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...

One of the great advantages to MVP Summit is the information that is made available to us; speak to any MVP and chances are they were in no fewer than a dozen sessions over the course of four days, not to mention all of the break-out sessions, the Open Space sessions on the first day, and a plethora...

Because of my involvement I am often asked how certification exams are created. For the most part I have not answered the questions because of the secrecy behind it, but recently I came across this great outline on the Microsoft MCP site. I hope it helps! -M At the heart of the Microsoft Certified Professional...

Get a free retake on your next Microsoft IT Professional, Developer, or Microsoft Dynamics certification exam. This is a limited offer so plan now! If you register for the Second Shot offer starting September 15, 2007, prior to taking any exam, you will receive a free Second Shot exam if you don't...

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...

‘Is that a time machine? It looks like a time machine!’ I momentarily thought I was in the movie Pursuit of Happyness, but the man asking me the question was just making a joke. I was standing at the gate waiting to board my plane in Houston, and the man was referring to the cube PC with the translucent...

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...

Many of you know that earlier this year I wrote a series of e-learning courses for Microsoft Learning that eventually became the Collection 5974: Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for a Small- and Medium-Sized Business. The project was a joint effort of several parties comrpising...

I have spent quite a bit of time in the past two years writing and speaking about IT certifications. It is hard to believe that my path to certifications started about six years ago, and that I passed my first certification exam just over four years ago. It feels like yesterday that I first walked into...

I wrote this as a reply to a reply in the CanITPro blog, and thought it would be good to repost it here. -M I have said time and again that certifications are a path to follow, not a destination to arrive at. I remember when I passed my first exam how excited I was to achieve my first cert... not knowing...