What to focus on?

  • Thread starter Thread starter netsurfer802
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netsurfer802

Hi I'm currently in school taking Microsoft Office. I'm thinking
that employers really care if I was certified by Microsoft--for
instance
passing the Microsoft Word test would be of more relavent importance--
then having a certification from a local college like St. Petersburg
College....this upcoming semester will be PowerPoint. Wondering if I
should
put it off and just go for the Microsoft Word test and perhaps Excel
(after this semester which is more about Microsoft Word). I'm a
resident of Florida and there seems to be a fair amount of these kind
of jobs around.

So, summary of my question is do employers care more for somebody
certified
by an acredited college in Office or by Microsoft for Word or Excel?
 
It's hard to say. Mine didn't ask for any sort of certification
though they were definitely looking for high-end skills -- and
I don't think they *really* understood the explanation of 'MVP'
in my cover letter. They did give me a simple formatting test,
which I later learned all other interviewees failed. (Two in
fact bowed out in advance when informed their skills would be
verified in this way!) Employers, especially in small and
medium-sized firms, tend not to know much about things like
certification, and some perhaps justifiably mistrust credentials
they've never heard of. (The BrainBench.com tests, which I aced
before I really had any sort of expert-level knowledge, are an
example of "tests" that evaluate almost nothing.)

As well, knowing lots about Word doesn't guarantee performance
under pressure, essential language skills, or even the proper
attitude toward computing. And with the job market as squeaky
as it is now, you need to be more than just versed in the topic.
While a piece of paper may help get your foot in the door in a
huge law firm or some other click-farm, those places aren't a
growing sector; they also tend to be not much fun to work in.

Bottom line: I'd say if you have the time to spare, do it, but
do it mainly for what you might learn, not for where it alone
might get you. Get good at Word, and get very familiar with
Excel. Oddly a lot of PowerPoint work seems hogged by the
originators themselves, maybe because it's so pretty; still,
you can't go wrong adding it to your skill set and resume.
But also work at developing the more critical and perhaps
less teachable skills that make the big difference: Acquire
a built-in feel for how the programs work. Explore EVERY
menu item in every program. (Turn *off* those #&%$%$%#$@
"adaptive" pulldowns.) Even just knowing where to FIND the
really tough answers has saved my butt, and by extension my
boss's, dozens of times; yet nobody goes off to get certified
in Google!
 
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