Cleared MCTS 70-573

Today was a landmark day in my career, after achieving the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certification in 'SharePoint 2010, Application Development (70-573)'. I believe the certification would act as a testimony of my skills in SharePoint 2010 application development. 

Before opting out for the certification, the thought that prevailed my mind was, nowadays majority of the certified folks are wholly relying on dumps to get through, which is not at all fair, if they are just cramming the answers without actually understanding the objective behind these certifications. This being said I was sure on one thing, getting certified is not going to make me stand out from the crowd because of all these malpractices. So the question was, would it be worth the effort spending time and money on getting myself certified? After putting down my thoughts on this, I came out with the following set of points, which rationalize's on, why one should opt for certifications.

1. If you are seriously preparing for certification, you will be covering the breadth and depth of the syllabus, than just skimming though the basics. So preparing seriously by spending quality time and effort is definitely going to pay off both in terms of monetary and non-monetary aspects. Non-monetary aspects like giving you an edge over others in terms of knowledge and boosting your confidence level. 
   
   
2. Suppose if your company is a 'Microsoft Gold Partner', which stipulates a minimum number of certified professionals to retain their Gold Partner status or a client who wants all the team members to be certified who's going to work on their projects. In such cases, those certified is going to get an upper hand over non-certified ones.
   
   
3. If you wish climb up the organizational ladder, your qualifications and certifications is definitely going to be counted as one among the many parameters for appraisals and promotions.
   
   
4. I you wish to showcase your technical competency in Microsoft 
   products\solutions which no *dumps* certified individual can catch up with. For those creamy geeks, Microsoft had rolled out two different certifications which is considered as the 'creme dela creme' in Microsoft parlance, under the title 'Microsoft Certified Master' (MCM in short) and 'Microsoft Certified Architect' (MCA in short) which is the last word in Microsoft Certifications at the time of writing. Those awarded with these certifications are tagged as the Gurus in IT industry. So to be frank, if you want to be a MCM in a Microsoft product, the stepping stone to an MCM in a vertical, is going to be the lowest denominator certification available for that particular product\solution, like what I achieved today. 

So after evaluating the aforesaid points. I came to see that point 1 and 4 was particularly more relevant and sensible, which made me to go for it.