This worthless MCSE

I am currently training at a Microsoft Academy, the first of it's kind in
South East England. I have read with frustration the posts regarding the
worthlessness of the MCSE accreditation. I am using this course to get a
foot in the door of the IT industry, I neither expect it to get me a
top-dollar job or a top-shelf one at that. I do intend to follow up this
course with maybe a Cisco networking cert and/or a Novell cert. Frankly, I
have had a love of computing since a very early age and my first ZX
spectrum, and now I'm sick of the building trade and need a change of
direction.

Surely these certifications provide a sound knowledge base from which to
START? All of the naysayers comments seem to revolve around one thing,
experience. Well I seem to remember after having passed my driving test it
took me a little while to get used to driving on my own, with no instructor
to point out or correct my mistakes. That my friends, is the way it is.
Unfortunately no, experience cannot be bought, and no matter how many certs
you have they will never be a substitute for knowledge gained from years in
the field.... BUT, everyone has to start somewhere.

Spare a thought for the people just starting out, regardless of what you may
think of the MCSE, we have still paid for the course as that is where our
interest lies. We are still studying hard to achieve the recognition, and
then we have to spend the first four years or so of our employment proving
ourselves still!

There may be a slump in the IT industry of late, but we all know that after
slumps there is generally a boom and when there is, there will be more than
enough work to go around. Less of the bickering ladies and gentlemen please.

 

the thing you are picking up on is the fact that people are frustrated with
the state of the industry and the fact that the cert has been devalued to an
extent due to the brain dumpers etc.
as long as you study the subject and get to know it in a more general
setting.. home lab not just the school u should be ok.
i was in your position a few years back and i started my own thing because,
well basically no one was daft enuff to give me a job.
only recently got mcse because a few clients asked if i was.

 

Keiran, IT industry trends are differend from place to place. people on
this NG are from all over the world.

IMHO, the IT industry isn't that bleak. what you may be seeing is a
overall change in the "nature" of how the job is being "required" to be
"perform".

1) number of users and server responsibility per admin is increasing.
the "grunt work" is slowly being phased out of the job requirement.
compared with a couple of years ago, i hardly do any hardware
troubleshooting anymore. if it's hardware related, it goes right back to
vendor, they send a new one with the same config same or next day. you
pay extra for that service but you don't waste your time trying to fix
something that can be done by someone else 10 times faster.

2) IT departmes are shrinking because technology is advancing. that's
your Active Directory, NDS, RIS, ghost cast servers, remote desktop
mgtm. and all those nifty new things that allow you to "macro" manage
your network (servers, users, computers, e.t.c...) by sitting on your
"ass". (yes, it is officially "ASS" week!).

3) and yes, IT departments are getting smaller and management is getting
smarter & in some cases tech savvy. the days of blatantly bullshitting
management that it takes 4 hours to do a 15 minute job so you can sit
around and play quake on the dummy test network while everyone else is
"really" working are over. i used to work in a 5 man department in the
mid 90's. now is't just 2 guys - so at least one guy can go on holidays
while the other covers for him.

but back to MCSE & training value. it's the same as anything else in
life, it's what you know, how well you do it and who you blow.

good luck

 

logical thinker.

not bleak at all. i see many opportunities for folks with my years of
experience and vast skillset. now if you are in IT manufacturing, you're
pretty screwed.

 

and like working for 3 dollars a day

 

not even. try $1.00 to $1.50 -that's, if you are lucky.

 

IMHO, don't waste a moment for the negative. You'll never
know what it's worth until after you have your first MCSE.
Then you'll know to a better degree what you were capable
of doing, and there's a lot of value in that. Also as you
say, "if it gets you in the door", well then, it was worth
everything. And if nothing else, learning cuts down on
alzheimers. Networking is the greatest computer game!
Enjoy!