MCP: What's in it for me?

All of the prices on this page are on a guide lines. You can get better deals if you phone around.

Face it, you're in it for the money. Heck, we all are, if for no other reason than to feed our ravenous, drug-like addiction to obtain and consume hardware and software (and THAT usually takes at least some amount of Pounds, because, hey, the vendors are in it for the money too).

The market drools over certification. Headhunters and straight-out corporations alike are waving sacks full of money just to get the attention of those who are "Certified." And right now, they're waving sacks full of Brinks trucks at Microsoft Certified Professionals.

Again, I hear groans from the hardliners! (Geez, are you people bitter, or what?!??!) Think about this: Around 99 % of those doing the interviewing and hiring know the functionality of their computers. They don't really need to know or have the time to learn about the internetworking of Samba and NT. They do their jobs and do them very well. As I mentioned earlier, they don't have much time (who does nowadays?)—they need information fast; they need the easily recognizable, one-line "Hi my name is________. I'm a Microsoft Certified Professional." They can look over your five-page resume detailing your ten years of experience later. You have to come to grips with the equivalent of Attention Deficit Disorder: most people need quick and powerful information. Think CNN or MTV... they do a great job of wrapping it up in three minutes or so. Your friendly headhunter has to wade through thousands of resumes just to get to her office. She's going to put the five-pagers off for later when she has more time—she'll read over three one-pagers between phone calls. Time is Money. And as I always say in any situation: Use it to your advantage.

Regardless of your opinion, Microsoft is the frontrunner; it is highly visible and recognized by everyone. Its marketing department rivals the ones who bring us Star Wars. And as far as the suits are concerned, well, here's the cut-and-dry Dilbertian equation:

And the suits need heavy-duty support for their shops. This is where you, as a MCP, come in. What? You don't get it yet?

I've ranted and raved about the some of the benefits of becoming certified by Microsoft. Let's go over the how.

To obtain MCP status, you'll need to pass a Microsoft certification exam. This would include any of the following exams:

The list goes on. Check out the Microsoft Training and Certification site for the full list.

By the way, you might benefit greatly by preparing for the exam. While there's no substitute for experience, you can still get a lot of good hands-on familiarity with the products without spending the big money on the software.

Right now, for UNDER £20, you can get the BackOffice Server 4.5 Evaluation Kit. And no, this is not a stack of white papers covering networking and operating systems. The kit is chock-full of Microsoft:

Being an evaluation kit, the products expire after 120 days of use (Proxy Server after 90 days). Go to http://www.microsoft.com/BackOfficeServer/prodinfo/eval.htm to pre-order yours.

Home Networking

Regardless of whether you plan to study by yourself or go through an educational program at a CTEC or AATP, it'd be a good idea to have a little network setup at home. I assume you already have at least one machine at home (I should hope!).You can pick up a decent extra for under £180—I suggest something like a 486DX, 100 MHz, with at least 16 MB of RAM, 250 MB of HDD space, and a network card (obviously, the meatier the system, the better). Compgeeks.com and Onsale.com are good places to start your search for "oldies but goodies" —I've seen comparable machines at these sites for as low as £75 (sans NIC).

SOHO (small office/home office) network kits include two Ethernet cards, a four-port hub, and ready-to-go CAT 5 cables—all for around £50.

OK, you've got your little NT network hooked up and ready for action for around £350. Now what? Well, some good study guides will help you out—again. Microsoft has some pretty nice stuff. As a matter of fact, you can save up to £75 (via rebate) if you take advantage of its Score with Microsoft Press Promotion. Hit it soon because the offer expires June 30, 1999. By the way, note that you don't have to buy the books directly from Microsoft! Save yourself some more moolah by going to Bookpool.com or Fatbrain.com. A few weeks ago, I bought a $80 (retail) Microsoft Training Kit for £25 using the resources above. Not too shabby, eh?

You can also get great test prep material. I've mentioned Cramsession in the past—check out Hardcoremcse for all the in-your-face info you'll ever need on how to eat, breathe, and sleep MCSE. Soon, you'll be dreaming of (having nightmares about?) everything from the OSI model to the hidden recesses of the MMC. I know I do!

Once you feel fairly confident that you can pass the test (remember, regardless of what works in the real world, you need to know what the answer is in the test scenario), click on over to Sylvan Prometric or VUE. Find a testing center near you, charge the £100 per test to your credit card, and wipe the sweat off your brow. It's that easy.

You'll be a MCP when you pass any of the exams (save 70-058 Networking essentials—needed for the NT 4.0 track). For your hard work, you'll get: a free one-year subscription to MCP Magazine (also at www.mcpmag.com), privy tech info (on a secured site), a certificate with an authentic facsimile of Uncle Bill's signature, and a nifty wallet card with a magnetic strip on the back (I have yet to figure that one out...). Not to mention some good street credibility as a practitioner of what you preach... oh, and your professional price tag goes up!

Gaining the MCP title is a great step toward further certifications: MCP + I (passing exams 70-059 TCP/IP, 70-067 NT Server, and either 70-087 IIS 4 or 70-077 IIS 3), and the Big Daddy MCSE title (six tests—check the Microsoft Training and Certification site for full details).

At last count (according to the MCP Magazine Web site), there are 324,271 MCP titles that have been issued worldwide as of April 15, 1999, and only 63,536 MCP+Internet titles. Consider this against oh, say, the number of Web sites out there, or the number of PCs or servers at any given corporation... the odds are still pretty good. So, you hardliners who believe that the pay is going down as the market "allegedly" gets flooded... hey, it's a dog eat dog world. They say there are too many lawyers in the world (well, that's probably true), but when was the last time you saw one driving a Yugo with a generic cola in one hand and a Swisher Sweet in the other? I thought so.

Next go around, I'll hit on some of the finer points of A+ Certification—the industry standard for hardware. It's the best place to start for up and comers in the IT field.