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Greg Neilson
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Hey Microsoft, Slow Down! |
| It’s becoming very clear to me just how far ahead of the customer base Microsoft is pushing MCSEs to certify/recertify on the Windows 2000 platform. |
| by Greg Neilson |
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5/30/2001 -- I recently upgraded my MCSE certification to Windows 2000, and many of those on my staff are doing the same. However, only one of our clients is seriously working on a deployment at the moment, and in a couple of other cases we have some specially-built laptops with Win2K Professional as needed. That leaves us supporting a lot of Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and Server, and there is little prospect of this changing by the end of the year.
Yet look at the timing of Microsoft’s MCP program. NT 4.0 exams were no longer offered after February (remember, it was originally December 2000, but was extended because of the demands on the testing centers), and MCSEs have only the end of this year to complete their upgrade exam. As a manager planning the professional development of my staff, this is really starting to hurt -- I am being forced to educate staff in Win2K much faster than I would like so that they can retain their MCSE certification.
Like with most organizations, there is a limited amount of time and dollars allowed for education per employee, so I can either choose to blow my budget (a courageous move in these uncertain times!) or, instead, focus on MCSE education -- time I could be using to get them trained in other relevant technologies such as Oracle, SQL Server, Citrix MetaFrame, Linux or vendor server hardware. I don’t deny that I need a base of skilled Win2K professionals as it becomes more prevalent, but I don’t need my entire team skilled on Win2K right now! For most of my team it will probably be Windows 2002 where they finally get their hands dirty with in a production deployment.
I also have some younger, less experienced folk in my team who are moving from a desktop support and deployment role into server-based project work. They would be perfect candidates for NT 4.0 MCSE certification, and they could use the certification to measure the skills they had learned along the way. It is true that the NT 4.0 courses are still being taught, albeit on a drastically reduced timetable, but I really believe that by having people know upfront that they will have to (as is our department policy) pass a certification exam on the course topic afterwards, it ensures they concentrate on learning the material. I know BrainBench and others are still offering NT 4.0 certification, but my preference is for certification exams offered by Microsoft.
From the participants themselves, there also seems to be a degree of anger and resentment towards Microsoft at the hoops they are being forced to jump through to keep their MCSE. This isn’t just my guys – I notice the "Certified Mail"section in the June issue of MCP Magazine is flooded with angry people who aren’t happy about the MCSE re-certification process. I don’t think most people would begrudge having to do an upgrade exam, but it seems the majority have to do four exams (Win2K upgrade exam, design elective plus two further electives), which assumes that they pass the upgrade exam at their only attempt, otherwise they need to complete the entire seven exams in the Win2K stream.
For those of you unhappy about re-certifying at all, I understand the frustration, but I would caution you before you let this anger make your decision about whether or not you'll recertify. I’m not trying to push you either way, but you owe it to yourself and your future to consider the likely benefits and costs in keeping your certification current. Unless you plan on changing career direction in the short term, in time you are going to need to know this material anyway (and probably a great deal more, in truth) to be able to do your job when working with Win2K. Yes, the pace Microsoft set is pushing it, but in this case at least, having to prepare for and take the exams is more of an inconvenience than anything else -- you will use what you learn eventually.
Just for something different, I’ll be talking the LPI Linux Level 1 exams in the coming month (yes, I will be covering these exams for CertCities.com), so I’m looking at this as an opportunity to revise my general Unix skills plus as a structured way to improve my Linux skills. As you’ve probably heard, Windows NT/2000 and Linux are the only operating systems increasing their market share at the moment. I’m not pretending that the certification alone is going to mean anything much (especially to the hardened Linux crowd!), but I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty and learning something new – and isn’t that why we started in this business anyway?
Is your organization facing the same situation? Post your thoughts on this column below!
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Greg Neilson, MCSE+Internet, MCNE, PCLP, is a Contributing Editor for Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and a manager at a large IT services firm in Australia. He's the author of Lotus Domino Administration in a Nutshell (O'Reilly and Associates, ISBN 1-56592-717-6). You can reach him at Attn: Greg.
