Jeff Huston

Well, I finally went off and did it.  I took my first Microsoft Certified Professional exam.  Passed it too.  Boy was that nerve-racking.

I’ve been doing this whole IT thing for 18+ years now.  I’ve seen LAN Manager (running on OS/2!), Novell NetWare, Windows for Workgroups, and on from there.  I’ve used NetBEUI, XNS, X.25, IPX/SPX, and TCP/IP.  I remember when I first started at Microsoft, my email was still on an old Xenix host.  We had a dumb terminal (!) sitting around the corner from my desk that could be used to log in and read email.  This was all well before Microsoft Exchange.  This was before Microsoft Mail.  Man, I’m old!

Having done the IT thing for so long, I’ve just never felt the need nor had the time to actually get certified.  So, with the time available and a job change coming up, now was the time.  I got the study materials on my own and paid for the exam out of my own pocket,  I studied and took the practice tests.  Turns out that the practice tests test on a lot of stuff that, simply, never comes up.  Who the hell uses Windows Backup in an actual enterprise environment anyway?

I arrived at the testing site at 8:05 AM.  My test didn’t start until 9:00.  I really gauged traffic wrong.  I don’t normally drive around the eastside during that time, so I wanted to be early.  Just not that early.  So, with nothing to do – I sat in my truck and read a magazine.  I didn’t bring any study materials with me in the truck – so no last minute cramming.

Finally managed to get in to the testing room at 8:55 and sat down at the terminal (after showing my two forms of ID, signing in my name, guaranteeing to the proctor that I wasn’t carrying any electronic devices nor that I had a cheat sheet tied to my calf, hidden away under my pant leg – the body cavity search was uncomfortable).

Before me lay the start of the exam.  40 questions.  40 answers that would determine if I actually knew what the hell I had been doing for the last 18 years.  40 clicks of the mouse that would determine if I was just someone who could bull shit my way through life or not.  No pressure there!

The first question appeared.  It was one that I knew the answer to.  Great!  This’ll be easy!  The next three questions where the same.  Whew!  That’s a relief!  Then came question 5.  Because of NDA, I cannot tell you what the question was.  Suffice to say, I was being asked a question for something that I had never dealt with or done.  Time to BS my way through it.  There were, thankfully, only two more questions of that nature in the rest of the test.

I got to the end and said “I’m done”.  Then, I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Big blank white screen in front of me.  Waiting for my future to be decided.  Waiting to know if I was royally screwed.  Here come the nerves again!

Then, a little gray box appears.  “You have passed”.  Thank goodness!  Vindication!  I’m truely a smart person!  Yay!

Now it is time for me to move on the to the next exam.  Time for me to start studying…