What was once an education for life is now just the beginning,
as employers look for skills beyond a traditional education. Many companies
prefer and even expect you to supplement on-the-job experience with formal
training. Besides gaining you financial rewards, becoming a Microsoft Certified
Professional (MCP) brings many career-enhancing benefits.
According to Jeff Zwier, technical recruiting professional with Wujcik and
Associates in Chicago, Illinois, "Certification is a way of validating your
technology skills in the eyes of hiring managers. Companies perceive individuals
who expend time, effort, and even a significant amount of their money on
training as having a greater commitment to their career."
You must meet several requirements if you want the Microsoft Certified
System Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), or
Microsoft Certified Trainer rating. An MCSE must pass six exams. This
certification includes training for Windows NT, Windows 3.1, Windows for
Workgroups (WFW), and Windows 95. Microsoft is moving the MCSE program toward an
enterprise focus, so the program will drop the consumer OS-related courses and
add advanced NT exams. Among the six exams, two must be from this list of
electives: SQL Server, SNA Server, SMS, and Exchange: The BackOffice Product
Line.
An MCSD must pass exams in the Windows Open Systems Architecture (WOSA) and
complete two of these electives: SQL Server, Access, Visual Basic (VB), and
FoxPro. Passing these exams requires some experience with the product and some
training or study.
To prepare for an MCP exam, you can choose from official Microsoft classes,
non-Microsoft classes, Microsoft self-paced training kits, third-party training
materials such as CD-ROMs and videotapes, and exam preparation tools. Knowing
what each of these options entails is the first step on the road to
certification.
Official Microsoft Classes
Microsoft offers classes for advanced topics, including NT, SQL Server, SNA
Server, and TCP/IP. These classes usually meet for four or five days. Microsoft
provides the materials and ensures that they meet at a Microsoft Authorized
Technical Education Center (ATEC) or Authorized Academic Training Provider
(AATP). The classroom, computers, and audio-visual aids must meet Microsoft
standards. The instructor must be a Microsoft Certified Trainer for the course.
The ATEC or AATP provides each student with a computer during the class for the
hands-on labs that reinforce each module's material.
Although most students will take the course exam, the courses emphasize
learning how to use the software rather than passing the exam. At the end of a
course, each student evaluates the training center and the instructor. In this
way, Microsoft can maintain the course standards at a high level.
Because Microsoft provides the course materials and publicly advertises the
course syllabus, the classes don't usually deviate from their outline. Although
Microsoft structures the classes, the instructors can add value by teaching the
course in the context of their experiences and those of the students.
Non-Microsoft Classes
Other organizations and individuals offer courses on the same topics as
Microsoft's classes. For example, Mark Minasi of TechTeach International teaches
two-day seminars on NT. Although the instructor demonstrates techniques on a
computer, the students don't sit at or operate computers during the class.
Which approach you choose depends on your learning style and level of
knowledge. Some students like to try techniques in labs that go with the course.
But other students enjoy being able to concentrate on the material without
working on a computer. Unless labs are designed well (most Microsoft courses
have effective lab sessions), they take up valuable time and equipment. The
seminar approach can be better for advanced users who need detail. The classroom
and lab approach can be better for new users who need to see techniques on
screen for them to make sense.
If outside classes and seminars are not practical, you can arrange
customized, inhouse classes with ATECs and other organizations. An inhouse class
can cost less because you provide the facilities and computers.
The benefit of such classes is that you can tailor the course to the
students' needs and experiences. You can also focus the class toward the
company's needs and address specific issues.
Disadvantages of inhouse training include students leaving class feeling
they're not in a learning environment. I find that students from different
organizations often benefit from exchanging information among their classmates.
Also, students who work together succumb to the temptation to play around and
send messages back and forth on the computers.
The classes I've discussed so far are intensive, all-day courses. Few
opportunities are available to learn BackOffice software in the evening. Even
fewer courses give each student a computer: Because the class facilitator must
install, configure, and rearrange the software on the computers during the
class, the computers aren't available for anything else.
A big consideration when you're deciding how to spend your training dollars
is that some courses, including Microsoft's and Minasi's, teach the subject
thoroughly, so that you will know enough to pass the exam and be able to apply
what you learn in the real world. Other companies claim you can learn enough to
pass the exam by covering the entire BackOffice suite in two days. These classes
can't teach the basics in this short time and are suitable only if you know the
software but not the exam questions.
Self-Paced Training Kits
Not everyone responds to a structured class approach. People who prefer to
learn at their own rate can choose self-paced study. (Microsoft likes the term "self-paced
training" rather than "self-study," which implies gathering study
materials and planning the course yourself.) Several companies offer study kits
for the courses and exams in the Microsoft certification program.
Microsoft offers NT, Win95, and Networking Essentials self-paced training
kits. These kits provide all materials, which Microsoft divides into lessons and
organizes in a logical flow. The NT kit, for example, is similar to an ATEC
class, but with more frequent and shorter labs and demonstrations. These kits
contain a book and CD-ROM, and for NT, a videotape. You can study the material
at your own pace and repeat a module as often as you need. Each kit costs
between $150 and $200, and of course, you need the software.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle with Microsoft's self-paced training kits is
the hardware they require. For the NT course, you need two computers, each with
16MB of RAM and 100MB of free disk space. To complete the Server section, you
need 180MB of free disk space on one computer. For the disk striping exercises,
you need three hard disks in one computer. You have to network computers, even
if you have just a two-computer link via Ethernet cards. You also need the NT
Workstation and Server software, a third computer that you configure as a Novell
server, and a Macintosh.
Because you need to install a new OS, you don't want to use production
systems for these exercises, but you need more hardware and software than most
people have at home. Only the NT and Win95 courses make you rebuild the entire
OS from scratch. You can run the Networking Essentials kit with little impact on
the computer and the network. In fact, you can run most demonstrations and labs
from the CD-ROM.