Hi, there this is Tim Warner host of the InformIT Certification Reference Guide in the InformIT on Certification Screen Cast Channel.
Today’s session is called New “Vistas” in Microsoft Certification. Our agenda for today is that follows, we are going to observe the evolution of Microsoft Certification over the less several years paying of course particular attention to the latest generation of Microsoft Certification.
We will visit the Microsoft learning website and I will help you unpack one of the new current generation Microsoft Certifications work and what is not on the slide, when I finished the screen cast is I will offer you my contact information. So if you have any questions, you can go right to the source so to speak and contact me directly with those questions.
As I see it the trend in IT Certification over the last few years is spent a move towards specialization. Instead of IT candidates earning monolithic or just fairly generic credentials, nowadays, it become more specialized and earn granular titles. Examples of these would be say CompTIA with their A+ certifications where you can become an A+ IT Tech or an A+ remote support technician or the CISCO CCNA titles, you can earn your specialization in wireless security or voice.
Microsoft is also, and this is another industry trend to move toward not just computer based testing as a way of proving your confidence with technology. But also using experience as a prerequisite for earning a certification. This is beyond the scope of our discussion today but Microsoft has two new credentials one called Microsoft Certified Master and another called Microsoft Certified Architect.
A little bit of history, the old school Microsoft Certification was called the Microsoft Certified Professional program, frankly it is still is but the way it work was if you passed one technology exam, say Windows 95 or Windows server 2003 you would become a Microsoft Certified Professional or MCP. Along a single track, if you passed multiple related exams for that track you would earn a top two-year credential.
For Systems Engineers, there is the systems administrator or a MCSA, the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. For a programmers there is the MCAT and the MCST, and for Database Administrators, the MCDBA. Those are still around but they are gradually being deprecated one by one.
Current generation titles are as follows: The associate level, we have the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist or MCTS. This represents the new baseline confidence on a single Microsoft technology and this is the same title used for all disciplines whether you are an IT pro, a Developer or a Database person.
And then I have shown you what the logo looks like. The idea here is you can granularly define your skill set so you have your logo over here. And you would use this on your business card or your resume and that over on the right you just list kind of Ala Carte to your Microsoft Technologies, that you have earned your MCTS for.
Whereas the MCTS is the replacement for the old school MCP, it is which when you think about it the MCP was a good example of a monolithic credential. If you just set on your resume I am Tim Warner, MCP. The Hiring Manager would have no earthly idea what you were on MCP in. Nowadays, you could say I am Tim Warner and I am MCTS in Windows Vista deployment, share point server administration and so forth.
At the next level you have the Professional level and for IT Pros that title is called the Microsoft Certified IT professional or MCITP. Typical job rows would be systems Engineers, Database Administrators, Exchange Implementers and so forth. For Developers the title is called Microsoft Certified Professional Developer or MCPD and they have different MCPD’s for different versions of the .net framework. Microsoft really kind to goes nuts with this.
They do not seem all that sure and how they want to approach MCPDs. For instance, for the .net three MCPD, you can become a PD web-developer, Windows Developer or Enterprise applications developer. For .net framework 3.5, I thin
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