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| Hi Scott. I dont have the required half an hour it would
take to read your whole post. But I just wanted to say
good luck with whatever your mission is. Use the schwartz.
:-)
>-----Original Message-----
>1st off I'd like to say kudos and "about time" that a
>certification was developed for the largest staffing
>compliment within most large IT organisations, the
>helpdesk/desktop teams.
>
>Having said that, I see massive problems with this.
>
>For at least a decade the HR world has beaten into the
>heads of its non-technically inclined recruiters and
>account managers that you can't present a candidate to a
>15 dollar an hour IT job unless he/she has a valid MCSE
>(Engineering) cert. While we all appreciate the
>absolutely grotesque absurdity of a support tech needing
>an engineering cert based on their job description and
>career path having absolutely nothing at all to do with
>engineering, the fact remains that your employed IT
>Support people likely all have been forced to take, pay
>for and pass the MCSE requirements just to get a job.
>
>The HR world, moves slower than most as its staffed
almost
>exclusively with non-IT career folks who know only what
>they read about in the news regarding IT certifications,
>qualifications and trends. Enter the MCSA
certification.
>HURRAY!!!
>
>Finally something about Administering a network rather
>than how to build one. But do any HR people know about
>this? How many contract companies do you think are
>willing to admit that they've turned away qualified
>administrators and instead hired engineers for server
>admin, network Admin, LAN admin jobs based solely on
>thinking an MCSE was the holy-grail catch-all one
required
>before getting one's resume looked at or indeed rescued
>from the trash can?
>
>Now we add a "Desktop Support" certification and might I
>also point out that for some reason the
>terminology "Desktop" seems to no longer be used.
>Apparently HR folks have re-labeled things as Helpdesk II
>or Helpdesk Support, or Support Analyst II etc... and
when
>you mention the term "Desktop Support" they say things
>like "what's that?", or "never heard of that before",
>or "oh you mean helpdesk!"
>
>My main issue with this wonderful Cert which I applaud
>whole heartedly and look forward to getting is this: how
>many MCSE's are entrenched in Desktop Support... I
>mean, "helpdesk" positions who have been trained how to
>buil,d a network but not to administer or support one,
and
>how many contract, staffing, sourcing firms are going to
>look at anyone without the sacred talisman and admit
these
>shortcomings, opting to hire staff with this new unknown
>certification despite it being the defining
qualifications
>test of a productive support analyst?
>
>Do we fire the MCSE's who are whoolly unskilled and
>untrained in supporting a network or a desktop
environment
>being as they should have never been hired into support
>and instead placed into the Infrastructure divisions
where
>their certifications would be valid, and replace the mis-
>employed by those with the right qualifications?
>
>Do we sit all the HR staffing people in a room and once
>and for all try to teach them who is qualified to do what
>and why and hope it actually sinks in being as these non-
>IT people are in complete control over who gets the
>interviews and who gets shunned?
>
>How does one correct the indoctrination that MCSE is all
>one needs to do anything IT related and disseminate new
>policy that actually makes sense to people who can't
think
>for themselves and only look at resumes that
contain "what
>the end client specifically asks for"?
>
>How do we re-educate the end clients all over the world
>about why their own hiring practices are costing them
>money and lowering their TCO strategies and present them
>with a cost effective TCO solution with "the right cert
>for the right task"?
>
>Maybe I just think too much, but I've done work at
>Building 25, at Texaco Corporate in Houston, been a NOC
>manager for a Chevron company and done training for a MS
>Atec and I still come up with almost every huge
>multinational telling me I either need an MCSE for some
14
>dollar an hour help desk job which is personally
insulting
>to say the least; or when I apply to Admin jobs with the
>MCSA material I have taken they say things like "what's
>that?", or "the client wants an MCSE not whatever you
>have"? I get way too frustrated with IT managers who
know
>nothing about IT but have management jobs simply because
>the group they used to manage over in finance, or sales,
>or some other non-tech related division downsized and
>he/she just happened to land in IT where they've managed
>to screw up the entire inner workings of business flow,
>productivity and have staffed with capable, but grossly
>mis-placed employees.
>
>Perhaps someone from MS or Volt redmond reading this
would
>like to shoot me an email and let me know what I can do
to
>help.
>
>I live in Ontario Canada and was just offered a position
>with Volt in Toronto for 17 bucks an hour doing phone
>support work for MS SMS. Tell me that isn't insulting
>considering I'm a seasoned US Fortune 100 IT Manager.
>
>Is there anyone out there who can tell me how these new
>Certs will work for me or how I can drive the re-
education
>of the HR people? I'll step up to the plate and run with
>it. Anyone want to help me to help us all?
>
>Anyone?
>
>scott@weblife1.com
>.
>
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