Is getting an MSCE more than just a footnote to your resume.
February 24, 2015 2:43 PM   Subscribe

Currently have A+ and Net+ certs and work at a small firm as a customer service tech and have accumulated 2 years hands on experience at the moment. I’m beginning to contemplate a move across the county in about 2 years. would it be worth it to go and get my MSCE, or will having 4 years practical experience be enough to wrangle a new job?
posted by kanemano to Work & Money (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Experience and writing a good resume and cover letter is much more important. I worked in Windows Infrastructure without an MCSE for 15 years. An MCSE is certainly not going to hurt you, but it isn't necessary if you know your stuff.

One alternative is to spend that time building stuff and tearing it down instead (Windows domain, Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, Hyper-V, etc.) A lot of that can be done with VMs now, so it doesn't require nearly as much hardware as it used to.

Edit - make sure you get the acronym right! ;-)
posted by cnc at 3:09 PM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: MCSE, MSCE whatever it takes. :)
posted by kanemano at 3:36 PM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I see jobs asking for certification in my specialty all the time. I still submit my resume. Certification for Salesforce.com is kind of a hassle and I'd rather not deal with it (you have to re-certify 3 times a year with every release.) What's more important is articulating what I have done, and what I can do.

So seek a new job, and just be sure to put all your projects demonstrating your knowledge on your resume.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 3:45 PM on February 24, 2015


Set up job alerts on Indeed. The first people to apply are the first people to get interviewed.

Work on your interviewing skills. A resume of gold can't save a bad interview.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:02 PM on February 24, 2015


Better than MCSE (while not bad to have) is/are Cisco certs. If you studied up and got a CCNA that would be a huge boost to your job search once you relocate. Comptia certs are fairly useless. They tend to be things that HR folks like to see. I usually eliminated people who only had them as they are not reflective of technical skill. They tend to be generic knowledge/memory tests. MS certs at least test your knowledge of products. Cisco certs will get you paid. If you aren't ready for CCNA you could do CCENT. Same for MS certs, you could get an MCP and continue onto MCSE. The tech cert arena has a lot of different avenues and depending on what you are doing and where you want to take your career..... You get it right? Lots of tests out there and you have to take the path relevant to your career path. If I were you I would be looking at Cisco, VMware and maybe some Sharepoint.
Good luck my friend.
posted by a3matrix at 2:10 PM on February 25, 2015


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