| Microsoft Announces 2 New Certs |
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7/16/2001 -- Microsoft is preparing two new certifications -- one for systems administrators, one for developers -- which candidates may attain as early as first quarter 2002.
MCPMag.com broke the story about the new certifications Saturday when Microsoft announced them at its annual worldwide sales and partner conference, Microsoft Fusion, in Anaheim, Calif.
The new systems administrator track is aimed at "network administrators, technical support specialists and Web administrators who implement, manage, monitor, and troubleshoot the network and system environment for the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows .NET Server platforms," according to a press release issued by the company. The same release says the new developer track is for "individuals who create software components including complex macros, desktop and Web clients, and data access and business logic objects."
Anne Marie McSweeney, director of the Microsoft Certification and Skills Assessment group, says the new systems administrator track, which has yet to be officially named, will not require as many exams as the MCSE. The new track's exam requirements may list current exams from the MCSE track as well as one or two new exams specifically for the new sys admin track, including a possible core exam particularly suited to testing the skills of the day-to-day systems administrator. She said that the requirements are still in development and that Microsoft has yet to complete its surveys and focus groups to fine-tune it before making an official announcement in a few months.
What's driving the new systems administrator title is a skills gap that exists within the certifications, said McSweeney. "The MCP is a great entry into the certification program, but it doesn't define a particular skill."
"To make the [Windows 2000 MCSE] credential valuable in the workplace, we needed to raise the requirements," she added. "As well, we needed to target those who do the design."
"There's a whole group of people who do just the implementation," which McSweeney said the new track will assess. "They don't do all the design stuff. That particular job function -- when we raised the bar we left a void."
Andy Barkl, owner of MCT & Associates, a training and consulting firm in Phoenix, Arizona, thinks the new tracks, if implemented correctly, will finally "allow for "job-based" training instead of just product and technology training."
McSweeney said that the developer track "wasn't as strong a need." Nonetheless, the same type of skills gap exists, with specialists whose roles are more narrowly defined as coders or programmers.
The fact that the announcement came with few details miffed a few CTEC owners. "We got nothing," said one CTEC owner, who asked us not to identify him. "We just want to know what the curriculum will be."  -MCPMag.com
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Current  user comments for "Microsoft Announces 2 New Certs "
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| 7/18/01 - Ed Betts says: |
Change is inevitable, including cert upgrades. Use it to your advantage. I tend to be behind the curve, ie: still at SQL Server 6.5 & 7.0, scheduled to take the SQL 7 Design & Implementation exam by the end of the year. But upgrade requirements serve as a good "kick in the pants" to stay current with IT technology. Ed Betts, MCSD |
| 7/18/01 - Doug Odegaard says: |
I think the intermediate cert is great for developers. I teach MCSD career tracks and some people just aren't ready for the full-blown MCSD. Start with building blocks...get a cert...get real-world experience and then launch into big time MCSD training. I think the MCSD cert will hold more value at that point. |
| 7/18/01 - Laura Velez says: |
I am really excited about the potential for me with these 2 new certs. My certs are in NT4, and while I was waiting to move to Win2K-Pro, I will wait until I find out more before I make my move. I have done lots of support, and am now a developer with Access 97/2000. It would let me be certified in what I am really doing! |
| 7/18/01 - Jai Prasad says: |
Hi, I am interested in Certifications for System Administrators, Could I get more information on this as quickly as possible. Could any one from Microsoft let me know on Certifications for Windows 2000 Server Family: Advanced Manageability, Microsoft Operations Manager, Microsoft Systems Management Server, and Microsoft Application Center products I am really interested in learning this suite of products and also to get certified. Thanks and Regards, Jaiprasad |
| 7/19/01 - Kailasraj Bhoite says: |
The idea behind these certification is really good. I am preparing for MCSE 2000, But the problem is how long it will be valid? Do I have to upgreade myself with this new system administrator exam. |
| 7/19/01 - Joshua Biggley says: |
Being elective short of my MCSE W2k, I am glad to see the MS is going to put a roadblock up for people who are not really interested in becoming MCSEs, and just want to be MS certified. The MCSE should be reserved for those who want to do exactly that, engineer MS solutions. Let the admins do that, administer. I think this move will add some real depth to the MS cert track. |
| 7/19/01 - Anonymous says: |
MS always have their way to make $ |
| 7/19/01 - Anderson Dave says: |
