I am not a number! I'm an MCSE!! (and so is he...)

Recently I found myself giving some impromptu careers advice to a handful of Servicemen who were about to leave HM Armed Forces as a result of injury, some sustained on Active Service in Afghanistan. They were looking at "getting into IT", a less physically-demanding job with sound long term propsects.

"Is an MCSE a good thing for getting a job?" was the typical question. My
take was 'yes' and 'no'.

Yes - if this is your first foray into IT training and certification, then getting an MCSE would be a good introduction into basic IT principles and understanding the role certifications play and their shelf-life in the IT industry.

No - if you think it's enough to bag just this one qualification and then sit back and let your career take off. I didn't have the statistics at hand but my point to them was there are 2.3 million Microsoft Certified Professionals in the world today. 878,000 of them are MCSE's. No need to feel lonely then...

If you want a strategy for your career then you need to realise two basic truths:
1. Certifications are like fish - they are best when they are fresh and definitely go off after a while.
2. Certifications are like fish - if you want to catch a worthwhile one then you need to go fishing where other people aren't.

Analyse the latest certification statistics from the likes of Microsoft and Cisco and see where the there is currently a glut and a famine of talent.

A few statistics standout from Microsoft:

• There are just under 1.4 million MSCE's & MCSA's in the world today.
• But there are only 2 people with Microsoft Certified Master: Microsoft SQL Server 2008; and
• "Microsoft Virtual Earth 6.0: Developing Applications" is a club with only 39 members
  
• In fact there are 11 Microsoft certifications with less 100 qualified people in the world.

As for Cisco and their hallowed "CCIE" qualification:

• 18,674 CCIE's worldwide, yet;
• Only 140 are Storage Networking CCIE's

But when you look at the regional dispersion of those 18 thousand people, you find a few other interesting facts:

Like there is only 1 CCIE in the whole country of:

• Barbados
• Guadeloupe
• Cayman Islands
• Ecuador
• Uruguay
• Guatemala
• Albania
• Andorra
• Belarus
• Moldova
• Angola
• Botswana
• Chad
• Ethiopia
• Ghana
• Lesotho
• Mauritius
• Yemen
• New Caledonia
• Kirbati
• East Timor
• Georgia
• Laos; and finally...
• good ole Uzbekistan

The point to all this is that there are a raft of niche applications and solutions out there that have their market cornered and need competent, certified people to work with them.
My parting advice to these young guys was to:

• Understand that certifications were going to be a constant requirement through any hands-on career in IT; so
  
• Look for something to get you started and then look to manoeuvre yourself into developing areas of technology where niches exist, but, as always, keep mobile.