Certificates!!

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Hi, I'm aiming to get certified in:
- CompTiA+
- SCJP
- MCAS

My question is: once I pass the exams, which is the next step, for each of the above? In order to get the certificate, wallet card, etc. Could someone tell me what it is that you get?
I've been reading that Microsoft doesn't print certs anymore, but then I read that you can order them from them - at a cost.

Cheers

 

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Once you've passed one of Microsoft's MCP-certified exams, you'll get an e-mail from Microsoft which gives you a link and access to their MCP website. On the MCP website you can either order a certificate or download it in XPS or PDF format and print it yourself.

 

If it's a wallet card and certificate you're after, there are easier ways of getting them.

My son got one from writing a letter to his favorite comic.
Or you can just find one on Google and photoshop your name onto it, then hang it on the wall...

 

You get the one thing that you're (hopefully!) getting certified for: the privilege of being able to say that you are certified. None of that other stuff matters, I promise you.

 

But surely a proof of it is something an employer is likely to want to see? I mean it as a prerequisite for another stage in the eimployment process (eg get you to an interview).

 

Of all the job interviews I have had and all of the interviews I heard of from people on here no employer has said prove your certified.

Most employers will expect the proof to be from experience and that you can walk into the job and do it, apart from entry level jobs where training will be required.

there are certs for people trying to get into IT and certs for people who are already in IT. The entry level certs don't require experience so the employee is expected to be going for entry level jobs, whilst the employees with high level certs are expected to be able to demonstrated their experience and do the job they are going for without guidance.

employers can usually tell who is experienced and who isn't in an interview, they can usually spotter bull****ters too

 

Anyone can show me a certificate or a card they printed off the Internet. What I will want to see is electronic verification from the certification vendor that you are indeed certified. And ALL of the top three major certification vendors (CompTIA, Microsoft, Cisco) have electronic methods to verify that you are certified. If the employer wants proof, you simply direct them to a link where they can check your credentials.

 

Ok, I get it. But they sure look adorable on the wall...
There's a lot here of certification for entry level jobs. What about those who, like me, are getting a degree? (In my case, Computer Engineering).

 

Degrees and certifications are two different animals. Both are useful for different reasons, and I'd recommend both. But neither degrees nor certifications guarantee you a job, and neither trump real-world experience. Someone with four years of experience will almost always get a job over someone with a four-year degree and no experience. That's why I advise those who attend college to work while in school... go ahead and pay those "entry-level dues", so to speak. By the time you graduate, you'll have a degree, perhaps some certifications, and that ever-important real-world experience... setting your career up quite nicely for the future.

 

Thanks. I realise experience is of the outmost importance. I just had an appointment with a career adviser today. She advised me to start looking for work experience pretty much asap.
As I'm doing a fair bit of Degree + certs this year, this is something that I will look into next year.

I was reading Accenture graduates get a salary of 31k, plus a bonus 10k in their first year, and you get to be trained, etc. It sounds too good to be true. Does anyone have any information on similar companies?

 

You've got a good one, then. From what I've seen, those are pretty rare. Most will fill you full of false hopes, telling you that a degree is your golden ticket to an instant job with a huge salary working as a network admin.

No idea. I wouldn't rest my hopes and dreams on that figure, though. I was told all through college by multiple instructors that as a degreed chemist I should realistically expect to make $35K a year. After applying to about 50 companies, I got one interview for a lab tech position. I really wanted the job, so when the interviewer asked my salary expectations, I told him I was looking to make around $30K. And... I didn't get the job.

I finally found a local job for $25K a year... washing out test tubes. I didn't even apply. Instead, I took a job as an IT field service tech making $22K ($11 an hour)... quite a bit different than what I had expected.

So the moral of the story is this: don't buy into all the salary surveys and hype and advertising copy that schools want you to read in order to lure you into taking out a loan with your left kidney as collateral. The degree WILL serve you well, particularly later in your career... just don't expect it to perform miracles for you from square one.

 

a degree is a degree and a certification is a certification, they can make you look more attarctive to an employer but experience is king.

 

Only once in my career have I been asked to provide proof of my certifications (that's in 12 years of IT), the proof in the pudding isn't a little piece of paper, it's actually being able to do the job.

Having a degree in Computer Sciences doesn't even mean much either, I know guys with degrees (Tech and Non Tech) who have either been really good or really crap, again it's the persons ability rather than a degree that a person is judged on.

Just don't walk out of Uni expecting the world owes you everything, it doesn't and you shouldn't expect it.
As far as jobs go, I would think you would be lucky getting a job paying £25k for your first job out of Uni, certainly not into the £30+k range (yes you have a degree but you have no real world experience).

I would also hold off on getting too many certs too soon, it can actually do you more harm than good to be over certified with the lack of experience, all it shows others is that you can take exams. Leave it a couple of years and get some more certs then.

 

My first job out of uni in 2000 paid me £13k, and I thought I'd hit the jackpot. It was just entry level 1st/2nd line IT support work, but at the time I didn't mind about the salary because I'd just moved back home to my parents (until 2005).

At the time, all of my friends on the same degree course managed to get a job in IT within 3-4 months of our last exam (June 2000). Oh how times have changed unfortunately.

 

They don't pay that much though in first year.

I have friends in Accenture very very difficult company to get into, opportunities are rare and the top end jobs are software development. A lot of the training is overseas, they have there own campus in the US.

I think you have to be more realistic and look at the mainstream

 

Thanks everyone for your useful insights! I really appreciate them.
I just posted that about Accenture as that was what I saw advertised. It wasn't my expectation, it was printed in a brochure. Obviously, it sounded too good to be true, as you are confirming now.

I now the Degree + certs is just paperwork , but you also learn something on the way.