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There are 54  user Comments for “Hey Microsoft, Slow Down!”
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| 6/7/01: Keith says: |
I really think they have outdone themselves again. NOT TO MENTION XP.Well I am not about to let my hard work be taken from me without a fight; soI willonce again keep the lamp burning so I can get this over with. What if at the end of the year Bill realizes a profit from the XP and decides to push the XXP? You can never tell! |
| 6/7/01: Neil says: |
I have no problem wiht the speed at which Microsoft is pushing Win2K; my complaint is that they are saying that MCSE 4.0's will suddenly lose their knowledge and no longer be MCSE's come Jan 1, 2002. Why not let the MCSE 4's be just that, MCSE4, and create a new cert for the MCSE 2k crowd? That will let the prospective employer or client know which platform the employee/contractor is certified in, and they can hire accordingly....hiring someone certified in Win2K does not guarantee that they can administer your NT4 enterprise, any more than it does the other way around. As an employer, I will be asking my prospective employees which platform they are certified in, and will not be happy just hiring an MCSE - they must know and be certified in the platfom I am running, even if it is NT4. |
| 6/7/01: Matthew says: |
I agree with an earlier post that MCSE's with NT 4.0 Certification should remain just that, an NT 4.0 MCSE. I don't think that the push for Win2K is too soon, as many organizations are testing the waters with servers here and there, but the death of the NT 4.0 MCSE is QUITE PREMATURE. I have lost NO knowledge, only gained it daily. I like Win2K and will upgrade my MCSE and yes I will attempt the dreaded upgrade test (most of the fear is fueled by Microsoft's complete lack of information regarding pass rates). I don't begrudge MS making the 2K MCSE testing more difficult. The MCSE has long been cheapened by paper MCSE's. |
| 6/7/01: Doug says: |
Since I don't take classes to learn Microsoft products, I may have a different view of this, but.... How does being forced into upgrading to MCSE 2K this year, help you work with it two years from now, when you've forgotten nearly everything you learned just to pass the tests. Isn't the whole point of becoming an MCSE based upon the fact that you are a professional who has worked with the product for some time (a year+), thereby truly learning it in a production environment, instead of just learning book facts and meager skills from in class practice/labs? Hardly any of the students who came through my classes to learn NT 4.0 are returning for Win 2K (yet, at least), because they and their companies are quite comfortable with the perfectly functional and easily-supported NT 4.0 systems they have. While I don't believe as some do, that Microsoft expects our knowledge to expire with our certs, I do still (and always will) find it very odd that 3.51 only expired a year and a half before 4.0. All in all, I have to say I think this whole thing has been rather rushed. And with the scheduled two years between major updates of the desktop and server products for the near future, things aren't going to slow down at all. How many companies are going to trade in their (finally) stable servers for a year+ of instability and haphazard support every two years? |
| 6/8/01: Craig says: |
I agree the MCSE NT 4 track should still be accredited. I am for the deadline of the MSCE 2000 upgrade for the sake of initially having the possibility of making some large money. Being one of the few to have the certification and the large upcoming turnover of companies from NT4 to 2000 and the expertise that will be required to perform such tasks will hopefully make it worth it. I am anxious as well to spend my time studying something different than Microsoft products, i.e. Linux, Oracle, CCNA etc.. Best wishes to all in obtaining this cert. Especially to other self-study individuals like myself. |
| 6/8/01: Robert says: |
I am all for staying current in my technical education, so I don't mind upgrading my certification. However, I would agree that pushing us to upgrade or face de-certification less than two years from the products release is a little over the top. We were told that in order to ease our re-cert process, we could take a free test that covered the core of Win2K. It's my understanding, though, that the 240 exam was intentionally designed to have a less than 20% pass rate, not to mention that the sheer volume and length of the test makes it daunting to even the most experienced MCSE. My organization is planning to upgrade to Win2K, but now I find myself in a situation where I am planning a migration, while finishing my certification. Then to top it off, by the time the migration is complete, we will already be a version behind (XP/2002). Oh well, job security I suppose. |
