Microsoft Certified Professionals: I need your advice about getting certified?

I'm interested in getting certified as an MCSE, MCDBA or MCT, but I want to hear from people who have been through it before. What certification did you get? What advice do you have for people who are considering starting the certification. What things did you wish you knew before you started? What mistakes have you made? Did the certification help you get a better job? Was it worth the effort? What were the most helpful tools to help get certified (products, training, books...please be specific). How much money did you spend to get certified, how much time? Thank you.Microsoft Certified Professionals: I need your advice about getting certified?
Make sure you know the material. There are a lot of paper MCSE's out there...even for the 2000/2003 track.





BTW, for the effort you put in to get certified...expect like 40k maybe for an entry level position. It's not really a great deal.





DBA will pay off more in the long run. But you have to have a brain for that cert. You need to know how to program Transact SQL and do admin on a 2003 server and 2005 or 2000 SQL server.





To honestly learn the material, take about 1-2 months per exam. Maybe more. So the MCSE is like 6 exams. Also, you probably won't get an admin job right off, so you will forget much of what you learn. Don't bother with technical schools, everyone I know has wasted plenty of bucks there and learned nadda.





Best way to study is: buy the Keystone or Learnkey training videos, go through them 2-3 times. Memorize the transcenders or Testking exams. Build yourself a lab and practice on it.





It's a lot of effort for a career that doesn't get much respect today. Also, if you decide to go into IT support, be ready to work after hours or carry a beeper. Kinda sucks.





Also, I might add; in the company I currently work for, they are hiring MCSE/MCP types for less than I was hired back in 1998....








Sorry if I've discouraged you.