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[Neil]

Originally Posted by Lester Burnham

I'm surprised by that. I only switched jobs a couple of months ago and without a MCSE I got offered all three jobs I applied for.

You weren't applying for jobs that had a high technical requirement though.

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by Chris

I don't know if I'd go that far, I've seen plenty of adverts for very big IT companies in the last few weeks that specified an MCSE as a requirement.

Not because it's a worthwhile qualification, it's just a step up from requiring that the candidate can read and write before they come to an interview for a bottom of the barrel job.

If you want to get a certification that will actually help you get a better paying job, Sun Solaris admin, Oracle DBA or Juniper courses are the way to go.

[Lester Burnham]

Originally Posted by Neil

You weren't applying for jobs that had a high technical requirement though.

That's true. All were still keen on 2 years+ experience - not that that is particularly technical. It's true... at my level it's a lot easier to find work. Jobs for mega techie heads seem a lot less common. Saying that... you got harassed on the phone within a day of shoving your CV on the internet so it can't be all that bad.

[Hugh_Jazz]

Originally Posted by Stripey

Not because it's a worthwhile qualification, it's just a step up from requiring that the candidate can read and write before they come to an interview for a bottom of the barrel job.

If you want to get a certification that will actually help you get a better paying job, Sun Solaris admin, Oracle DBA or Juniper courses are the way to go.

In my field, most companies seem to be dropping Solaris in their droves, and moving towards Linux-based infrastructures, so from my point of view, something like Red Hat admin would be a far more desirable certification.

[Johnny Mac]

Originally Posted by Cloud

My uni just recently changed from perfectly functional, quite likable WebCT to the horrific Moodle. It's absolutely useless, even in the context of a tiny uni with about 900 HE students. I dread to think how it works in a much bigger educational setting :\

Believe me, Moodle is about 30000000000000000000000 times better than WebCT.

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

In my field, most companies seem to be dropping Solaris in their droves, and moving towards Linux-based infrastructures, so from my point of view, something like Red Hat admin would be a far more desirable certification.

I don't know what your field is or who you work for, but redhat is dead and has always been a joke for around a *decade* now. Maybe by "most companies" you mean some pointless oil services companies with a unit on some greasy industrial estate in bridge of don whos crucial IT infrastructure means an smpt relay, an http proxy and a slimey chlamidia infected secretary.Open your eyes.

[Stichman]

Originally Posted by The Kernel Loaf

Here's hoping you aren't responsible for the pointless abomination that is Moodle.

I think I've used Moodle once in the past year. I dislike everything about it. Especially the name. Moooooooodle. When does that "oooooo" end?

[Hugh_Jazz]

Originally Posted by Stripey

I don't know what your field is or who you work for, but redhat is dead and has always been a joke for around a *decade* now. Maybe by "most companies" you mean some pointless oil services companies with a unit on some greasy industrial estate in bridge of don whos crucial IT infrastructure means an smpt relay, an http proxy and a slimey chlamidia infected secretary.Open your eyes.

I was actually referring to major oil multi-nationals who are one of the biggest global consumers of high end *nix computing. Linux is cheap, robust, performant, and in response to the oil companies, most of our software suppliers are now also pushing strongly in the Linux direction.

Oh, and since I didnt show you one iota of disrespect....do me a favour and show me the same courtesy.

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

I was actually referring to major oil multi-nationals who are one of the biggest global consumers of high end *nix computing. Linux is cheap, robust, performant, and in response to the oil companies, most of our software suppliers are now also pushing strongly in the Linux direction.

Oh, and since I didnt show you one iota of disrespect....do me a favour and show me the same courtesy.

Linux is not robust, it is written by beardy basement-dwelling hobbyists with no idea about the real world. When you move to linux for production servers, all it takes is 1 nerd on the other site of the world to commit a piece of flawed code to the source tree and suddenly you can't do business anymore, or worse, and there is nobody to hold responsible. Yes it is cheap, and you get what you pay for.

Anyway, from the point of view of getting a certification worth putting on your CV, with the intention of earning money, anything to do with linux is a waste of time.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

I was actually referring to major oil multi-nationals who are one of the biggest global consumers of high end *nix computing. Linux is cheap, robust, performant, and in response to the oil companies, most of our software suppliers are now also pushing strongly in the Linux direction.

I have to say in my experience of working with the oil majors they all use Solaris if they aren't using Windows based servers. The only time I've seen some flavour of Linux in use is on workstations.

Linux has its place (it's great for web hosting for example - this web site is hosted on a dedicated Red Hat Linux server) but I wouldn't want to have something like Oracle or SAP running on a bunch of Linux boxes.