Suggestions for certification decisions, please

Hello,

I've been tinkering with PCs for many many years now and have finally decided to try to off-set some of the costs of my hobby by actually charging for my work.
Along that line of thinking, I decided that a Microsoft certification or two may be a good idea. The two I am looking at are the MCDST and the MCITP-consumer support.
Here's where I need the advice. I know enough about the innards of XP to where I could pass those tests faily easily. But will it be worth it in the long run?
The MCITP covers Vista. Should I wait on that one and see how long it takes for a Windows 7 based cert to be offered?
Should I go for both? Just one? Which one?
Tips for preparing? Care to share your experiences?
Any and all advice is certainly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I wouldn't waste the money, personally. Nothing trumps experience, and "paper smarts" really doesn't cut it. Your customers will only care if you can do the job, not about a piece of paper. If you're good at what you do, save the money. Besides, a cert goes out of date so quickly that a year from now it will be immaterial and you'll have to do ongoing upgrades.

So yeah. If you're good at what you do, just go for it. When you get the job done right in a decent amount of time they'll refer you to their friends and it will grow on it's own....paper or no paper.

 

Do you plan to serve businesses or individuals? As far as individual home users are concerned I'm willing to bet that a good 90% of your potential clients won't even think to ask about certification. Positive word of mouth is gold, and the #1 item in your favor will be your demeanor. Be friendly, helpful and patient. Many home users feel stupid enough about their computers without someone being condescending and egotistical about their superior knowledge, so the nicer you are the more they will trust you. Good Luck!

 

Let's word this another way.

It costs $10,000 to get your MCSE. How many consumers are a) going to give a darn if you have your MCSE and b) are going to generate you even $10,000 in net revenue (NOT gross) to even PAY for it, never mind profit from it? Plus, bear in mind the amount of time YOU waste getting it. My time is billed out at $65 an hour (which is really cheap, especially considering what I do). I would lose over $2000 in ONE WEEK... Just to achieve some useless cert that maybe wins over one or two clients....and for it to be even remotely valid I'd have to repeat that year in and year out.

Is it worth it? Do the math and you'll see that it isn't, unless your time is worth sweet diddley squat.

It's the same with A+, but on a lesser scale. Mind you, A+ is completely useless and everyone that may be "wowed" and even "swayed" by such a thing realize that A+ is useless and simply another gimmick.

People honestly don't care what piece of paper you have. As an employer I can tell you that I've seen so called "certified" technicians that were completely and totally useless in practical application. One so-called "MCSE" didn't even last the first day.

All anyone cares about is results. I've done $40,000 jobs and they didn't even ask me for my certs.

As always, knowledge in theory can't hold a candle to knowledge in practice.

 

Again, you're looking at "hard costs ". You still have to study, you still have to take time, that has value, to accomplish a needless task.

One will never succeed in business until one realizes that time is money and must be factored into any equation evaluating cost-effectiveness or return on investment (ROI).