I was recently asked if I thought getting a Microsoft certification was valuable. I see quite a few benefits. Certifications might help your company become a Microsoft Gold Partner, and certification may be a selling point when assigning consultants to engagements. For me, the big benefits have been about learning new features and getting to know features that I haven\u2019t used much or at all. Before taking the exam, at a minimum, I\u2019ll check the list of topics. If there is anything I\u2019m not familiar with, or a new feature I haven\u2019t played with, I\u2019ll spend some time learning about those features. (Don\u2019t tell anyone, but I have learned and forgotten XQuery so many times when prepping for SQL Server exams!)<\/p>\n
What does passing a certification exam really mean? It actually means nothing more than you have passed a test. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, so many people had taken the MCSE exams, that the certification lost its value. The exams were quite easy, and it was possible to pass the exams without ever touching a Windows server. Theoretically, the exams should only be passable by those with experience, but even today some bootcamps guarantee that participants will pass just by taking their weeklong course. And, of course, there are those brain dump sites that supposedly have actual exam questions. Stay away from them!<\/p>\n
Over time, the quality of the exams has improved, and new question types have been added. Instead of just multiple choice (guess) questions, some of the questions are hands on requiring that you perform actions and not just choose from a list of possible answers. Some of the sections also require quite a bit of reading. These changes have made the certifications more difficult and more valuable, in my opinion.<\/p>\n
Microsoft have changed the premium certifications several times as well. For example, the big SQL Server cert was MCDBA (Microsoft Certified Database Administrator) when it was first introduced in 1999, but then it was changed to MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional). It eventually became the current MSCE: Data Management and Analytics. This new cert has eight specialty options<\/a>. Other areas, such as development and systems engineering, have also gone through similar transformations, especially to deal with cloud computing.<\/p>\n