The World According to Mitch

An acquaintance sent me an e-mail yesterday in which he essentially asked: 'I am interested in becoming an IT Professional.  What certifications should I get and where should I start?'  Here is my answer to him: You are right on the mark… certifications, no matter which one, take...

The following is a comment I made to a blog article on Network World on the topic of certification exam security.  The actual post can be found here:  http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26502 Using the MCP ID card as your security poses a number of downsides.  To mention two severely...

I suppose I don't do a very good job of advertising the fact that I am the Chief Training Officer for Certguard.com, an organization dedicated to helping IT Pros get certified, and to boosting the credibility of those certifications by actively hunting down cheaters and especially the organizations...

An interesting post appeared in a newsgroup that I monitor today. A desktop support technician in the United Kingdom lamented a colleague who had attended a two week MCSE boot camp and indeed earned that certification. Unfortunately he later encountered a number of simple issues that he could not resolve...

It is a common misconception that information such as the number of questions on a given cert exam is protected by the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), and it has been repeated so many times by so many people that some people are surprised when I answer the question. That being said, this is not a History...

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Shon Hong of Microsoft Learning, who has the (to me) fascinating job of hunting down cheaters. Let me explain: Microsoft exams are the basis for the entire Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) program. The exams you pass earn you credentials and credibility...

I have gone on and on about the importance of that first cert exam, but I have read a lot of comments recently that made me realize how important exam selection can be to that successful first exam. If your decision to get certified is based on professional necessity – i.e.: your boss said you need to...