Get Certified & Get Ahead, Millennium Edition [Paperback]

Anne Martinez (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 007134781X | ISBN-13: 978-0071347815 | Publication Date: January 28, 1999

The first edition of this book has sold more than 7,500 copies in the trade and 12,000 through all channels. This edition will incorporate approximately 30 new certifications as well as update existing listings.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If your goal is to be an independent technical worker of any kind, it's generally accepted that you'll need at least one major certification. A lot of organizations that hire contractors look for a recognized certification as a preliminary qualification for a job, so you need some sort of certification in order to be taken seriously. Get Certified & Get Ahead provides some information about the various computer and networking certifications available, shares a lot of advice on why getting certified is a good idea, and tells how you can use your certification to maximum effect.

This would be a better book if it went into greater detail on the various professional certifications available to information technology workers. Author Anne Martinez is both a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), but she barely touches on the purposes (much less the requirements) of each of these popular and valuable certifications. Instead, she devotes half of this book to soft (and too often obvious) information, such as how to study, shop for training services, and advertise your qualifications on your Web site. The other half of this book is a directory of companies and the certifications they offer, with brief statements of what each is meant to prove, how much testing costs, what prerequisites exist, and where information appears on the Web. It's a mixed bag, but mostly these pages compile material that's freely available on the Web. --David Wall

Topics covered: Computer and networking certification, with emphasis on how and why you should pursue it. There's information on how to decide which certification is best for you, how to select training and secure financing, and how to study for technical exams. There's also a decent directory of companies and their certifications (it has many entries, but individually they're too brief and lack sufficient detail). --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Martinez presents a high-level discussion of career certification in areas such as webmaster, Cisco routing, IBM, Java, Microsoft, Novell, PowerBuilder, SAP, and Visual Basic. This is not the book to use to get certified, but it will help readers to consider if certification would be worthwhile. Martinez discusses what certification means in various arenas, the benefits and payoffs, the types of certification and pitfalls in choosing, how to study for certification, and how to stay certified, and she offers a complete list of certification programs. This is an excellent book for public libraries of all sizes.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (January 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007134781X
• ISBN-13: 978-0071347815
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,970,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is huge. And its hugely useful!, July 15, 1999

By 

David Firoozi, Training Manager (david@firooz... (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get Certified & Get Ahead, Millennium Edition (Paperback)

Along with the information revolution come new paradigms; of identity (e.g. Domain names), of rewards (e.g. contract rates), of time parameters (e.g. email), of space parameters (e.g. cyberspace), and now new ways of learning _ certification.

Certifications have created a new class of education; not university based, no minimum standards required, fluency in English a must, very flexible, very global, and very rewarding. The certified are the leaders in the information revolution.

The underlying concept of the book is that of the Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK). What is called an " . . . agreed upon baseline . . ." (p.xvii Foreword). The author doesn't say it directly, but I think she believes these CBOK's are converging into vendor-neutral certifications. This is because of her vision in seeing what is just over the horizon. A trend to look out for. Actually, this is also a comment on the role of Professional Associations into the future in determining minimum standards of competencies for professionals as well as things like ethical behavior.

In the meantime, "Certifications of a lower quality and less value will fall by the wayside, while a handful will gain increasing prominence" (p.35). And also, multiple platform certifications to show cross-platform expertise (p. 68) as well as "middle-of-the-road certifications" and "hybrid certifications". (p.110)

The IT field continues to be a worker's market but; "when you consider that most of the major industry vendors and many of the minor ones have already launched programs, it's obvious why the rate of growth can't continue apace; most of the players are already in the game" (p.28). Furthermore, " . . . certification is becoming a tool to define a path for professional development" (p.29). And finally, "certification will go from its current status as a qualification that elevates one professional above another to one that is present on more resumes than not" (p.36) " . . . people who have ignored the trend will have to play catch-up" (p.42)

Don't expect the author to spell out which certifications are best and which ones are useless. It depends on your background and where you are going. What you have to do is to read between the lines, e.g. the question of tainted certifications on page 22 and the various quotes from interviewed individuals who recommend what worked for them. The closest she gets is on pages 114 to 115 Choosing a Certification Because it's Hot. One very clever thing is that of categories between one to four for all the 200+ certifications quoted.

This book should be called the A to Z of certifying yourself. And it's a good test of your possible success in certification. To get the most out of it, you have to knuckle down and read it end to end!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The book not well covered for specific certification., February 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Get Certified and Get Ahead (Certification Series) (Paperback)

I dont think any readers will get enough detail about A+, MSCE, CNA and many other computer related certification. This book talked about career planning, it doesnt say anything about what certification is good and what is not I would say buy other book pertaining to your interest, specifically exam guides.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for New People or Career Changers, October 12, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Tempe, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get Certified and Get Ahead (Certification Series) (Paperback)

This book has some great information but is written for people new to the Industry -- I am an MCSE and would have liked to seen more upto date/accurate numbers and talk about which certifications are becoming saturated etc. and which certifications are still rare but in demand. Great overview book of certifications for beginners.