New MS Cert coming...
Thanks to
Jon Box for
pointing this out. When
Jon was in town last month, our families got together and had dinner. One of the topics of our discussion (OK, it was a discussion between Jon and I. I think our wives were swapping recipies at the time.)was MS Certification, and if it really holds any value with most employers. Although I don't personally have any MS Certs, I am still happy to hear about this one. One discouraging factor in going for my MCSD is that I know people who have used the 3rd party practice exams to pass the tests. I think the 3rd party practice exams are good for a study aid, but if you can just take the exams over and over and over, and memorize the answers and pass the exam, then something just doesn't jive there. That means someone could pass the Web Services exam who has never written a real, working Web Service.
When I was at TechEd last year, one of the MS Cert PMs sat down with about 10 of us from INETA to discuss the MS Cert program, and whether or not we thought that Certification held any value with our user group members. I came back from TechEd, and took a survey with our group. I found that less than 10% of our members thought that MS Certs where meaningful, or that it made any difference with their employers.
Anyway, maybe this will slowly change things.....