When I started thinking about my career goals for 2013 one of them is to upgrade my MCITP: Enterprise Messaging (2010) to MCSE: Messaging (2013). When I started to research the exams that I need to complete I saw a requirement that wasn’t there for previous MCITP certifications. In order to be certified as MCSE: Messaging or Communications you must have your MCSA for 2012. The MCSA 2012 involves passing 3 tests (70-410, 70-411, and 70-412). When I saw this my first thought was….ehhhhh! Then I read further down and I saw that I could expand “How to upgrade to the MCSE: Messaging certification (see below). After clicking on “Upgrading your skills to MCSE Windows Server 2012” I found that if you have your MCITP you can gain your MCSA 2012 with a single test (70-417). See the image below that shows the requirements for taking the 70-417 test.
After you have achieved your MCSA 2012 you can then take 2 tests and get your MCSE. The tests for both Messaging and Communication (Lync) have hyperlinks below so you can review what is involved in gaining these certifications. I have completed my MCSA 2012 and my first Exchange 2013 test (70-341) and I will tell you it seems the difficulty level of Microsoft certifications is definitely going up. In my opinion that is a good thing. If anyone is interested (comments here or send me an email) I can do a write-up on each certification test. Good Luck!!!
MCSE Messaging
- Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 (70-341)
- Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 (70-342)
MCSE Communications
- Core Solutions of Microsoft Lync Server 2013 (70-336)
- Enterprise Voice & Online Services with Microsoft Lync Server 2013 (70-337)