Are your job candidates' previous employers dying to share information with you? Do they even understand all of the tasks that IT people perform? Do you? One way to find out if candidates know their stuff is to ask them if they have an IT certification. Just as a CPA indicates that you should be able to trust someone's financial advice, a computer certification can tell you if job applicants have expertise in a certain area of technology.

And, there are lots of certifications. For example, an A+ certification tells you that someone knows their way around the hardware that makes up a computer. They would probably be a qualified service technician who could install, configure or troubleshoot computers for you. The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification tells you that a candidate can handle networking that includes Cisco routers. There are also certifications for Linux and Novell as well for various database and programming flavors and for other popular products.

Microsoft certifications are among those most commonly sought, since that company has a largest share of the technology pie. After passing one or more tests toward a certification, an individual may become an MCP or Microsoft Certified Professional. After passing a certain number of exams along a path, they may become a MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) who can design and administer Microsoft networks, or a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) who can handle workstation-related problems from either the hardware or the software side. Microsoft provides a more complete description of certifications for their products >www.microsoft.com/ learning/mcp/default.asp