3/3/2003 -- If you were to stuff a wad of dollar bills under your bed and left them for a few years, there are a couple of things you would notice. First, although these continue to be legal tender and still have a face value of a dollar, those dollars buy you much less than they did when you originally received them. In business terms, we say that although the nominal value of that dollar is unchanged, the real value --what you can actually do with it -- has decreased.

The same is true with knowledge, and by extension, formal methods of knowledge recognized in college degrees and industry certification. This point was reinforced to me with the recent Microsoft announcements about the Windows 2003 MCSE tracks and upgrade plans. In the feedback on our sister site MCPMag.com, there were the expected comments from people complaining that their previous certifications were now for naught. What surprised me though was finding approximately half the appends were from folks who had thought that this was no big deal and said "bring it on." Not surprisingly, this was my view too.

By the time that these Windows 2003 exams are available, it will have been three years since the Windows 2000 MCSE debuted, and more than six years since the NT 4.0 MCSE. In IT terms, this is quite a long time, and having to take and pass a couple of upgrade exams every three years is not the end of the world. After all, if Windows product knowledge is supposed to be one of our key marketable skills, we need to keep updated on this anyway. Even Cisco's CCIE program forces participants to re-certify every three years.

Whether a vendor decides to decertify folks with older certifications or not doesn't really matter. The end result is the same: That cert doesn't have the same real value as it did years ago when you first achieved it. The technology has moved on, and to be useful in the marketplace we need to keep moving.

In my mind, people who also complain about certification losing its value relative to a degree seem to miss the point. It's true that a degree is something you can always say you hold and that can never taken away; however, there is no way that the content from a degree course alone can sustain folks in any field for a 30- to 40-year working life. This is true of all fields, but it is particularly true in IT since we have such a rapid rate of change. Sure, it is a major life achievement to complete a degree and it teaches you how to think, but much of the specific knowledge learned is quickly superseded over time. (Granted, the rate of declining value in a degree is slower compared to an industry certification in a specific product version.) I can remember in my first job after graduation in the late '80s, hearing the CEO saying that we would need to be completely re-trained every five years. I'm sure the same is pretty true too today.

The decision on whether you pursue a certification, degree or both is up to you. There are benefits and costs to both, and only you can decide what makes the most sense for your particular situation. But whatever you undertake, realize that its value will decline over time. Note that I'm not saying that these are a waste of time - in my own case I intend to keep myself certified and start on a Masters degree in IT next year. Unfortunately we are not able to coast along in our careers based on just the knowledge we have gained in the past. One way or another, we're all going to need to keep up to date with the latest developments in our field. Bring it on, I say!