3/5/2008 -- Here's an idea worth considering: Currently in the IT world, multiple-choice and practicum-based exams are used to authenticate your skills, give you something to put on your resume and allow your employer to advertise that they have a certain number of certified administrators/technicians/etc.

It seems to me that here's an opportunity for employers to incorporate practicum-based exams into the actual hiring process, and for testing centers to fulfill a purpose beyond what they currently do.

Imagine that the hiring choices at Acme have been narrowed down to three equally qualified applicants. All three have the same certifications, the same skills, and the same number of years working with Linux. To make the hiring decision easier -- to really determine which of the three is the standout -- why not send all of them to a neutral testing center where they take a hands-on, one-hour lab that asks them to perform some configuration/administration tasks?

In order for this to work, however, testing centers would need to refocus and incorporate exams from other parties that grade more than just basic questions. Centers would also need to make real equipment available -- not just those old machines they took out of the classroom a few years ago and now use to deliver Vue/Prometric exams.

This may seem like a lot to ask. But anything that can help keep employers from making bad hiring decisions is well worth the cost of pursuing -- and that's likely a cost the Acmes of the world are more than willing to bear.

Configuring Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007
The Configuring Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 exam is now live. This exam (70-400) counts as credit toward the MCSA and the MCSE (both version 2003) and tests on the following domains:

• Deploying and configuring management packs (28%)
• Maintaining System Center Operations Manager (23%)
• Building and deploying custom management packs (21%)
• Configuring System Center Operations Manager 2007 (15%)
• Configuring client monitoring (13%)

More information on this exam can be found here.

Book of the Week: 'Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices, Part 1'
The second edition of the Cisco Press book Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices, Part 1 by Steve McQuerry is one of those titles you want nearby even if you're not currently studying for the ICND1 exam. Too many books serve as either a study guide or a reference, but this is both.

Written to the CCNA exam objectives, it divides the material into six chapters: Building a Simple Network, Ethernet LANs, Wireless LANs, LAN Connections, WAN Connections and Network Environment Management.

Each chapter ends with review questions (I counted 258) that add more value to the book than you might at first think. The questions are written to be far more challenging than the usual multiple-choice and are also good for testing your knowledge outside of the exam arena.