Certification Assistance needed

[m4dh4tt3r]

Hey MYBB!

I'm in a bit of a twist at the moment with what qualifications to go for and was hoping someone had some advice.

I've been putting my studies off for a long time and i know i should go get them because its not all that difficult really. MCSE is fading out now because lets face it server 2003 is old and is not going to be around on many servers for too much longer. Me and a friend have been discussing what options to take, He says its a waste of time and money going for the MCSE qualification now and rather go straight for the MCITP.

Whats your take on this? Is an MCSE worth it.
(i plan to write the exams within 3months max, I obviously will also write my MCITP with or without MCSE).

Thanks
M4dh4tt3r

PS: sorry if this is in the wrong section.

 

[bubbatentoe]

Companies (with many servers) all still run Server 2003 and will continue to do so until those servers reach end of life.
Few companies upgrade merely because a newer version is available.
They usually wait for SP1, sometimes even SP2 before considering an upgrade, or they skip one version completely.

My previous employer has about 800 servers worldwide, only (some) Exchange servers and (some) DC's run 2008, the rest is all still 2003.

MCSE 2003 is always good idea.
It will also mean that you're not "brand new" in the IT game.

You'll encounter 2003 for many years to come.

 

[Bobbin]

I actually started out on MCSE and then was just pushed on over to MCITP before completing the MCSE. So the impression I got was that MCSE is fast becoming redundant.

Do you have any hands on experience? There is quite a lot of material to cover in MCITP and really isn't easy if you don't have the experience. Although if you do know server 2003 already then I suppose pointless to do the MCSE anyway. Also depends on which MCITP you go for.

 

[NeonNinja]

Come on. I'm doing MCITP:EA.

 

[m4dh4tt3r]

thanks for the feedback, bubba shares similar thoughts to me compared to my colleague. We currently only manage around 50servers that are on maintenance, only about 5 of them are now server 2003. However i know there will be servers out there with server2003 for a while just maybe not in my company.
Thats how i was looking at it aswell , if you have MCSE it looks like you have been doing the older stuff so the new stuff must be easy for you or atleast this guy has been doing it for a while(especially once its retired and you cant write it anymore). Besides for that i got no qualifications(well, no IT qualifications, have a music degree in guitar) so getting one should increase my salary and if my salary increases by say even 2k a month it will pay back the costs for the exam in like 4months.

I have been working on servers (server 2003/2008) only about 2 years. I see the MCITP has loads of exams so thats why i was thinking get the MCSE first, its just 7 exams (which 1 of the 7 you can do and it counts towards the MCITP) then focus on MCITP, Will probably do the server administrator then maybe work on the enterprise administrator exams.

Well thanks for the little info you have given, I've decided to get my MCSE! not like anything bad will come out of it.... besides adding anything to your C.V is always a good thing.