I’m thinking about making a pseudo career change in the near future. I am currently in hi-tech sales, but I do not have a technical education (actually a BA to be precise). It’s a long story how I ended up in hi-tech sales so I won’t go into it here. Suffice it to say that I have some amazing experience on my CV, but I do not have the obligatory technical credentials to get any serious prospective employers to even give me a second look.
I’d like to go back to sales engineering (I did that for 4 years before I moved into a formal sales position), and I think that an MCSE designation would definitely help.
Any advice? I’d like to take one of those 6 month crash courses that expose me to the standard MCSE stuff, along with Cisco and perhaps also some Novel stuff.
Big decision to make VERY soon… leave $120K+/yr job I hate to go back to “school” and start a new career path, or stay here, hate it, get laid off, have no credentials to get back into sales engineering.
In my experience, MCSE designation is valuable, but it may not be what you’re looking for. In most cases, hiring is done based on demonstrated capabilities and work experience, not course training and exam prep. In some cases, a company might require an MCSE simply as a pre-req filter, but they’ll still hire based on real experience.
In a few cases, companies might be looking to put MCSEs on staff regardless of their real qualifications because some contracts require a certain number of participants to be certified. A company might need to bump their number of certified employees even though they already have the expertise covered.
Much of the MCSE exam prep I’ve seen helps you pass the exam, but if that’s you’re only exposure to the various topics, you won’t really be qualified to admin. Most of them seem aimed at working admins who need to brush up on the details for the exam or get current with a new release. In these cases, if you’re not already familiar with the general workings of the system you’re studying, the exam prep course will be over your head. I don’t have any experience with the more comprehensive “boot camps” that advertise taking you from zero to MCSE in a short time, so their training might be more useful for you.
In short, MCSE training might be a great way to jumpstart yourself on another track, but be prepared to accept “entry level” positions until you have some real experience on your resume.
MCSE’s aren’t worth what they once were. Unfortunately the field is so flooded with them that they’ve become a dime-a-dozen.
However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a worthwhile thing to have. They are somehwhat like a college degree these days. If you don’t have one a company won’t talk to you at all. If you do have one you can get in line with the thousands of others who also have one and had better have some experience or some other way to separate yourself from the masses.
As to obtaining an MCSE there are many ways to go about it. Depending on how focused you are you can get one in less than two months instead of six (I’ve seen it done). You also needn’t take classes. All you have to do for your certification is take the tests and pass. However you get the knowledge to pass those tests is up to you. If your are focused and disciplined and have a decent background on computers already simply picking up some (hefty) books and reading them might see you through. If you require explanations from experts or more hands-on time then a class might make more sense. Unfortunately those classes are bloody expensive such that getting your MCSE can run upwards of $10,000 so the books can seem attractive depending on your financial situation.
FWIW the tests are freakin hard. Not because the material is rocket science but because you must answer their way which isn’t necessarily the right way that experience has shown. Also, I swear the tests are written by sadists who try trick questions at every opportunity and include extremely obscure and useless questions that they somehow think are relevant to something. Finally, on occasion some question answers are marked ‘correct’ on the test but turn out to be flat out wrong even according to their own books (I’ve personally seen this). Add it all up and these tests become a real drag to take (and expensive at $100 a pop).
Stay at your current job. The techie job market isn’t doing so great right now. You sound like you have some excellent pay and security there, so I wouldn’t risk it.
The entire MCSE program has been completely revamped and has become MUCH harder. This is an attempt by microsoft to weed out “paper MCSEs” and lower quality technicians, to restore the prestige of the MCSE.
Having an NT40 mcse (the old one) isn’t too valuable these days, but the win2k mcse (believe me, I know) is harder to get. And with it, assumably, comes more value.
What is it exactly that you’re trying to get into?
Most of the stuff that the MCSE will get you won’t land the $120K you’re making now.