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
