Certification
The notion of being certified is an interesting one. In the IT world there are so many certifications, being mostly vendor-oriented, with a few exceptions. Cisco, Novell, Microsoft, Lotus, they all have their certifications that one can obtain.
I myself am a Microsoft Certified Professional, meaning I passed at least one certification exam. Which I did last year, the 70-290 “Managing and Maintaining Server 2003″. Now I got my sights on the next step up the ladder, the MCSA (Microsoft Certified System Administrator), which requires another 3 more exams.
This is the sneaky part of these certifications, you need more and more to be consider a higher up IT dude. Good thing Microsoft and everyone else charges for these things; from between $75-$300, they must be making a killing off us IT people! Last I checked there were millions upon millions of MCP’s out there. Profit!
But regardless of this exciting and wallet-draining news, I will continue to contribute to their profits and continue to get more and bigger certs until the day I retire, change careers, or die. Why? For myself it gives me a challenge and reason to learn more stuff. Also, God only knows my future, and having piles of certs and on the job experience and a degree gives me an edge over the next guy that doesn’t if I need to look for another job.
This is my first of probably many, many, thoughts on this topic. As I never know which certification I will be going for in the future.