Certification Thoughts

Daniel333

Just thinking about my long term career and what I should be doing right now.

I don’t see a degree in my future so certs are the only option I have at this point.

I am really wondering if I am doing the right things here. I took a shot in the dark with IT, got the A+ cert and just followed the money from there out. I must say my current position challenges me, handling ASA, Servers, Exchange etc. But I am not sure if I have wasted my time or what.

Have I matched my certs up right/fallen behind based on my experience? Do you think the MCSE is what I should be doing or should I maybe look at more entry level certs?

In the long term I wouldn’t mind being on the design or implementation side of things. Maybe even security, but that is more an interest than a career desire.

Here is my experience and the certs I earned…

2005-2006
Cert: A+
Experience: Geek Squad

2006-2007
Cert: Network+ and CCNA
Experience: Help Desk job, supporting proprietary applications for a Bank

2007-2008
Cert: MCSA and Saleslogix 7.2 Administrator Cert
Experience: Application Administrator for proprietary applications and light SQL server work for the same Bank as above. Some CRM and reporting too.

2008-current
Cert: Just started on my MCSE, maybe messaging specialization?
Experience: General Service desk. Patching and server/desktop support. I work with Exchange 2000-2007 a lot. But I don’t do deployments.

In my post MCSE future I would like to pick up the CCNA specializations and upgrade to the Vista/2008 certs. Maybe start in the Linux certs. Thoughts?

Just rambling more than anything else, but comments welcome.

dynamik

Daniel333 wrote:

Just thinking about my long term career and what I should be doing right now.

I don’t see a degree in my future so certs are the only option I have at this point.

A degree might really help you later on if you decide to get out of the trenches and do something like management. You might want to consider slowly working towards something unless you're certain that's not what you want. 10-20 years from now, you may really be glad you took a class here and there over that span of time. It's never going to hurt you.

Daniel333 wrote:

I am really wondering if I am doing the right things here. I took a shot in the dark with IT, got the A+ cert and just followed the money from there out. I must say my current position challenges me, handling ASA, Servers, Exchange etc. But I am not sure if I have wasted my time or what.

Have I matched my certs up right/fallen behind based on my experience?

What do you feel you have wasted your time on? You seem to have taken a pretty traditional approach.

Daniel333 wrote:

Do you think the MCSE is what I should be doing or should I maybe look at more entry level certs?

Definitely wrap up your MCSE. A decent amount of the material will be applicable for Exchange, and that'll give you a quick upgrade to the new MCITPs.

Why do you think you should go after more entry-level certs? It seems like you already have the basics and more advanced certs, such as Exchange, CCNA: Security, and CCSP would be more useful.

Daniel333 wrote:

In the long term I wouldn’t mind being on the design or implementation side of things. Maybe even security, but that is more an interest than a career desire.

That'll come with experience.

Daniel333 wrote:

In my post MCSE future I would like to pick up the CCNA specializations and upgrade to the Vista/2008 certs. Maybe start in the Linux certs. Thoughts?

What have you enjoyed working with the most? I think you're going to run into the same problem that I'm currently worried about, which is being a jack of all trades and master of none. I think it's important to have a good foundation-level understanding of all the various pieces of the puzzle, but there comes a time where you really need to pick an area and focus on it.