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The Industry’s 10 Best IT Certifications
IT pros tend to have strong opinions when debating the value of professional certification – and views become even more polarized when it comes down to a discussion of which certs are meaningful. Erik Eckel put together a list of the accreditations he believes currently hold value for IT pros.
IT certifications boast numerous benefits. They bolster resumes, encourage higher salaries, and assist in job retention. But which IT certifications are best?
Technology professionals generate much debate over just that question. Many claim vendor-specific programs best measure a candidate’s skills, while others propose vendor-independent exams are the only worthy way of measuring real-world expertise. Still other observers believe the highest-level accreditations – Microsoft’s MCSE or new Architect Series certification, Cisco’s CCIE, etc. – are the only credentials that truly hold value.
Myself, I don’t fully subscribe to any of those mindsets. The best IT certification for you, after all, is likely to be different from that for another technology professional with different education, skills, and goals working at a different company in a different industry. For that reason, when pursuing any professional accreditation, you should give much thought and care to your education, experience, skills, goals, and desired career path.
Once a career road map is in place, selecting a potential certification path becomes much easier. And that’s where this list of the industry’s 10 best IT certifications comes into play. While this list may not include the 10 best accreditations for you, it does catalog 10 IT certifications that possess significant value for a wide range of technology professionals.
#1: MCITP
The new-generation Microsoft Certified IT Professional credential, or MCITP for short, is likely to become the next big Microsoft certification. Available for a variety of fields of expertise – including database developer, database administrator, enterprise messaging administrator, and server administrator – an MCITP validates a professional’s proven job-role capabilities. Candidates must pass several Microsoft exams that track directly to their job role before earning the new designation.
As with Microsoft’s other new-generation accreditations, the MCITP certification will retire when Microsoft suspends mainstream support for the platforms targeted within the MCITP exams. By matching the new certification to popular job roles, as has been done to some extent with CompTIA’s Server+ (server administrator), Project+ (project manager), and A+ (desktop support) certifications, Microsoft has created a new certification that’s certain to prove timely, relevant, and valuable.
#2: MCTS
The new-generation Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) helps IT staff validate skills in installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting a specific Microsoft technology. The MCTS certifications are designed to communicate the skills and expertise a holder possesses on a specific platform.
For example, candidates won’t earn an MCTS on SQL Server 2008. Instead, they’ll earn an MCTS covering SQL Server business intelligence (MCTS: SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence), database creation (MCTS: SQL Server 2008, Database Development), or SQL server administration (MCTS: SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance).
These new certifications require passing multiple, tightly targeted exams that focus on specific responsibilities on specific platforms. MCTS designations will expire when Microsoft suspends mainstream support for the corresponding platform. These changes, as with other new-generation Microsoft certifications, add value to the accreditation.
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Hot Chocolate
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.
During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups -porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
“Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each others cups.
Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot
chocolate God has provided us.God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people
don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate
How to transform adversity into an advantage:
“Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become b <!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } H2 { margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in; page-break-after: auto } H2.western { font-family: “Thorndale AMT”, serif } H2.cjk { font-family: “Albany AMT” } H2.ctl { font-family: “Albany AMT” } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { color: #0000ff } –>
“Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.”
~ Charles “Tremendous” Jones
How to transform adversity into an advantage:
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Take ACTION to improve your ENERGY level… both physically and mentally. If your body gives out, you have few alternatives for a happy ending.
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Take ACTION to PRIORITIZE your life around your personal MISSION. Improving your sense of purpose and mission will give you the strength to see through the dark to the light.
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Take ACTION to improve your ATTITUDE… because if you permit the negatives to gang up on you, you not only lose heart, you lose hope.
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Take ACTION to create a specific GOAL for moving beyond the trouble to the treasure. Take out your 1, 5 and 15 year Timelines and pen a “new ending” to your “plot complications!”
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Take ACTION to develop a clear, realistic and time-specific PLAN. Call it a disaster plan… or a plan for overcoming disaster… call it anything you like, but put it in writing so you can see it, feel it and ORGANIZE your life around it. Remember, a goal without a plan is merely a wish without a hope!
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Take ACTION to find others to help you… to create SYNERGISTIC interdependence and powerful team-building leverage. It is simply impossible to “go it alone” and hope for a happy outcome.
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Take ACTION to improve your use of TIME… to live as if each minute matters… because it does.
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Take ACTION to get things started… and to keep them moving in the direction of your dreams and goals—especially when things appear hopeless.
The Message is Clear.
When you become action-oriented, you overcome adversity by stealing power away from fear… and using that power to conquer your circumstances. Fear kills. Action kills fear.
There are endless possibilities available to help you overcome adversity—both perceived and actual. You must simply take action to find them.
Do this, and you will find yourself moving in the direction of your dreams. Don’t, and you won’t. – E.R. Haas










