MCSE verify...

[NetScum]

A blowhard with a friends company of mine is stating he is MCSE certified and he is trying to steer the company in a direction (away from 2000/XP into Linux no less!) that they don't want to go... In the past few months he has made some very simple mistakes that even I wouldn't make and I'm nothing more than just a backyard wannabe computer geek. If anything I know enough to be dangerous but heck even I know how to flash a BIOS without FUBAR'n the motherboard!

ANYWAY, I was able to pass on a little bit of knowledge (from here of course) and now my friend is thinking this person is bogus... assuming any certification this guy presents is real, is there a place to verify if it is real or not? How can they find out if it is valid or not?

The person in question is not in the IT department, as it doesn't exist but he is trying to get into this position and taking over the whole network... again based on what he claims and what he does, there is doubt and before any action is taking they want to see if he has been lying about his credentials.

As always, thanks for any clues you can give me!

[NooNoo]

you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting each question right. MCSE doesn't mean you know how it really works.

He could be MCSE just not a very good one. He may be much better with linux, who knows? But, you really do not want to get involved in this kind of company politics. When it blows it tends to take the bystanders with it.

[gazzak]

Nobody knows everything. There are questions that would catch all of us out if you ask enough. Like NooNoo says, msce's aren't exactly degrees, (though NT4 was definately easier than W2K).

I know someone who fits this profile exactly, and he is very dangerous. Your friend is right to be alarmed. I wouldn't let someone like I know to be in charge of a modem, let alone a domain. We always catch him out by making small mistakes in what we're saying and see if he catches on. He never does. Stuff like "lrp printing instead of lpr", ip addresses of 10.10.1.360, class g subnets etc.

We watch him like a hawk, he's just the sort of person to introduce a virus!
Be afraid, be very afraid

[confus-ed]

So once upon a time there was a web site, where you could go with the certified trainers details & the candidates certificate number, feed in a name & it told you if it was there on their 'passed' database .. but I'm jiggered if I can find it .. (maybe they don't do it anymore as there's like a zillion certified trainers now? anyone tell me/us ?)

So usually when checking references I'll ring any M$ certified trainer, who will have tested & issued a cert 'supposedly', having done some googling to check them out if I don't recognise the trainers name, to find out what the candiate took when etc if required by whoever is recruiting - but they only keep currently 'takeable' certs usually so sometimes its hard to get a straight answer, you can't check on mine for instance I did MCSE when nt 3.51 was around - I just test everyone, no matter what it says on their cvs or any certs I actually see, & its not unknown for other people to go pass them for folks ! & I dunno many trainers who have procedures to stop this, some do keep photo records, but not all ..

Gary you are 'pissed' (uk sense) if you believe the exams are getting harder - sure what you have to know is 'more', but with practice tests etc, its waaaaay easier to pass now, than years ago ..

Which brings me nicely to "Billy's way" - mcse tells you how to plan & implement an M$ based network (well a whole load of specifying/scheduling/ordering of tasks & the doing it bit for windows - planning would involve considering other alternatives to just one method), not whether its a good idea or not to do it Billys way & I'm pretty sure you don't need an mcse to deduce that !

IMHO - other than for 'starter' jobs - certs are just 'nothing' they should be in addition to any current provable experience or should be if you have a 'robust' hiring system !

[WebHead]

I've been attempting to prepare for earning my MCSE exams by reading through the books (so far I'm on Network Infrastructure , and I read a bit of Win2K Server),.. and so far all I've discovered is that MCSE only covers how Microsoft thinks things should be. It really means nothing, because in the real world, things aren't always as perfect as Bill Gates would like them to be.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that having an MCSE is great in that is shows you have the ability to pass a test after studying hard for it. And it is a great compliment to real life experience, but it definately does not in any way-shape-or-form measure ones computer/network/security/etc. knowledge.

[WebHead]

One more thing,.. now that I think about it, If I were you, I'd be more interested in verifying his references and previous employment rather than the validity of his msce certs. For instance, is this his first IT job? Maybe he doesn't have any prior experience. Maybe he's a gung ho rookie who's trying to reinvent the wheel?


EDIT

Hehe,.. after going back over this thread, I just realized Confus-ed already covered most of what I said. LOL. My bad.

[silencio]

Any MCP can setup their certification record to be viewed by a (prospective) employer. You plug in a string, it hashes another, and the employer visits the website with those logon credentials.

[confus-ed]

Any MCP can setup their certification record to be viewed by a (prospective) employer. You plug in a string, it hashes another, and the employer visits the website with those logon credentials.

Oooo ! ta - I thought I was having one of my confus-ed recollections there

So then for MCSE then you'd need to do this for every exam you took to 'build' it ? Anymore info ? Links ? I for one would be interested -TIA

[silencio]

It's simple to do and shows all the good info you want them to see.

This is the website:

https://partnering.one.microsoft.com...lidatemcp.aspx

And the transcript looks like this: