IT Certification: Training Tips, Unlicensed School Scams and More Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

According to the Department of Labor, Information Technology careers occupy four of the five fastest growing occupations in the United States with phenomenal growth foreseen over the next seven to ten years. In response to this a huge industry has sprung up to provide training to people who want to ride the wave of IT success. The advertisements are slick, moving and very enticing. Testimonials from actual students talking about how attending this or that technical school changed their lives, saving them from a life of laying roofing shingles or flipping burgers. Sometimes there will be large ads in the local paper about how people with the right certifications can make 50, 60 or even 70 thousand dollars per year. For a person who may have gotten off track after leaving high school or an older person who is forced to start a new career, the opportunities appear very appealing and the ads make it look quick and simple. In a matter of a few months a person can make the leap from manual labor to working in an exciting and rewarding career in the Information Technology industry. The reality is something different.

In this article I will focus on the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA) certifications because that is where my direct experience lies, but the realities and pitfalls of the technical training industry are the same whatever certification a person is trying to achieve.

What is Certification?

The certification process was developed by the various software and hardware companies to give employers a measurable paradigm to judge the knowledge level of people who are looking to work for them. This was the result of the IT industry outgrowing its embryonic stage where everyone was pretty much self-taught and hiring managers had to take the word of the applicants as to what their skills were. This situation led to a lot of inflated resumes and a lot of people hired into jobs that they were not qualified or able to perform.