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Could be worse....you could be a CNE!! Talk about a dinasaur in the IT field.

To answer typical questions, your particular job will determine whether the MCSE (or other appropriate certification) is worth it.

If you are looking for a new job....companies look for one of two types of guys. Some experience, without cert., or certified with minimal experience for more entry level positions. And certified with experience for mid to higher level positions. Other skills such as writing, program management, project management can also greatly affect job opportunities, as well as compensation. Some companies favor veterans.

In short, it varies greatly. But all other things being equal, the person with a cert will get the job over someone without, so it is ultimately in your best interest to get some type of relevant cert.

Good luck to all!

Thanks for the advice Justin. I'm doing pretty well in the job search now. My main area of interest is the Fed. I have 2 career fields to choose from: investigations/security based upon my military experience and computing based upon classes, certifications and 14 yr.s experience.

My long-term goal is to get into the Fed. then retire from a well-paid senior nework admin. job within an agency. There's some real choice picks out there, like 50K for network admin. of a few dozen computers on a federal military reservation in Umatilla, OR, overlooking the Columbia river with mountains and forests all around. Boating, hunting, fishing -drool.

Unfortunately, the Fed. doesn't appear to be accepting the 18 months network admin. work I did in 96-98 as it was an additional duty and isn't in my DD-214. So it looks like I may have to settle on investigations again to get back into the system. Joy.

The short-term networking work I'm looking at is to fulfill the 52-weeks experience requirement for federal hiring and since I'm rather frank (truthful) in the interviews I usually tell them this. And they start asking me if I'm going to "settle here" and what not. "Settle" on a $10/hr. job? Yeah, maybe in a camper shell. In one interview they asked me if I'd be willing to admin. their NT4 network and even though I'd run NT4 before and it's in my resume I told them "No, no way". I didn't learn 2000 to get stuck servicing a dying NT4 network. For $10/hr. I didn't need that kind of abuse. Heck, I'll do roofs first.

Could be worse....you could be a CNE!! Talk about a dinasaur in the IT field.

Hey! I resemble that remark! Novell is losing the marketing battle, but their technology is top notch!

But seriously, Novell CNEs flooded the market some years ago, just like MCSE are flooding the market now... I went through the CNE training back in 1989-1990, when the tests were still open book, but if you had to look up more than 2 or three questions, you'd run out of time and fail the test...

There are still some certification that really test on knowledge and experiance, not just memorization. Novell's Admin & Advanced Admin tests both have "hands on" simulators where you have to use the utilities to accomplish certain tasks. And the Certified Directory Engineer certification is a real bear to pass, especially the "practical exam," where you use PC Anywhere to login to a network set up by Novell that's had it's Directory Services sabotaged, and you have to fix it within a certain time period. One of the most difficult tests I've ever taken.

And of course, the grand daddy of all "real" certifications is the Cisco CCIE, with it's "practical" exam!

Mark

MCNE, MCNI, CCNA