Technology Certifications

SquadronROE

This is a topic that several of my friends and I have discussed at length, and I think it would be good to get others' opinions as well. Basically the discussion can be summed up in two distinct arguments:

• Are technology certifications worth the time/effort/money?
• Is it better to get job-specific certifications or broad certifications?

Personally, I believe that tech certifications are useful in a limited fashion. If you have no outside knowledge of a subject (for example, relational databases), a basic certification can get you up to speed and give you the vocabulary and conceptual knowledge necessary to operate with that technology and further learn it. Also, if you're trying to get a job outside of your current company where your resume needs to prove a certain level of skill/knowledge, a certification is a good way to do that. I'm not really sure if broad certifications (network+, server+) would be better than specific certifications (cisco, microsoft certs) or if they're both useful for different things.

What do you people think?

Andrew

In general, any job which actually cares about certs is not really a job you want.

George Patches

In general, any job which actually cares about certs is not really a job you want.

Gov't loves certs, I have a few for consulting.

Cremlian

I'm taking my CCNA test today so I'm getting a kick out of these responses :-P

I'm taking this because my company offered to give me classes. So why not get certs if your company is willing to pay for them!

dsf

Certs are a necessary evil. They are basically a marketing scheme set up by the companies like cisco and Microsoft to sell books(expensive books) and tests(expensive tests) and classes(expensive classes). But pretty much everyone has bought into the scheme(non IT HR Depts), so this is a hoop you just will have to jump through. Certs will test your memorization skills, so develop a plan to memorize all relevant information so you can dump it on the test. There are some certs that I hear are actually good, CISSP being one of them(but I'm not 100% sure). Cremlian is goin through the Cisco cert right now, maybe he will weigh in with his experience.

ah he commented as I was writing this

Certs are great to get your foot in the door, but your career will not take off until you have a good mentor. Success is being prepared to take advantage of a lucky break.

SquadronROE

Certs are great to get your foot in the door, but your career will not take off until you have a good mentor. Success is being prepared to take advantage of a lucky break.

That's the way I see it. Similar to a 4-year degree (although actual technical degrees like Engineering and Comp Sci may be different). For instance, I've got a fair amount of experience with server administration but it's hard to prove on my resume (not that hard to prove in an interview, but that's different). So therefore I'm considering grabbing a Server+ cert since it's fairly widely applicable and would show familiarity with a variety of server systems. Also, because it is kind of like a survey of server tech, from how I understand it, and would give me a jumping off point to dive into learning more interesting stuff.

SquadronROE

Gov't loves certs, I have a few for consulting.

Yeah. One of my friends landed a pretty sweet job with the government by (basically) having a network+ and security+ cert.

George Patches

Yeah. One of my friends landed a pretty sweet job with the government by (basically) having a network+ and security+ cert.

Having a Security+ cert was a requirement of my current contract. I scored a 90% with only basic studying.

SquadronROE

I tried taking the A+ test (well, a practice test online) without studying at all, since I've built numerous computers ranging back to the original Athlon days and generally know my way around one of these fancy math boxes.. But I couldn't have passed due to some of the really super specific stuff they were asking. I definitely would have needed to read through a book or something and memorize a few tables of facts/figures.

dsf

there are a lot of arcane facts that the will ask you about in 3 different ways on one test. You really need to memorize the book. They also change it up every year too so that when you go to get recert, since many certs expire, you will have to buy a new book.

Pegu

I began studying for A+ but couldn't find a testing center in my area and everyone told me it was bullshit so I gave up on it.

Cremlian

OH MY GOD, that test was hard.. was decently close to passing.. Will have to do take it again.