Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 3 "Certified Rockstar"

Finding and Creating Your Value

The true value of your IT certification comes from what YOU do to create the value. You can put your certifications to good use and be a complete rockstar, or you can get certified and do nothing but flaunt around your signature block, resume and office's wall of pride.  Please, use it for good and be the rockstar. Do it to prove to yourself and others, that YOU ARE THE EXPERT, and not just a name with a list of acronyms at the end.  In short, be intelligent, don't be arrogant.

I've had several people ask me if I am going to be looking for a new job now that I have all these Microsoft Certifications.  The answer?  No. I still have A LOT of work to do!  Sure, I can go anywhere and get a significant salary increase, but why leave this place hanging when I can do so much more to help with my newly acquired knowledge!  First on my list, start identifying what needs to be fixed.

Identifying the Problems

We constantly have our binoculars out scanning the horizon for new technologies and thinking of ways to implement them to help our students, faculty and staff. On the other hand, we also need to make sure we put the binoculars down once and a while and see what is happening in our own environment.

Here are a few items that have come up that need to be tackled ASAP. Fixing these issues will definitely increase our value as a University.

Lack of Datacenter Redundancy

As an Enterprise Administrator, my professional life is contained within my datacenters, its applications and hardware and how it meets customer demands.  That being said, it had better run and run well or I won't have a personal life.

One thing our datacenter was lacking was application and hardware redundancy, we had SAN replication going on between sites and Domain Controller replication going, but other high demand applications were lacking in redundancy.  Our website, SQL databases, and Exchange Servers were stand alone systems.  Each of them are in very high demand, so rebooting them anytime before 2:00 AM is out of the question unless it is an absolute emergency.

Lack of Technical Knowledge Held by Students, Faculty and Staff

When I started as a student at the University, we had two Information Technology related Associate Degree programs, one in Network Administration and the other in Web Design.  About seven years ago, they were removed entirely.

Since the removal of pretty much our only technology directed fields, our office, in particular, has had to hire technicians with very little computer experience.  We are getting student technicians that are on track to graduate with Biology, English, and Wellness degrees.  Training them, pretty much from the ground up, is an ongoing occurrence.

Many of our technicians are all freshly out of High School, with little experience, that causes a problem when we have a more complex issue arise with a customer computer.  Who do we send, who's been here the longest? Do we escalate it up the chain to our most experienced server admin, who hasn't done technician duties for ages?  Our Faculty and Staff need to be serviced by quality work.  We also need to provide all of our students, faculty and staff with a proper technical learning environment.

Something needs to be done to ensure everyone knows what they are doing when it comes to technology and how to do it the right way.

Applying the Certifications to Resolve the Problems

Improving Datacenter Operations

Being certified has given me the confidence to really dig in and try to make our Datacenter optimized.  It used to be a mess, but has now been totally revamped and virtualized.  Having the advanced and expert knowledge of our infrastructure and the software we support has allowed me to add redundancy across the board.  This includes implementing Exchange 2010 DAGs, DFS replication,  Load Balanced Web Farm and SQL Clusters across two sites.

By implementing failover clusters, load balanced services, SQL Clusters, Client Access Arrays, and Database Availability Groups we have significantly improved and optimized our Datacenter availability at our two sites.

Training the Students, Faculty and Staff

Microsoft IT Academy - I'm currently working on a proposal to enroll our University in the Microsoft IT Academy program. This will help our Faculty and Staff with their professional development, and also provide the opportunity to start having more technology related classes at the university.

Let me tell you a secret, being a teacher has always been a dream of mine. Although I am not yet a Microsoft Certified Trainer, it is one of my goals to attain within the next 12 months.  Transferring knowledge to students and seeing them succeed in the end will help me both fulfill and continue my career goals and fulfill one of my personal dreams.

