Are people still getting Microsoft Certifications?

You bet. I didn't know we published these numbers but we do:

https://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/certified.mspx

SOme interesting points. More .NET developers certify on Web applications than on Windows Applications. There haven been more Visual Studio 6.0 MCSD's than there are Microsoft .NET MCSD's. But it's clear that the latter will catch up. Also I see a very low number of certifications on VSTS. Probably because the certifications are recent.

Not sure how the situation is around the globe but in Belgium, there's definately a shortage of .NET developers. So if you're a .NET developer with a certification, you're going to be in a great position to negotiate.

Update: Just got a message from Tom Mertens about a deal that's running until January 2008. Apparently if you take an exam in that timeframe and fail, you get a free retrial (second shot information). For me (and other lazy people :-)) this would mean I first try to pass the exam without studying and then curse and study like hell for the retrial.

 

Microsoft credential Certification Worldwide achievers Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) .NET Framework 2.0: Distributed Applications .NET Framework 2.0: Web Applications .NET Framework 2.0: Windows Applications SQL Server 2005: Business Intelligence Development SQL Server 2005 BizTalk Server 2006: Custom Applications Business Desktop Deployment Solution Accelerator 2.0 Business Desktop Deployment with the BDD Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Configuration Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Application Development Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Configuration Microsoft Team Foundation Server: Configuration and Development Windows Mobile 5.0: Application Development Windows Mobile 5.0: Configuration Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Application Development Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Configuration Windows Vista: Configuration 3,030 8,392 5,075 227 18,537 1,253 1,931 963 990 590 370 1,696 195 98 117 316 1,040 4,316 Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD)   73,905 Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) Microsoft .NET Visual Studio 6.0 30,975 46,157

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 23, 2007
  PingBack from http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2007/09/23/are-people-still-getting-microsoft-certifications/

• Anonymous
  October 02, 2007
  Let's say that 20% of the certified people are cheaters. I interviewed a few people who had certificates on .NET 2.0 with +90% score. When I asked a question (doing technical interviews) they didn't know how to get the AppSettings from the config file. So they used Braindumps. Even the girl from pakistan or afghanistan of 10 years or 12 years old was certified. How can a kid have such a good .NET knowledge? Make the exams more practical so you really have to know the things instead of studying them.