How important is Microsoft certification in this economic environment? Does certification become more or less important in a tight job market?
Microsoft is of the belief that the tightening job market in other sectors might actually drive people to start looking at the IT job segment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics continues each year to list computer tech-related jobs as among the highest hiring segments. Even with the cooled economy, it seems that IT folks are not getting slashed like other departments, and the BLS numbers offer some indication that that's the case.
Certification, for most hiring managers, has been, for the most part, the filter that makes resumes stick out. A degree is important, but certifications are proof of practical rather than theoretical and academic chops. It's a good indicator, if achieved with integrity and honesty (and that's a subject for another day, I suppose), that a hiring candidate is willing to put lots of sweat into one's career.
My feeling is that it's even more important to achieve certification. While there might be more certified people to compete with, candidates will rarely compete with those who have none.
Explain any recent changes Microsoft has made to reach out to its community of certified pros.
Microsoft has been trying to achieve some measure of transparency with how it develops technologies, works with communities. We've seen it with all the internal blogs from the various development groups. Microsoft Learning has just recently been doing the same, with a few blogs on exam development, training and even Microsoft Press blogs about new titles. The information is overwhelming at times, but it's a good way to keep up with certification. I blog about their blogs all the time and it's been helpful even for me to get feedback on what the Microsoft bloggers have been up to.
I like the fact that the group is also offering free e-books and courses on occasion. It's really helped the cert community in these tough times get information that's officially vetted.
Microsoft has added a number of new categories to its certifications over
the past several years, like the Certified Technology Specialist and
Certified IT Professional specializations. In your experience, are these new
categories getting much interest, or are folks mostly staying with the
traditional titles like MCSE, MCSA and MCP?
The replacements for the MCSE, MCSA and MCP -- namely, the vast number of MCTS and MCITP and MCPD certifications -- have been getting some awesome traction. Of course, we've heard that any of the certifications under those categories having to do with Vista, of all the OSes, is doing really well. Anything having to do with Microsoft's core technologies will continue to do well for the next couple of years.
Because the MCTS is technology based, Microsoft Learning now offers an exam and title for practically every product (exceptions are Zunes and Halo 3, for example). Not all of the exams are popular, and those who can claim that they specialize might look toward the exams for things like SharePoint or Biztalk. Our surveys indicate that those who specialize tend to have higher salaries.
What's interesting is that there is some steady momentum with the more expensive certifications: Microsoft Certified Architect and Microsoft Certified Master. Of course, it's usually a company that picks up the expense for an employee who wants to achieve those certifications. It's not like we'll see that title in a Dice.com job description any time soon. Those titles are still highly specialized, but that there is interest and a growing alumni with those titles is interesting.
In your opinion, what are the top reasons for obtaining Microsoft
certification?
On a professional level:
- Proves understanding of newer technology; especially important when companies have mandated a migration or infrastructure update
- Offers hiring managers a filter for who is qualified for new positions, as well as an idea of what kind of hard work you'd do beyond the call of IT duty
- Can claim to be a specialist on a particular Microsoft technology
- Important gauge for how well one has learned a technology; especially important for software or systems migrations
- Keeps you on your toes as newer technologies arise or older ones get updated
- You can't claim to be a geek if you don't have the papers to prove it. Microsoft certification exudes "geekiness"