How useful is a MS certification?

[stack]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ional.html

It apparently is so difficult that an 8yr old boy from a 3rd world country can do it. So really, how useful can it be if anyone and everyone can get one?

[Randy]

Unfortunately, I heard a statistic that mentioned approximately 56 percent of I.T. managers want the people they hire to have MS certification.

The other thing this statistic tells me is that 56 percent of I.T. managers don't have a clue!

[glevans2]

The other thing this statistic tells me is that 56 percent of I.T. managers don't have a clue!

erm, I think its a lot higher than that.....

[maczimus]

Also the main problem is that most of the people that have lots of certs are just good test takers, Or they are book smart. I have so much OTJ experience that I don't feel as though I need certs but I am going to have to get them as you need a piece of paper to prove you know stuff as the HR personnel are not technically knowledgeable themselves!

[Randy]

I typically avoid the vendor-specific certifications and stick with industry standards. You can't go wrong having the CompTIA certifications on your resume. The only vendor-specific certification I'd ever go for would be Cisco. Right now, I wouldn't bother since it doesn't apply to anything I'm currently doing and I don't have any Cisco equipment in our current IT environment.

I'm currently experimenting with a couple of Mikrotik routers, anyway... The RouterBoard 450 to be specific. Our generous web-hosting company suggested these in lieu of using Cisco; something they've been using for several years now.. The price is right - $69.00 for the board and RouterOS license - and they do just about anything you could possibly want. I may look at one of their wireless solutions for this summer.

Anyway, I'm way off topic now. I did the CompTIA A+ and Network+ a few years ago. After those were out of the way, I did the Server+ and Linux+, just for the heck of it!

I'd like to do the LPI, someday. Maybe when things slow down (ha!)...