CD Backup Made Easy
Today, CD Writers are very common and CDRs and CDRWs are cheaper than ever. While most people use their CD Writers to create music CDs or to copy files, CD-R and CD-RWs can also be to store backups in an easy way. A normal CD can store 650MBs of...
D-BUST Your Computer – Part 4-b
D-BUST Your Computer – Part 4-b by: Janet L. Hall At some time you might find that you have created a document that you will want to save in more then one place, such as another folder. Maybe you’ll need to save your document to another media,...
Those Annoying Spam Emails
Commonly referred to as spam, unsolicited commercial email is becoming a big problem today. If you’ve ever had your email address on a spam list, then you know how annoying it is to have to wade through dozens of advertisements to get to the mail...
Transfer The Digital Camera Images To Your Computer
There are a few very important tasks associated with using the digital camera. The most important is of course capturing a beautiful photograph. The next most important task is that of transferring this image somewhere from where it can be...
What Makes Up A Laptop? Batteries, Screens And Cpus
Laptops, also known as notebook computers, are trendy and functional computer devices that are now giving business people the best of both worlds in terms of business efficiency and mobility largely due to the fact that you can use batteries to...
The Hidden Benefit Of Computer Certification
The web is covered with stories regarding the benefits of professional computer certification, and most of them are backed up with salary surveys and the like. While there?s certainly nothing wrong with making more money and having better job prospects, there?s one benefit of certification that many candidates forget about.
Confidence.
You can?t pay your rent with confidence; you can?t pay for gas with confidence; you can?t pay for ANYTHING with confidence, right? So who cares, right?
Wrong. The confidence you build from truly earning a certification, whether it?s an MCSE, CCNA, or CCIE, cannot be purchased, borrowed, or stolen. It has to be earned.
What do I mean by ?truly earned?? First, I?m referring to those little documents out there generally referred to as ?braindumps?. If you buy one of these things and happen to skate by a certification exam, did you learn anything? No. Did you learn anything? No. Are you going to be effective on the job? No. As I tell my students, when you?re standing in front of a server or router that isn?t working, and all eyes are on you to troubleshoot the problem, the correct answer is not ?B?. There is no multiple choice.
Secondly, I?m referring to the hope that the certification you earn was earned by taking a demanding exam.
Now, you?re probably thinking ?okay, Chris has lost his mind. I should HOPE the test is demanding??
Yes, you should. There?s nothing more useless than earning a certification that?s easy to get. There?s no feeling of pride, of achievement; furthermore, if everyone else has that certification, what value does it have?
I can speak from experience on this one. Those of you
relatively new to the field may never have used NT 4.0, but the MCSE NT 4.0 was the certification that ended up causing a lot of damage to the value of professional certifications. EVERYBODY had one. The tests were repetitive and far too simple, there were no simulation questions, and the exams required no real hands-on experience.
As a result, my MCSE NT 4.0 had little value. I also felt no sense of pride in achieving it.
Thankfully, exam vendors and authors seem to have learned their lesson. Cisco exams are not easy to pass, and the initial Cisco certification, the CCNA, demands hands-on knowledge and experience. Microsoft is (finally) adding simulator questions to their certification exams as well, and the MCSE exams have gotten tougher as well.
So if you should happen to fail an exam along the way to the top ? and almost all of us do ? just keep in mind that if the exams were not demanding, they would have no value.
After all, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it!
About The Author
Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage. The Bryant Advantage sells the world's most comprehensive CCNA Study Guide in PDF format for only $15 and is the ONLY company specializing in CCNA and CCNP rack rentals, allowing candidates for these certifications to gain vital hands-on experience with full racks of Cisco routers and switches with labs and prices designed just for them. Lots of FREE CCNA and CCNP tutorials and articles, too! Visit his site at www.thebryantadvantage.com today!
