'Tis the season (again) to reflect on everything that's gone on around here in 2022. We began our year-end retrospective on Nov. 28 by looking at the 10 Most Popular Quizzes of the year.
Next up is GoCertify's weekly Certification Watch newsletter. We've had almost 50 Certification Watch newsletters so far this year, but which ones were deemed most engaging by our readers? We're glad you asked. (Or we asked. Or, well, someone did. We're just glad.)
Without further ado, here are the 10 Most Popular Certification Watch newsletters of 2022:
1) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 19 (May 11, 2022) — Random Quotation: As of May 16, a.k.a. "next Monday," Microsoft Learn is implementing a new certification exam policy to permit unscheduled breaks during testing. The old policy was that you had the request your unscheduled breaks in advance — which sort of seems to defy the unscheduled nature of an unscheduled break, but "when in Rome" and all of that.
2) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan. 5, 2022) — Random Quotation: So if a whole lot of people who are WXYZ certified take the survey, then WXYZ will probably make the list. If most of them make about $50,000 per year, on the other hand, then it probably won't be very near the top.
3) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 11 (March 16, 2022) — Random Quotation: Even if you earned a number of Microsoft certifications equal to the total number of active Microsoft certifications, however, you couldn't claim to hold them all, because Microsoft shuffles its certification deck constantly, retiring "old" credentials and giving birth to new ones.
4) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 25 (June 22, 2022) — Random Quotation: Instead of weeding out potential hires at the résumé level with onerous education and certification requirements, employers need to be more willing to set aside preconceptions and consider possibilities. Maybe the junior candidate who only has four years of professional experience and a low-level certification has the potential, with guidance and support, to become the elite analyst an organization badly needs.
5) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 4 (Jan. 26, 2022) — Random Quotation: Here's another one: Researchers estimate that there are currently more than 5.1 billion active internet users, more than half of which are located in Asia. (You'd been thinking that you were not alone on the web, right? Now you know exactly how not alone you are.)
6) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 36 (Sept. 7, 2022) — Random Quotation: There's plenty of evidence, from anecdotes to organized research, to suggest that many in IT circles look sideways at people deemed too "old" to be productive in the field. That doesn't meant that there's no place for anyone over 40 in IT employment circles — far from it — but it does mean that it's somewhat rare for career switchers to consider themselves fit to pursue an IT career.
7) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 22 (June 1, 2022) — Random Quotation: As Mr. Elton once said, "A Microsoft certification is a Microsoft certification, but a Microsoft Certified: Fundamentals certification ... " He didn't say anything else. That's the joke, you know, that Mr. Elton is precisely the sort of gaseous windbag who starts a thought and then leaves it unfinished, because the implication is that there's no need to finish the thought because everyone else of course knows what he's thinking so we all nod, smile, and savor the quiet wisdom of the moment.
8) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 40 (Oct. 5, 2022) — Random Quotation: Each year just as we're all settling into autumn, the survey team at Certification Magazine springs out of the color-shifting foliage like a hungry mountain lion and, well, politely asks whether you, a certified IT professional, would like to share some information about your career progression and compensation. It's like you're just out for a stroll, listening to the wind rustle in the trees, and then — BLAM — tell us how much money you make!
9) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 8 (Feb. 23, 2022) — Random Quotation: We'll close out this week's Certification Watch with a nod to a new feature that just appeared over at CertMag.com, the official website of Certification Magazine. The double-bylined article discusses a topic that we love to follow around here (just scan back up to the top of this page): free online learning.
10) Certification Watch: Vol. 25, No. 31 (Aug. 3, 2022) — Random Quotation: Hillary Clinton once wrote a book about child-rearing, It Takes a Village, to suggest that a successful upbringing requires community input and support. Professional careers, including IT careers, are similar. You can be a lone wolf who never interacts with others and have a career, of course, but there are numerous benefits of cultivating a professional network, everything from mentoring and job referrals to emotional support and professional references.
