Do Certifications Matter?

I started the MCTS course and after reading the material, i dropped it. It’s basically learning by rote and teaching you nothing other than how to pass the final exam.

How many of you folks are really certified in a technology to comment on…??? I guess 1 out of 10. If you would really pass your emotions on these, go get a certification and then writing or making these comments.

I totally believe there is an intention behind having these different types of certifications in the market…I know it may not tell anything about the personality of the person who has the certification but atleast gives you an idea of how to assess that personality. If anyone think certifications are all useless…then the whole system of TEST is wrong…and I think the word TEST wouldn’t even have originated.

Well my personal point of view is that some certifications are good to have, for instance the SCJD test you in developing a project, it is not about answering multiple choices questions, the same goes for SCEA second part.

So, maybe some certifications may be get only by reading books even without having experience in what you are getting certified, but at least they will show to the interviewer that someone approves that the certified person knows the basics.

I dropped out of highschool in the 9th grade, and have completed something less than 2 years of college. I’ve been writing code since I was 10 years old. I am a professional software developer.

At my last gig, there was a revolving door of certified professionals who couldn’t sum columns (seriously!).

I don’t particularly feel that because some hiring manager had to suffer that that means I should have to suffer too. I -own- the skills that I have listed on my resume and I have the references to prove it. I’m not going to jump through hoops for anyone. If one guy doesn’t want to hire me because he needs some piece of paper, then his loss is another’s gain.

Isn’t the task of a developer to figure it out? It is almost a given that I don’t know how to do whatever is asked of me. I don’t get paid to know how to do it, I get paid to get it done. If everyone else is in the same boat, shouldn’t we be more concerned with problem solving ability than certification?

should i do certification??

Common sense or book smarts, that is the true question being asked here.

Those who have had a lot of experience with a subject are usually the best ones to do the job, because they have had the failures necessary to realize that yes, there is more to learn. Whereas those who went to college say “yes, I’ve finished college. I don’t need to learn anything because I got this piece of paper saying I’ve learned enough”. This is the error that causes general ignorance, leading to people who are “certified”, but have no practical knowledge.

I was particularly irked when a colleague of mine spent the better part of 4 hours investigating the user permissions database when a user was presented with a “Page cannot be displayed” error!

I tackled a similiar case seperately (and found out what happened with him only after my case) and I traced it after a few emails to the fact that his DNS wasn’t resolving the address.

I’m pretty sure he knows how to “code” in .NET just fine, but perhaps it was just me griping over the fact that he was up there as a “developer” and I had just drawn the short straw for “support”.

The integrity of certifications is suspect especially when you have to pay for them. Turns out it’s just a way for companies to make more money and provide no value. The worst are the ones that are made artificially hard by keeping marking schemes and processes secret. Salesforce Certifications are really bad for that.

It’s sad, but most companies do not know how to hire IT or development staff. Lately, managers are more impressed by paper than actual experience; this is just how they’re programmed to evaluate people by the media, and their own “training”.

I’ve had the (mis)fortune of being on the hiring panel a few times in some of the companies I’ve worked for. At least eight times out of ten; the person waiving their paper certs/degree’s/etc has proven the be a bad choice.
Having the paper is not a bad thing, it helps avoid the cut when an HR person is evaluating your CV (those without experience hiring tech staff anyway). But it should not decide your end value.

This is one of the few posts that I agree with. You hit the nail on the head when you said: “…you should be spending your time building stuff, not studying for multiple choice tests.”

I am only 25 but I have been developing for fun and for my job since I was 15. I have many certifications and I don’t believe I deserve a single one (deserve is a strong word). Let me explain. I have a way with multiple choice tests. I took my SATs in 7th grade as part of a John Hopkins study. Believe it or not but I scored 1110 (higher than most seniors) on my SATs in 7th grade and that is without ANY algebra background (I got a 650 in the math section). I also am able to pass certification tests without studying for them or taking any classes; I can reason multiple choice tests quite well.

