearly have a seriously fine car) a quad or six core system, throw on linux and windows server (using MSDN which is cheap) and do the certifications (many do NOT require you to go on a course) it won't take you long, get them and pass them, aim for techincal support job and start there, ground up, progress and the I.T world is yours mate

Places to visit: Citrix (aim at XenDesktop, XenApp and XenServer), VMware (vSphere ESXi) and then Linux and Microsoft, go for LAMP with Linux, you could do all of this in a year, if you think you have nothing to aid you then just download data from a government site, for example on LAMP aim for geoloigcal sites such as USGS to your MySQL database, manage it, learn Perl and PHP, get Nagios, monitor earth quakes with it or volcanoes, just use the internet and learn

Throw it on your CV mate and go for something better, if I were you, I would learn all of this at home then aim higher

Just being honest

EDIT: btw mate, anything I can help you with regarding my message above, just shout, I started that same way
 
ThorpedoUK said:
EDIT: btw mate, anything I can help you with regarding my message above, just shout, I started that same way
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Thanks for that, I probably should have said that I work for a Bank and the type of roles I am going for are data analysis/credit risk type roles, I am not looking for a job in IT.

So because these roles usually involve working on or with databases and SQL and lots of data manipulation in excel. I also don't want anything that is massively time consuming as I am also working towards my second degree ( which the bank are paying for).

I was just wondering if something like this would prove to them that I am above average office user?
 
cymatty said:
...I was just wondering if something like this would prove to them that I am above average office user?
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I doubt they'd know what it is. Its not very common in IT in my experience. Most people think its like ECDL, when it a lot more than that. Well last time I looked at it was.

If you are working in a bank/fiance, being an expert in Excel/Access/MS SQL I expect would be very useful.
 
OspreyO said:
I doubt they'd know what it is. Its not very common in IT in my experience. Most people think its like ECDL, when it a lot more than that. Well last time I looked at it was.

If you are working in a bank/fiance, being an expert in Excel/Access/MS SQL I expect would be very useful.
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That is what I was thinking, are you saying MOS is more difficult/accomplished than ECDL?
 
cymatty said:
Thanks for that, I probably should have said that I work for a Bank and the type of roles I am going for are data analysis/credit risk type roles, I am not looking for a job in IT.

So because these roles usually involve working on or with databases and SQL and lots of data manipulation in excel. I also don't want anything that is massively time consuming as I am also working towards my second degree ( which the bank are paying for).

I was just wondering if something like this would prove to them that I am above average office user?
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If the qualification does actually teach something above their expectations, and they know about the qualification/know what it covers then perhaps....

I'd be worried that perhaps they'd not heard of it or would be unsure of its usefulness - you might be better off simply buying a copy of Walkenbach.

If they want an excel wizz then surely they'll likely ask you questions in an interview in order to determine whether you are competent enough.
 
dowie said:
If the qualification does actually teach something above their expectations, and they know about the qualification/know what it covers then perhaps....
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Yeah that is what I am worried about, although I hope that they would would ask me what it entailed and it would be a good conversation piece.

dowie said:
If they want an excel wizz then surely they'll likely ask you questions in an interview in order to determine whether you are competent enough.
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True, although I am aware of people who have lied their way through the interview, not very honest but it has worked.
 
I guess if an interviewer is naive enough to ask - can you do x, y, z and the candidate simply says yes then they move onto the next question then you could easily blag an interview.

Though you should plan for the interviews where the interviewer asks you how would you do X, Y, Z - why would you chose this method over that one or when they hand you a laptop and say do A, B, C.
 
ThorpedoUK said:
EDIT: btw mate, anything I can help you with regarding my message above, just shout, I started that same way
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It's very nice of you to be so helpful.
It makes a change from a lot of people on this forum who just shoot people down if they want to achieve something and need some advice.

Nice one.
 
sunama said:
It's very nice of you to be so helpful.
It makes a change from a lot of people on this forum who just shoot people down if they want to achieve something and need some advice.

Nice one.
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I agree, it is a shame that there is no like or thumbs up feature on this forum as that would get a bit thumbs up.
 
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