New Microsoft Certifications Will Expire

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
In my earlier post today, I wrote that Microsoft's certification program is being reinvented - Again.  One important fact was briefly mentioned in the video below, taken from the Microsoft News Center website: The new MCSE and MCSD certifications will expire.



At 1:07 the video explains, "Those holding an Expert certification are required to recertify every 2-3 years."  The Expert tier is the new MCSE and MCSD certification.  This is supposed to ensure that their skills are always up to date.

It's unclear whether "out-dated" certifications will simply expire or whether they will completely drop off the transcript altogether.  I hope it's the former.  In my career as a consultant, I work with many customers with systems that are not "current" and are out of extended support.  It's important for these customers to know that I'm certified on their old (and new) platform when performing a migration.

I can also imagine hiring managers for companies with older platforms would be interested in hiring IT Pros with certifications on what they run, not just the latest and greatest.

What do you think?  Leave a comment below.

7 comments:

  1. I believe agree as consultant some of my clients are running legacy systems and it is important to show that you have certification on those systems. I think the older style for certification that supported last 2 versions was much efficient.

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  2. It would be a shame for old certs to simply disappear from your transcript. What if you wanted to show a history of keeping up to date in the latest MS certifications over the years?

    If only the latest show in your transcript how does this differentiate between a Microsoft "veteran" and someone who just got their first certs?

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  3. I worry that people that are holding an MCSE in NT will not have that on their resume and recruiters will not know the difference and think these guys are current. Luckily most of those types get weeded out during the interview process but going back to the MCSE/MCSA is going to confuse a lot of people.

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  4. Microsoft certifications have expired for a while now. MCTS and MCITP have always been linked to the product lifecycle.

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  5. Not true, Mike. I still have certifications on my transcript for MCTS exams from four years ago and MCITP for Windows 2008 and Exchange 2007. Both of these products have ended support.

    The first generation MCSE certifications also never expired. Once you certified on NT4, Windows 2000 or 2003, you are certified for life. I earned my first MCSE for NT4 in 1999 and it still shows on my current transcript.

    My concern with the new MCSE certifications is that they will drop off transcripts entirely.

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  6. I've been an trainer for about 8 years now. When the "MCP 2.0" certifications came out, Microsoft announced they are linked to product lifecycle, but did not spell out what that meant for the transcript itself. MCSE (2000, 2003) however does not expire. The re-use of MCSE by Microsoft is really dumb.

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  7. I'm not sure why they haven't bothered to update the transcripts, but here it says it expires: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcts.aspx#tab3

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