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Question

Are MSOffice certifications worth anything?

Apr 29, 2012 10:04AM PDT

So I saw that someone I knew had gotten ms office certification and dreamweaver/photoshop certifications. My question is, are these worth anything in today's job market? I'm going to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagn for Computer Science (or maybe Computer engineering, I'm not sure yet, maybe double major) and I'm wondering would it be worth it for me to do the same as that guy? Would it help me get a job after college or get internships while in college? Also, are there any other worthwhile certifications to get? Like say, in certain OSs or certain programming languages.


Sorry I had no idea where to post this haha.

Discussion is locked

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Small world.
Apr 29, 2012 10:09AM PDT
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It matters to someone
Apr 30, 2012 3:15AM PDT

They're worth something to the people hiring, thus a requirement or a fulfilled requirement within a given time. I personally find these useful only in that at least the person has an idea what's going on, but overall its book learning. That means to me and from what I've seen generally not much that was learned will ever get used in its entirely. Since these weren't around some time ago and now appear all over they are a "cash cow" to those offering them besides any benefits provided by them. It's getting to a point you need a certificate to turn-ON a PC it seems, IMHO.

tada -----Willy Happy

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You got that right
Apr 30, 2012 3:23AM PDT

One of the things I tell a person when they graduate or pass a certification exam is that all they have done is earned the right to go out and learn how things really work. I once had an Engineer tell me that he was designing a zero down time test set. LMOMBO He had just join the company right out of college. After the set he designed was entered into service he started to learn that the real world is a bit tougher then he thought.

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definitely
May 11, 2012 2:36PM PDT

All the responses I've seen so far are pure balderdash.

First, MS Office is not going away. It's still the best office suite, the best integrated within its own suite and the best integrated with other PC applications (and my wife perfers her MAC version to Apple alternatives). The suite offers numerous ways to navigate and launch processes, from drop-down menus, to keystroke combinations, to gesture-like mouse movements -- and it is intuitive. I am no spokesman for MS and would much rather have a freebie like Open Office, but when I tried it as a substitute, it just didn't flow the same way.

Even if I did prefer an alternative, the business world is locked long-term into MS Office and they are not likely to throw out a long-term investment. It's just not worth the risk. Moreover, when you look for somewhere who can fit into the office and handle what the rest of the team can handle, then MS Officed is the way to go.

Which leads me to the next two pieces of misinformation.

The MS Office certification is NOT book-learning. It is an intense hands-on course that weaves the trainee through many levels and domains of the product. You do, and the computer monitors what you do. Final exams are machine-supervised exercises in a time-limited period. Either you have mastered Office or you have.

And no, I am not blowing my own horn. I am not Office-certified. In fact, I am not MS certified in anything. I with I were. I wish I could afford the training. But I am not. I have, however, been a faculty member in a school that does offer Office certification while backing it up with classroom teachers. What I saw in the classroom was very convincing.

And, of course, it is extremely useful when applying for a job that requires skill in something like Word or Excel or Publisher. You might have the skills without the certification, but how is Human Services to know that. Some of the skills required to handle PowerPoint or Access can be both esoteric and high level, yet essential to the project. Even a mail-merge, which I used to integrate student past performances with test questions in my classroom, can be challenging for a project such as mine. If you have the cerfication, fine, you can do it. If not, why hire you when there is somewhat on your heels with an equal background plus the certification?

Beyond that, the possession of the certification puts you steps above those who do nothing. Companies want gung-ho employees, employees who think for themselves, take control of their lives. Having a certification or two goes a long way to establishing what they can expect after they hire you.

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Office will never go away because
May 12, 2012 5:02AM PDT

it's the number one tool used by non-IT employees. I'm a software administrator and I finished a product where we are out sourcing part of our business and i was working with the 3rd party that needed to import our data. I used Microsoft SQL write the queries to extract the data then copied it to the format they wanted Excel.

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Office certification is
May 12, 2012 4:57AM PDT

more of something needed for an administrative position of an Office manager. It's also more valuable in the small office environment. You probably won't have any courses that teach office in computer science program. It may be discussed in a MIS type class but that's about it. The best certifications are networking, system administration, SQL and security. I'm on an advisory board for a local college and we met with a bunch of local professionals to discuss the schools curricullum. The head hunters in the Orlando area were saying they can't find enough .NET developers. They don't have enough developers to fill the needed jobs. They also said that Java programmers are all from overseas since everyone in India knows Java. They surprised me when they said info structure people are a dime a dozen. I've noticed my organization security is becoming more important. Another area that hot now is Sharepoint development.