| 6/8/01: Mike says: |
After 15 years of experience and well over two years of study, I obtained my MCSE 4. Now to be forced to cram for multiple tests in less than a year or I loose my MCSE status really ticks me off. I support a large government agency, which is planning to stay on NT4 for a while and not migrate to W2K late 2002 or 2003. Since I pay for my own training and certifications, having to compress my W2K training schedule into a few short months and then not use these skills for 2 more years, seems a tragic waste. I would rather use this time and money for Cisco or PKI certifications but since I am being forced to comply with Microsoft's accelerated schedule, I will have to wait to broaden my skills and certifications. Yes, the MCSE 4 certification should be able live out the life cycle of NT 4 and not be cut down in its prime. On 1-1-02, Microsoft will have the largest installed server/client OS base and no one certified for it. |
| 6/8/01: John says: |
I'm currently an NT 4 MCSE. I've also done the NTCIP. I would rather MS let my cert go for the entire 2 yrs before being rushed to certify in W2K. MS should make a Seperate NT4/W2K cert program, from what I've been reading alot of companies have not even started their migrating plans for W2K. I'm currently working for a corp that is just starting a W2K migrating, we have a mix of NT4 & W2K servers. I have been working with W2K products since beta 2. I've been studing for the 240 time for the last 6 months, I still feel I'm unprepared for the 240. I'll be taken the 214 & 215 during the discount promotion. |
| 6/8/01: Anonymous says: |
I noticed somone posted earlier about not knowing the pass faiil rates on the upgrade test, I have a friend at Microsoft that to me is a genius and he took the upgrade exam and failed. He later finds out through internal sources at MS that the fail rate on the upgrade exam is 95%. He took all 4 core W2K exams and passed without studying. MS has turned their certification tract into a big commercial moneypit. Right now the only W2K MCSE's I know personally work for MS and one main reason is because they get their tests for free. All of use out here having to pay for our own training and test are giving MS a nice single finger salute right now. I've decided to tell MS to kiss it and I'm going on to take more broad industry exams like Network+ and Server+ and maybe RedHat. I think those will say more about your rounded IT knowledge anyway. I will also continue to keep the MCSE logos on my resume and still call myself an MCSE after Dec 31, just because MS wants to retire an exam doesn't mean I lose all my knowlege it took to get that peice of paper. This would be like a University saying ok were are going to take away everyones degree in computer science who got that degree pre 1995 because the IT world has changed so much. That wouldn't happen so I don't think all of us out there with NT4 MCSEs that are not upgrading should back down one bit, MS might not recognize us but we still have that piece of paper and that's what has always counted before. |
| 6/8/01: Anonymous says: |
I have the NT4.0 MCSE. Definitely not just paper (although I know plenty who are). I am self-studying to prepare for the Update 240 exam (although, as an introduction, my employer has provided on-site training for Active Directory). I work with Win2K Pro and Server every day. Because I'm in development, we rarely touch NT4.0 machines any more. So I'm probably one of the rare good reasons why retirement of the MCSE NT4.0 should be a non-issue. However, I will definitely NOT have time to complete all of the electives (assuming I pass 240) by 31Dec2001. I hope to pass and become a Win2K MCP. Like others, I will continue to list "NT4.0 MCSE" on my resume. It has value in the market place, and although I'm not planning to change jobs right now, if I were, being a Win2K MCP and WinNT4.0 MCSE would be a bonus. If I fail to pass the 240, I'll be bummed, it will discourage my pursuit of upgrading to Win2K MCSE status. Why take 7 exams for Win2K, when I'll just be burned again when WinXP/2K+2 certification retires the Win2K track? Microsoft, your precedent frightens me. Next could be a Linux certification. I'll soon have Linux servers in my lap every day. Make me angry, Microsoft, and I'll become an even bigger spokesman for Linux. And where I sit, it has impact. |
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