How to make sure IT certifications actually matter

I’m one of the most certified people on the planet: a Triple-MCSE (NT 4.0/2000/2003) and a Microsoft Certified Trainer with more than 30 Microsoft exams under my belt. I’ve taken exams after all-night study sessions; I’ve taken exams with no preparation time; I’ve even taken exams while eating a chicken parmigian sandwich.

In addition to Microsoft exams, I am A+, Network+, iNet+, CIW Master, CCNA, and CNA certified. Obviously, certification has played a large part in my life in the IT industry, but my very experience with exams (past and present) has led me to ask if these exams have any modern-day relevance.

[ Check out InfoWorld’s report “Hot tech certifications in a cool job market” and Bob Lewis’s “What to do when an employer insists on an irrelevant certification.” | Get solid career advice from InfoWorld’s Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ]

I’m not alone: If you raise the subject of certification with IT admins, you quickly see them take sides. Some claim the paper-MCSE craze in the late 1990s created an overload of unqualified IT workers who flooded the job market too quickly at salaries that were way too high for their experience level. “Experience is the key … not multiple choice questions” sums up that side’s sentiment.

It’s hard to argue with sentiment. It’s true that the demand for IT personnel was off the charts 10 years back, and one of easiest ways to know if a person had any experience was if he or she had a few exams under their belt or an acronym to attach to his or her résumé (regardless of experience). Many admins went through trial by fire at that time, and they appreciate the fact that those letters after their name got them in the door, though they were also aware that they had to show their worth beyond that point.

Is this situation any different from a college degree, where a person has proof that he or she sat in a classroom and could pass tests and do homework? What proof does such a person have regarding work ethic and/or ability to adapt to any circumstance thrown at them and stay until the wee hours of the morning to fix a server?

Today, the certification craze has passed — but certifications are still hot. Just this week I went into a New Horizons testing center to take my Exchange 2010 Configuration exam (the 70-662). I assumed the staff would open a door covered with cobwebs to let me into a seldom-visited spot: the testing center. To my surprise, the room was full of people taking tests. As I was leaving (with a results sheet that said “Congratulations! for passing” in hand), more folks were coming in to take their exams.

I know why I was there: This is part of my career path. I write books, articles, and so forth about Exchange, and I’m currently working on a video series for Train Signal that addresses the subject matter of the 662 exam. Logically, I had to have some insight into what the exam covers — and I had to be certified so that students who purchase the course can trust that I know what I’m saying.

But why were all these other people here? For some it is still about proving to an employer that they have studied a relevant subject, such as Windows Server 2008 for server admins or Windows 7 for desktop admins, and proven by Microsoft’s standards that they are proficient to a certain degree. The certification may help them land that job, especially in a tough economy.

In other cases, it may help a person keep his or her job by being able to say during your review that you have continued your education by attending a conference, watching training materials, reading various articles and books, working in a lab, and taking additional Microsoft exams impresses management. It shows that you are driven as an employee to improve, and that benefits the organization.

So, if you’re getting certified for the right reasons, what’s the right way to go?

How to choose a certification path

To start, you might want to map out certifications you believe are relevant for your career — and you don’t have to stick with a single provider. To prove your hardware know-how, you might consider taking an A+ exam from Comptia. To prove a base knowledge of networking, you might try the Network+ exam (also from Comptia). If project management is more your focus, you might like to focus on the Project+ exam.

You might want to prove your ability with Microsoft products; the traditional MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) has been discontinued in favor of the MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) and MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional) tracks. You might prepare for the Windows Server, SQL, or Exchange tracks if you are looking to focus on the server side, or you might prepare for the desktop side with Windows 7 exams. The number of exams you can take is endless.

Another direction you may prefer is to pass exams on technology you know is relevant in your environment. Virtualization is a huge market right now, and you might see the value in pursuing VMware exams to demonstrate your virtualization expertise. (My InfoWorld colleague David Marshall explores such certification in his article “Is it worthwhile to upgrade to a VMware vSphere 4 certification?“)

Preparing for exam victory: The braindump ship has sailed

I remember my first exam: NT 4.0 Workstation. Those early Microsoft exams always included one question that was sure to have “Add more RAM” as the answer, and every testing software app had it in its base of questions. I used Transcenders to pass my early exams.

But over time, a cornucopia of solutions popped up — some of which were not good for students of IT and led to many becoming certified with little more than a few hours of studying answers, with absolutely no experience with the technology. These so-called brain dumps, where test takers would come out of an exam and immediately post online the questions and possible answers to as many questions as they could remember, combined with offerings of official test questions and answers, all diminished the value of the certification world.

It’s been a long fight for Microsoft and others, but it appears that they have really pursued and sunk all the “brain dump” and “help” mechanisms (the Pass4Sure, Testkiller-type products) that used to exist. There are still sites that offer you “help” to pass, but they look more like Microsoft honey pots (sites with different names that all have the same information, logos, and so on) to see who is seeking these frowned-upon tools. Through the smoke, after all these years, there are some legitimate tools on the market.

I had the privilege of using two as a test case: Transcender (my old standby from years back) and MeasureUp. My theory was that my experience with Exchange 2010 would be the foundation for passing the test, and I would see how valuable the modern versions of these two solutions would be to help me really lock it in.

Let me humbly say that I would not have passed the exam without using one or both of these solutions. I found the exam to have some questions that were reasonably difficult and others that simply had confusing wording. I could easily recommend both of these for the Exchange exam. Here is what I liked about each one:

• MeasureUp: It offered a very straightforward set of questions that helped you focus on answers without a great deal of extra fluff in the question. The online engine performed well and allowed me to customize my exam experience by choosing the number of questions I wanted to answer, the type of questions, and more. There was a study mode and a certification mode to choose from as well. One thing I really liked is that it offered an eight-page study guide (like the old cram-session guides) that I could print and carry around.
• Transcender: It had a larger question base (by about 20 questions) and really went for the overkill method of making sure you were overprepared. The questions it had were much more involved and hurt my brain a bit, but it forced me to think about what procedures I need to follow to accomplish certain tasks. It also offered a customizable online test that made it easy to focus on specific subject matter and work in a study mode or certification mode. One thing I really liked is that it has a flash-card offering with tons of questions that you can flip through quickly to help you remember points.

What I would have liked to see is the exam itself written a little better. I’m not allowed to disclose any exam material, but I was not pleased with some of the wording and the lack of detail in some of the questions. But a pass is a pass, and I’d like to thank both MeasureUp and Transcender for helping me to prepare.

Hiring? Determine experience the old-fashioned way If you aren’t sure if a person has what it takes to work for your organization, and he or she comes to you with passed certification exams and a few letters after his or her name, you might just make the candidate prove his or her value by giving him or her a server (or servers), the software, and a list of criteria. Tell the candidate you will come back in eight hours and see how far he or she has gotten. If you walk back in, and the candidate is still figuring out how to install, you have your answer. If he or she is kicking back with a chicken Parmigiana sandwich, get out the checkbook — you’ve found a new employee.

After digging in and studying for this latest exam, I’m more convinced than ever that certifications are still a valid way of pushing a person to study the technology beyond his or her comfort zone and explore features he or she might never even know about.

What do you think? Do you find these exams to be a waste of your time, or do you still see some value to the certification process?

This article, “How to make sure IT certifications actually matter,” originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of J. Peter Bruzzese’s Enterprise Windows blog and follow the latest developments in Windows servers and tech careers at InfoWorld.com.