The plan: Enroll --> train our Faculty and Staff --> train our students.  It could be that simple, logistically. In reality, not so simple.
The obstacles: Staffing and $$$. I'm the only certified person able to teach Microsoft classes. Since we no longer have any technology classes, we have only one faculty member, not certified, that teaches MS Office. Will there be any demand for the classes or will it be a waste of time? Who is going to pay for it all?

One day my hope is to get over 90% of our Students, Faculty and Staff, Microsoft certified. The end result is intended to be a more technology converged personnel.

It is time to get the ball rolling.

In the End

Value your work, your employees and your image as a professional. Train and Certify your team, as often as you can.  Keep your professionals up-to-date on all technology aspects and you will keep your customers happy.

Imagine the possibilities attainable with your business, university or other environment that has a certified staff.  If you present yourself, your business, and your work, as being completed by experts and professionals, your end product will be held with the utmost value.

In the end, you will be the certified rockstar.

See Also:

Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 1

Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 2

Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 2 "A Change of Mind"

A Change of Mind - "Certification Baby Steps"

You know, after being in the IT environment for over 12 years, I didn't have anything tangible to prove to anyone what experience I held.  I could tell them over and over again an extensive list of experience, but in the end, would anyone really want to believe me? I wouldn't!  We've hired employees that baffled us with BS, no, wait..., "Experience", and they couldn't back up their resume FULL of "experience". At least if they held a certification we could have held them accountable for what they could do.

The First Step - Set My Goals

I began to think even more about the value of certifications and what I needed to do to make myself understand there is a reason to be certified.

The following are my reasons to become MCITP Enterprise Administrator certified:

• Boost Confidence
• Validate my knowledge, skills, and abilities in a measurable, quantifiable manner
• Find out what I didn't know, learn it, and add it to my IT arsenal
• Improve our Server Infrastructure
• Prepare our IT Infrastructure for new software releases
• Pass my knowledge onto others
• Show that our University is and can be current with the latest technology
• Show our Faculty, Staff, and Students that we have a knowledgeable "Expert" staff
• Have more background and influence when it comes to project decision making
• Prove to my employer that I am a value to the University
• Prove to myself that I am a valuable asset to the University
• To expand my IT knowledge and to become the best System Expert I could be.

The Second Step - Training

At this point I knew I wanted to become a Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator, at any cost.

I began to study and read Microsoft Training Kits, online articles, and anything else server related I could get my hands on. I implemented Windows Server 2008 R2 across the board to our external DNS servers, Domain Controllers, DHCP, Certificate Authorities, etc, but now needed to take advantage of what they were there for.  Through much research, labbing, testing, and implementing, I covered nearly everything that was going to be covered on several of the tests.  Moving all of your domain, network, CAs, and app servers to 2008 R2 over the course of a year is definitely a learning experience.  I made the server infrastructure I inherited from my predecessor my own.

Although I had performed all these upgrades, read through these books and articles, I still did not have the confidence needed to attempt to take any of the Microsoft tests.  I knew I was still missing some things I needed to learn MORE before I took the next step. Conveniently, the University asked for requests for "One-Time Money Allocation".  I thought, hey, I could use some training, our office hasn't had training for quite some time.

Last year I began investigating Live Classroom training centers.  I didn't want to train while sitting at my desk at work, with headphones and a microphone.  I wanted to see my instructor and talk to them actively without having the "virtual barrier".  I also wanted something that would be beneficial, something I could learn and take home, and something that was worth the cost.

That is when I found Mountain View Systems, LLC in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Talk about a godsend! James Carrion, their lead instructor for MCITP/MCSA/MCSE certifications is a Microsoft Certified Master!  Mountain View Systems, immediately moved to the top of my prospective trainers list.  After working with the incredible Rebekah Behr, I was enrolled in the MCITP Enterprise Admin class and on my way to be certified.  The training was an intense 16 day boot camp, and I have never learned so much in my life about how to optimize and implement all server roles into a Windows environment.  I thought I had a good understanding about Microsoft, but James brought everything else into light for me.  He would take the most complex scenarios, and present them to us in easy to understand ways. Throughout the 16 days I took the five Microsoft Exams required for the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008 and passed them all averaging 875 out of 1000 my lowest score being 815 on the 70-647 exam.

