“Hey Kyle, something’s wrong with the DC!”
“Hang on … Ok … Hmmm … Let’s try this … I call upon the great powers of CERTIFICATION!”
“Nope, didn’t work Kyle.”
“Um, well that’s all I remember from my course.”
“Kyle, you didn’t actually sit the exam, did you? You sat all those courses and didn’t get certified.”
“Well, I didn’t really think I needed to, besides it didn’t help, you just saw that!”
Kyle’s right you know. Just sitting courses doesn’t mean you’re now ready to go and dazzle the world with your cutting edge troubleshooting skills. You won’t shock and awe prospective employers with those Certificates of Achievement from all your courses.
Still, we need to answer Kyle: he didn’t really think he needed to. So, let’s look at 12 Reasons to Certify, number 13 is your take-away and action plan.
- Certified IT Professionals earn more MONEY. Blunt, but true. And seriously, who wouldn’t like more in their pay packet each month?
- Experience is valuable, and what a great way to showcase this with your MCSA/MCSE Certification history.
- Renew and resit Certification exams, keep up to date and current with the latest solutions from Microsoft.
- Talking to your customers, or even your own company’s CEO/CFO/CIO, carries much more weight.
- IT Professionals need industry standard Certifications, not generic.
- Failure is not an option (thanks Lester!). You tried to certify once and failed, so that’s made you wary of trying again. Maybe you need to attend a training course at a CPLS – oh, say the biggest and most awarded CPLS in Australia, DDLS for example. Motivated and experienced MCTs will help you fill in those gaps in your knowledge, and teach you that failing an exam simply means you haven’t passed yet!
- Indicate to your employer that you would like to validate the training courses you’ve attended, they may even pay for your Certification exams.
- Certification = Credibility. To pass and become a Solutions Associate/Expert means you really do understand the whole solution, not just a product.
- Achieve personal goals, and through those personal goals you’ll probably also achieve your company’s goals.
- Take a look at Seek or LinkedIn, and see how many IT positions do NOT ask for Certification
- Increase confidence, both in you, and within you. Cynics will say “ah, it’s just a piece of paper”. Well pffft to them. It’s my hard earned piece of paper that shows I passed a rigorous test of my understanding of solutions, and it DOES mean something to me. Seriously, even as a 21 year veteran of Certifications, from Novell to Lotus to Check Point to Microsoft; I still get a buzz and a feeling of “yes, I do know my stuff” whenever I achieve or renew my Certifications.
- Origami.
- Now grab your planning calendar for 2016 and mark that first exam down, then pace yourself from there. You’ll be a Solutions Associate, then a Solution Expert by the end of the year.
What, the 12th reason doesn’t make sense? There’s a little lesson there. I honestly wonder just how many people read through each of those reasons, how many said TL;DR? Well, if you did read that far, then if nothing else, the paper your Certifications are printed on will make some really cool origami <g>. Have a great 2016, and a big shout out to my mate, Kyle Rosenthal who appeared in the opening sentences as my “demo”.
Wayne McGlinn
Brisbane,
MCP MCSE MCT MVP
BNE MCT 