Microsoft Certification Exams

[Taxious]

My work is offering to pay for us to take exams to become MS certified so that we can get discounts on software and such. The certifications are bound to the person (instead of the company) so it sounds like a win/win situation if I want to do it. For those of you that do hiring, does this actually matter to you? I'm kind of on the fence right now with it, half of me is too lazy to study/care and the other half thinks it's pretty logical that I should just go ahead and do it.

Thoughts?

[Minute]

Certs = Money. Doesn't matter if you're dumb as fucking nails if you have a cert that says otherwise, that means you'll make more money. If your company is willing to pay for this to happen YOU DO IT! I don't care if they are giving classes on how to bake cake, if you can get certified in it for free, you do it.

[Falundir X`Viento]

It comes down to one simple thing.

I'm looking at two different people for a job, however they both have identical resumes. If one took the time to get a cert and the other didn't, that would be the direction I go if that choice is based on paper.

[Minute]

Not only that but there's typically a salary range on a job, some very large differences. More certs means you get the bigger payday on the job you want.

[Ddrak]

Microsoft certs don't mean too much until you get to MCSE/MCSD level. MCP is a tiny bump but not that much. Still, it's worth doing it if you have the time for the study (or work gives you the time).

I'm giving all my people time to get certified if they want to take it because it saves us a bucket in licensing fees. For every 2 MCPs you have, you score 5 MSDN licenses (it's a little more complex, but close), which means $10k+/year of savings.

Dd

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I think it's a great idea.

[Kulaf]

The company I worked for back in the 90's not only sat me in on free classes (since one branch of the company was a MCTC), but paid for the exams and gave a $150 bonus for each exam we passed. Of course their incentive was in keeping there Solution Provider status which required a certain number of certified people on staff.