MCSE certificate isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
I have an MCSE, its covered in crap though, guess what I use it for? ;P
I consider myself officially qualified by MS to sell their products. I also consider myself a very high level expert in checking checkboxes and understanding proprietary concepts that were at least to some degree obsolete before I started studying for them. Having learned a bit about them through studying for the MCSE, I find I have too much of a conscience to actually try to help sell their stuff.
It really bugged the hell out of me that I read a couple books about active directory and didn't learn a damn thing about LDAP. What a waste of time. And now their AD implementation has changed, which means that all I learned is at best questionably accurate. They would probably have good products if they bothered to stick with ANY real standard.
I understand the problem that you are having though.
I learned soooo much with my MCSE and subsequent windows experience that I now run only Linux boxes at home, except for the ancient laptop my wife refuses to part with or let me touch due to here being technophobic, and comfortable with it.
