# Article in The Courier 1st July - Type: wall - Canonical path: /de/wall/3950-article-in-the-courier-1st-july - Canonical URL: https://aspanishlife.com/de/wall/3950-article-in-the-courier-1st-july I am confused! According to the article only engineers with MCP or MCSE qualifications are permitted to use the Microsoft logo in their advertising material - I have seen engineers advertising MCSA as a qualification - is this a real qualification or not? Or is the author of the article incorrect? See article below: How to check out your computer repair ´expert´ AS with many things in life, it’s difficult to figure out for yourself whether the person you are dealing with (plumber, mechanic, computer engineer etc.) is honest and trustworthy. I guess most of us rely on common sense, word of mouth and the good/bad experience that our friends have had, of course this isn’t the best barometer of skill but does seem to work in most cases. As for skill, in my industry there are a number of professional qualifications that can be taken; however given that most people have computers with Microsoft operating systems running on them, let’s focus on their certifications. Microsoft have two main certifications… MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), which means that the engineer has passed one exam in a specific subject. MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), which means that the engineer has passed a set of exams to achieve Microsoft’s top qualification. It involves passing at least six exams, many of them are ‘adaptive’ – which means that the computer upon which you are tested is designed to find your weakest subjects and asks targeted questions to try to probe which subject/s they might be. When you get a question wrong, it focuses its questions on those areas! I passed my first MCP in 1998 and achieved my MCSE the next year after many long hours of studying; I then also took further exams to get my MCSE + Internet. Glutton for punishment, eh! A good indicator as to how certified your chosen engineer is can be found by looking at their advertising. Only certified MCP and MCSE engineers are allowed to use the relevant Microsoft logo in their marketing material. Finally, many reputable computer engineers will publish comments from satisfied clients on their website. So have a look – is their website up to date, does it have any testimonials, perhaps even ask them for the contact details of previous clients. Any honest engineer who is proud of their work should be happy to share that information with you. BlueMoon is also a member of TIBA (The International Business Association – www.tibacb.com), who ‘vet’ their members to ensure that they are legal before being allowed to join the organisation. So professional membership might also be another way to validate your potential computer engineer. Richard Cavender BlueMoon Solutions