"Attention NT4 certified MCSEs! Looking for free resources you can use to upgrade your cert to Windows 2000? Read on..."
One of the happier moments of my life came at the end of the summer of 1999 when I passed the last exam I needed to receive my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)
certification. As a support professional with years of experience, but no
formal technical education, I was excited that Microsoft had validated
my product-support skills. Having those four magic letters after my name
now meant I held a key to open the doors that were previously closed to
me.
Right after achieving my MCSE, the community college where I
worked on contract hired me as a permanent employee. Even better, they
paid my way through additional exams and supported getting my Microsoft
Certified Trainer (MCT) status. In short, getting my MCSE had paid
off.
Then Microsoft kicked me in the teeth.
Okay, I'm
exaggerating, but that's certainly how I felt at the time. You know that
nasty feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you're watching a
scary movie and something awful is about to happen? I lived with that
feeling for a week straight after MS announced the retirement of the Windows
NT 4.0 track. Adding insult to injury, the Microsoft Certified Professional
(MCP) exam for Internet Information Server 4.0 had its retirement
announced the very day I passed it.
Four months of my life had gone
into that certification – long hours were spent debugging dump files and
capturing network packets when I could have been having a life like the rest
of my friends did. I poured a lot of money into it as well – MS- approved
study guides aren't cheap. At $100.00 US apiece ($145.00 apiece for me in
Canadian dollars) neither are the MCP exams, and I was one of the fortunate
ones as I had gone the self-study route, which is much less
expensive.
Needless to say, I was bitter. My cursing and grumbling paled
in comparison to the howls of outrage emanating from those who either
recently completed or were in the process of completing their NT4 MCSE
through expensive training programs. There's nothing like borrowing heavily
to earn a certification that is billed as "the be-all, end-all", only to
have it called, "devalued and obsolete" once you have attained it. A lot of
people are upset and justifiably so. At Cramsession, we are witness to
this time and again through feedback e-mail received from our readers. For
example:
"I spent much time and money achieving MCSE certification
only to be told I must spend more time and more money to be further
qualified on Windows 2000."
This reader commented on an article
published in Cramsession's Must Know News supporting Microsoft's decision to
retire the NT4 MCSE track:
"Thanks for the depressing news about
the worthlessness of an MCSE today. I just spent a year in school to finally
finish my MCSE+I program yesterday and now I am told it is next to no good
at all. Way to go."
It doesn't matter whether you attribute the
need to upgrade your certification to crass greed by Microsoft or to having
the bad luck of getting certified on a product line at the end of its
life cycle, the fact still remains – within 16 months you will either be
an MCSE qualified on Windows 2000, or you won't be an MCSE at all. This
means getting back on the certification merry- go-round for another lengthy
and very expensive ride. Small wonder people are angry.
While I
commiserate with every upset MCSE out there, I'm no longer angry with
Microsoft over the retirement of the NT4 track. If anything, I feel that MS
has gone above and beyond when it comes to providing free resources for MCPs
who are upgrading to W2K. Let me explain how this came about…
I got
my start here at BrainBuzz by revising their Internet Explorer 4.0 Admin Kit
Cramsession for the newly released IEAK5 exam. At the time I was preparing
for this exam, 70-080, there was practically nothing available in terms of
study resources. It was during this desperate time that I discovered the
incredible amount of information Microsoft makes available for their
products free of charge.
When the opportunity arose to write some
Windows 2000 Cramsessions for BrainBuzz, I once again turned to the free
resources offered by Microsoft. In fact, so much material was available
that months later I've yet to review it all (there are about 500 pages
printed off of the MS site sitting on my bed-side stand that I am still
working through).
So let's take a look at the...
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