I am currently MCSE NT4.0 and haven’t taken any 2000 exams yet. I hesitate only because my company has no plans to switch our servers over to 2000 platform. I also hesitate because I’m installing Whistler now completely bypassing 2000 pro. It took over a year to certify NT4 and I suspect it will take the same with 2000. Will MCSE 2000 be retired soon? I would have to say yes! Seeing that not too many working professionals are rushing out to retest. In my opinion retiring a certification is lame especially when the product is still current at least in the working world anyway. They should be MCSE –NT4 MCSE Win2000 etc. That would make more sense to me. Let the market drive the requirements not Microsoft. |
| 7/19/01 - Steve Santana says: |
My worries as a current MCSE2000 student is that the System Administrator cert will devalue the current MCSE cert. Why would employers pay a MCSE to run/and maintain (administrate) thier networks when thay can pay a lower certified person less to do the same thing. Sure there will be demand for the design aspect of it all, but will that demand meet the number of MCSE2000 profesionals in the market. As for the XP/.NET certs. I wonder what sort of integration there will be for MCSE2000 certified induviduals. Will it just be an additional test or two to bring you to a suposed MCSE XP/NET? Being that the core OS seem to be on the same playing field that would seem to make reason. Or will there be only two tests or so that transfer over and you have an additional 4 or 5 to take for MCSE XP/NET cert? I guess we wil have to wait and see. |
| 7/21/01 - concerned says: |
As a systems administrator certified as an MCSE in NT4 and an MCP in 2000, Novell CNA, Net+, A+, ASE, I'm appalled at MS's lack of planning for their certification track as well as their product development. Why does it appear that they are using these programs to promote\ force market their products instead of simply supporting their product lines? A certification for the support of a product should end with the manufacturers support of that same product. I'm now caught in the switches of saying why did I ever bother with the 2000 track in the first place. Right now, MS is not getting the profits it had hoped from their 2000 line. Could it possibly be the licensing costs? Could it be that it hasn't been adopted or proven itself in the market as a stable optimized platform as yet? Heck NT4 wasn't heavily adopted in the market until late 98..some 3 years after its appearance. Even before win2k's release, they were discussing the release of its upgrade in short order. Personally I want my Backbone services stable, proven, optimized and supportable.....maybe UNIX is the best answer here where it's not the OS of the month club. For an IT based soluitions provider they're certainly not practicing a proper implementation strategy for their certification track let alone their NOS'. |
| 7/26/01 - Adeel Malik says: |
I have completed my Mcse In NT4.o and i was about to upgrade it in 2000 very soon but as you have announced the two new exams for Windows Xp ,i'm little bit Confused so could you plz send me more information bout these exams and how could i be able to upgrade it to 2001 certified . |
| 7/26/01 - Anonymous says: |
Devalue the MCSE? I think that's was done a long time ago.. |
| 7/26/01 - Becky Nagel says: |
Hi Adeel -- Don't let the 2000/XP thing confuse you. For the MCSE you be able to take EITHER 2000 or XP/.Net exams to get your MCSE. In fact, Microsoft has said that you can mix and match: e.g., start off by taking 3 Win2K exams, and finish with 4 .Net exams. You'll simply have two versions of each exam to choose from. |
| 7/27/01 - Anonymous says: |
I am extremely disappointed in MS handling and poor planning with the MCSE designations. Having graduated from 2 college programs and a 4 year Univeristy degree program prior to taking the MSCE year long college program and then the MCT, I will say that it is the only designation that I have achieved that has devalued and that MS seems intent on taking away. I am wondering where it will stop. Are we to return our pins and certificates since we are no longer Engineers? I have to wonder what we are, other than part of a brilliant marketing scam. Fortunately, most potential employers seem to be putting more faith in what we have actually done, as far as work experience, rather than on MS exams and certifications. As far as the new MCT requirements. I don't have a problem with the fee and the required designation to retain it. What I must say is, MS open your eyes, for in order to keep the MCT one must teach at least 10 days a year of official MOC ciriculum. I have moved to 4 cities in the past year, and spoke to most AATP's in each city. Well, most of them are going under and having to contract their instructors out, due to lack of enrollment. The only way most of us will get to instruct for 10 days and teach MOC, is to take time off from our regular jobs, and volunteer the 10 days, which in my mind will serve to portray those of us with MCT designation as a group of voluntary, low valued instructor wannabees. Microsoft...your designations are devaluing daily. I feel you let a lot of us down. Fortunately, most of us will continue to move forward, but I dare say that for me, I will pick and choose my own track, one which will realistically keep me employed and valued. |
| 7/28/01 - Anonymous says: |
