Scott Hanselman

Scott Hanselman, MC*.*, Good SATs, AS, Almost BS, 3 digit IQ, blah blah blah...

April 05, 2003 Comment on this post [1] Posted in Web Services | Gaming
Sponsored By

Dear Blog,

Lately I've noticed a lot of people (no names, you know who you are) who are Microsoft Technologists writing articles, blogging, emailing, and suffixing their names like "Joe Blow - MCAD, MCSD, MCDBA, MCT, MCSE."  Is this really necessary?  Is it really informative?  Isn't it like "Joe Blow - I know my shit so step lively!"  Is it better to see all these certifications or would you rather see "Joe Blow - BS CS, MS CS, MBA, 1400 SATs, 158 IQ."  I have a great friend in Boston who's team is arguably the most certified on the planet.  It became a game for them.  For a while in 2000, one of his guys had passed every test MS offered. Sure, I'm MS Certified up the wazoo, who isn't?  Is/are certification(s) going to ship my product on time?  Will my product, written by an MCSD, scale to 20,000 concurrent users?  Is my SQL Server database, written by a MCDBA, indexed appropriately?  Certifications aside people...ship software.  Shrinkwrap it and sell it.  Run successful projects and deliver on time and under budget.  Enjoy your work and teach others.

Signed,
Scott Hanselman, MC*.*

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

facebook twitter subscribe
About   Newsletter
Hosting By
Hosted in an Azure App Service
April 06, 2003 21:22
I plead half-guilty. I don't pile up initials on blog entries, but they are there on articles and books. One thing you might have missed is that editors actually ask/demand this sort of thing -- this is especially true if you're writing for the certification market (as I often am), but it happens in other places as well. I presume that the marketers see such branding as one more tiny way to tell readers "this is hot stuff, buy it."

Comments are closed.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.