Granted certifications are wonderful if you actually took the time to study because it gives you a background knowledge that you can use to gain more “useful” knowledge. However, if you didn’t take any courses or study any of the material but still passed then the certification is useless.

I am probably way to early in my career, but I agree that the Certifications don’t mean a whole lot. However, as bad as it sounds I do see some benefit to them, mainly because they do get me to get more experience and allow me to build apps of all shapes and sizes with newer technology that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to use in my current position.

I do have a question however, even though you can pass a lot of the certifications with pure Book studying why do a lot of companies stress and push the employees to get them? Seeing the letters after a person’s name when pitching them to a client can’t be that big can it?

Certifications are resume filler. They don’t mean anything. You could still be a total idiot and pass the certifications.

Licensing is much better. Take the driving exam for instance, there’s a written exam and an actual driving test to see if you can drive the car. You pass both you get your license. Plus its standardized, there is only one place to get your license, the registry of motor vehicles.

For certifications to carry any weight they would have to follow a path similar to earning your driver’s license.

I think this is a slant on an old coaching joke:

Those who can, code, those who cant get certified.

– just to lighten it up a bit

I’m seeing certifcations that cost a minimum of $1000 to take the exams once and maybe a set of study materials creeping into craptackular entry level positions.

You’re eliminated if you don’t have the designated approved keywords.

I have the old A+, Various MCPs, and MCSE-NT. Also have 9-10 years of support experience. I can’t seem to even garner a single interview in the last year. Either I’m overqualified or I’m completely ignored. I wonder how many have lied/bs’d on their resumes/cv in order to defeat the keyword filter.

Meanwhile I’m working another soul draining brain dead factory job. Why did I get an engineering degree again?

Thinking about turning my experiences into a screenplay about a technical recruiter serial killer.

Ahem.

Fictional screenplay.

I have a job at a very small company doing network admin stuff, but also have my hands in virtualization, cloud computing, voip, lamp, consulting, etc. My problem is that I went to school for 5 years but never finished, and when I eventually look for another job, I need something to show for it because I do believe I have a pretty good self-taught understanding of networking. My friends laugh when I study for tests, asking if I’m going to get a raise, etc and I have to shrug it off.

Do they matter? yes and no. I know The MS tests are (mostly) retarded, and I can guess that the answer 90% of the time is the one that makes them look the best. The Network+ has a lot of stupid memorization of connector types and wire distances you would probably just google later… BUT somehow I have learned a lot in studying, so I can’t say they are totally worthless.

I currently have MCSA/MCITP/Network+ and taking my CCNA next month, and if wasn’t so expensive I would do VMWare and RHCE too.

My plan is just to get an interview, and be able to talk fluently to someone who also understands it (typically they will bring a current network admin in on the interview to “sign off” on any new hires)

I agree with Brian,Mitur Binesderti you telling me to make up a project and do it. I love programming and I do it for the fun of it but I’m a fresh grad and need to survive I need a job so I make up a couple of projects and do them, then show up at ur work and u are inteviewing me, which might go luck this:
Mitur Binesderti->so have u got any experience
Me-> yeah 4 yrs
Mitur Binesderti->tell me about it?
Me-> I made up a bunch of projects and I did them
Mitur Binesderti->I’m sorry I meant commercial experience, good-bye

That is if I was lucky enough to score an interview, Certification is the best way to learn in a structured manner if you want to learn something thouroghly. I have tried to be self taught and by doing but programming is 50% knowledge and 50% problem solving even less problem solving if all u do is implement business processes. So why shouldn’t those individuals who work hard for months get a fair go. You won’t give me a job if I have no experience so how am I supposed to know anything and in this under-developed industry like Brian said who really knows everything to be an authority on everything?

I have almost 8 years of experience in Software devlopment. I am interested in doing some certification at this stage, what benefit will I get by doing certifications. Any suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Well, its the same now as it was 5 years ago, certs are very important and are getting even more prevalent. There is a lot of information about just this subject from http://www.Technologycerts.com it may be on the blog if not on the homepage, but either way this is still a great and valid post even if I am outdated inmy finding it :slight_smile: Thanks!