I have seen the Salary Surveys. I have seen the upgrade path. I have seen the new tests for the 2000 track. Frankly I really have to ask where is this all going? Most business are just starting to feel comfortable with their NT4.0 installations. They have just completed training the staff and employees on these products which is a great cost to business in itself. Why would a business immediately look at doing it all over again? Especially now that they have just begun to talk of the benefits of the 2000 products and another product is in the works. I currently hold the A+, MCSE+I, MCT, WIN2k Server and Win2k Professional MCP Certifications. I have three years of experience and the job market is in such a state that it has been near impossible to find work. I was under the impression that these certifications were to give notice to business that you are an expert in these areas. What happened? The salary surveys are way out of line with reality and I am not the only individual that thinks so. Why would the titles that you have earned be reduced in anyway because of time. Microsoft would do well to keep its supporting engineers happy by revisiting the idea that once you hold a title for a given product you will always hold that title. How can it be taken away? When you complete your college education does the Degree go by the wayside because a given technology has advanced over time? No. Does your product knowledge diminish on a given technology because a new product suddenly hits the market? No. I believe that once you have attained the Certification of any given product that title should stay with you forever and no one can or should take it away from you. I worked as an MCT for a CTEC for nearly a year teaching the NT4.0 track. The CTEC closed its location in the city where I live. The other training centers in the area don't have the business to bring on new instructors full time nor do they like the idea of contracting instructors to teach the classes. I really have to ask one question. If the training center is charging 2000.00 dollars for a class and the class has say 15 students what would that be 30,000.00 dollars for a one week course. Why wouldn't the training center pay top dollar to acquire the best instuctor possible to teach these classes? Its no wonder that sales are down. The training centers are getting way to gretty at the upper levels. If they want to see sales go up they will have to have a good product to sell. That product is the instructor (MCT) that is qualified to teach the MOC. What a student leaves the class with is directly related to the level of instruction that the MCT provided. Word of mouth will sell the training center once it is known that the instructor is the best around. Which leads to the salary surveys. Way out of line. I know many people that are in the business that have varying levels of certification none are making anywhere the amount of money that the salary surveys state for there area. All of these individuals are very good at what they do and many have taught at the adult professional level. Who is putting these surveys together? Get real. |
| 7/28/01 - Anonymous says: |
As a MCP on the MCSE 2000 track, I feel betrayed, robbed and disposable. While I understand the business side of the decesion to lower companies' operational costs, microsoft has robbed it's troops on the ground of it's time and money. It has betrayed the microsoft force on the ground who have supported their systems. We will soon start to turn our backs and find a more stable, loyal and reliable company that we can be confident to invest our futures. Microsoft designation will only be a secondary certifications for "carpet baggers", as a backup. The only way that I see the it possibly working is to increase the value of the MCSE certification by adding more prestigous courses to it. Also give current MCSE the choice just to be already certified for this new designation. For example make it a three teired system. 1st teir being MCP, 2nd teir being system administrator, 3rd teir being MCSE. Therefore MCSE will also be system administrator certified. You would redesign the certification with minimal changes to the current MCSE certification. Have also recommended policy is that system admins should be supervised by consultant MCSE monthy to keep up with system refinements by microsoft to increase efficiency and productivity. Almost making an MCSE like a CCIE. You now have to find a way to increase the MCSE value while retaining the feasibility of the whole certification and the business side of things. I hope you can acheive this because you have a lot, alot of discouraged MCP and MCSE and wanting to be MCSE out there. I hope you can quell the current uproar and turmoil. |
| 7/31/01 - Kwacke says: |
I say NO MORE MICROSOFT CERTIFICATIONS!!! It doesn't pay.. As soon as you acheive one cert, they pull rug out from under you feet. You can never keep up. I go Cisco, maybe Linux, I don't know for sure. But NO MORE MICROSOFT...thank you Kwacke |
| 8/2/01 - Anonymous says: |
I think IT certs in general bring down the value of the whole IT industry. I am MCSE CCNA A+ certified, and found a job after 9 months of looking(not a very good one for that matter). The problem with certs is these companies make too much money off of them. So they start turning them out as fast as they can. The market is flooded with MCSE's and I am afraid CISCO is next on the list to be over-run. I have the CCNA which is in danger already. Everyone is on that bandwagon now. I think the ability to make a decent salary in IT is a window and closing fast. |
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