Anthony Carrion, Rebekah Behr and James Carrion at Mountain View Systems treat their customers like royalty and it was the most incredible training experience I have ever received. I am one SATISFIED customer!

Rebalancing and Hitting the Ground Running - Implementing My Newly Acquired Knowledge

Once the boot camp was completed and I was officially an MCITP: Enterprise Administrator and MCSA: Windows Server 2008, my confidence level was boosted extremely high and my entire perspective on certification has continued to change. I have met my goals and have began to make more.

At work, even though I was already the in-house "Expert" before becoming certified, I now have a greater feeling of accomplishment, productivity, expertise with my position. I have significantly improved our University server infrastructure and have began to pass the knowledge on to my coworkers.

I know that the job I have done and the tasks I plan for and perform are going to work as I now have the experience, confidence and training to back them up.

Next: Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 3

Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 1

Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 1 "Certification Denial"

Becoming certified in anything IT, well... those that have a big name and are widely popular and in demand, e.g., Cisco, Microsoft, ITIL, PMI, and (ISC)2, has been a need and definite positive influence for any job seekers in the IT market.  Each certificate can help classify you in a higher pay scale, open up options for a lead engineer/expert, security officer, or management position at many companies.  Your possibilities are endless, that is, if you can back up what you've proven on the test.

Certification Cheaters Ruined Me! - "Certification Denial"

Until recently, I had been extremely anti-cert, meaning, I didn't value the knowledge held by someone with an IT certification.  To me, you can know your stuff inside and out better than anyone that is certified.

To give you a little bit of background on why I have always been a bit hesitant and negative about IT certifications and their overall value, let me explain.

I started working for the University in 2002 as a student employee. We had a "certified professional" on staff, certified MCSE in Windows NT 4.0, who had been with the University a couple of years before I arrived.    There were times that I had to show him how to do basic things within Windows NT, even analyzing the event logs.  Talk about a disappointment of having an "MCSE" on staff and them not being able to perform basic server operations! He did not live up to what I expected of MCSE status, that is for sure.

Since I had to help him with his two servers, I had admin access to them as well. When it came time to have him stay or go, I was tasked to break something on it as long as it was easily fixable.  It was an easy fix in my eyes, simply check a box in the options of an application he was supposed to be the expert on and it's fixed.  It took him over a week to figure it out and he was certified in it! Long story short, he is no longer with us.

The second and probably most disappointing was an Instructional Designer we had from 2003 to 2005.  I just checked, and still listed on his resume are the following certifications: Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), Certified Novell Engineer (CNE), Enterprise Certified Novell Engineer (ECNE), Novell Authorized Instructor (NAI).  Seriously, this guy knows absolutely NOTHING about computers! He also is a Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD).  What ticked me off the most when he came down to our office and asked that we format a floppy disk because he couldn't figure it out. Other strange things... he wanted to receive his spam messages (we had no right to block them in his eyes), he would wear sweatpants and t-shirts to meetings with faculty and staff, and play his ukulele on a rock outside of one of the buildings. Some students would even toss him change when walking by, based on the fact that he looked like a transient in the clothes he was wearing. My guess? He could teach and learn the certs from a book without needing real world experience, besides that he knew nothing besides what the book said or directed him to say.

Continuing on, I've had coworkers who studied only brain dumps, then pass the test without having all the experience that should be reflective of the cert.

So, pretty much, from the official start of my IT career, the way I perceived a Microsoft Certified Professional was ruined. They way I viewed it was, you can be a good test taker, book smart, and study dumps to pass any IT certification exam.

I now have a change of mind. :)

Next: Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 2

Putting a Value on IT Certifications - Part 3