Re: MCSE suffix added to printed name...pretentious? by Zenner
Zenner
Thu Jul 17 15:24:22 CDT 2003
It depends...I see nothing pretentious in placing it on a business card or
discreetly, following MS guidelines, in a footer or letterhead, on
correspondence to your clients, if you are a consultant. I would question if
it were appropriate if you consistently found a way to work it into every
conversation you had, even with total strangers.
I have no shame in completing my certifications. They were earned and
reflect an achievement in my chosen field. Rather, I would wonder if someone
didn't revel their certifications, when appropriate. Might it be they do not
want the expectations of competence that an honestly achieved certification
carries? Yes, there are a number of people that are not quite at the caliber
which is expected...but every Lawyer is not Perry Mason, nor every Doctor
brain surgeon. Just because a master chess champion is not "unbeaten"
doesn't distract from his achieving a master or Grand master designation.
Achieving any level of certification, technical, academic, peer review, etc.
is validation that someone (other than yourself) thinks you have displayed
some skill above the common level, to me, that is worthy of a sense of
pride.
Maybe an unpopular opinion in this Newsgroup, but if you earned it, I say
display it. Most of the derision I have seen seems to come from people who
have been in the business since MCSE meant "NT", which wasn't as difficult,
in hindsight, as they would have you believe...there were just few of them
at the time and the money was better, because MS was fighting to be a
serious player in the server arena. The other main group are people too
busy, too lazy or for various reasons unwilling to put in the time, effort,
study or expense to get their own certifications. It wouldn't it be
wonderful if you could walk into a job interview and have some way of
establishing your credentials,? Wouldn't the manager be thrilled to know
that a perspective new hire has at least minimum skills, before investing
his time in an extended interview, just to find out the candidate has no
idea of how to handle abnormal conditions in a server, network or
application? Oh, he does...if you have achieved your certifications.
One of the things that seems to come up way to often in this Newsgroup is
requests for "how do I check on a claimed MCP, MCSA or MCSE status" also,
especially in the last few months, are way too many questions from MCSE-NT
holders on what steps they need to upgrade to 2000 or 2003 status. Does that
really sound like employers are not requesting and giving credit for
certifications? Unfortunately, they don't want to pay the premium that your
effort should demand, but that's a product of the current economic climate
and the oversupply of technicians from the E-business fallout. Your cert
does have worth and it will become more important as you gather exposure and
experience in the field.
"David" <dgold21@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:070501c34c7a$ba332160$a001280a@phx.gbl...
> I just completed my MCSE/MCSA certs, after years of
> actually working with and supporting the product.
> Actually I manage the IT department for a large school
> district. I see that a lot of people add the MCSE suffix
> to their names in their signatures, and was wondering
> what the overall reaction is to that before I start
> putting it on my signatures. Is it more prevalent from
> the people who haven't yet "been there, done that", or is
> it common even for those who have already proven
> themselves?
>
> I just read what I wrote, and I know it may come off
> wrong to some, but I'm genuine in my inquiry, and I don't
> know how else I'd phrase it!