What certifications are still important? [closed]

Question

With all the talk of CCIE being devalued, MCITP being a joke, are there any certifications out there that still matter?

Answer 1

Disclaimer: My only experience with certification is with Microsoft so anything I say is relevant to that area and my be completely wrong elsewhere.

I've worked with quite a few people who have their walls pretty well covered with certificates, yet barely know which side of a server is the front. I've worked with others who have never even sat an exam, yet are immensely skilled administrators in who I have every confidence. I have also worked with a few people who both have the certification and the skills, although not as many as I would have hoped for.

My personal view of certification is that it shows that the person holding the certification can pass exams, nothing more. However, for non-technical people, such as those who will most likely be interviewing job candidates, it is one of the few indications of qualification there is. The only other worthwhile indicator is past achievements and that takes time to accumulate.

In short, if you don't already have a good history behind you, certification may be the only way to distinguish yourself from other hopefuls.

Answer 2

If I were trying to evaluate a candidate's personal finances and I saw that they had the Microsoft Certified Master certification I'd be fairly certain that they, at least at one time, a substantital quantity of money laying around! >simile< (I'd love to sit the Microsoft Master training for Directory Services, but I couldn't even justify the beta program cost at $9K, let alone the "production" trainings at $18.5K. It sounds like an immense amount of fun, too... What a shame about the price.)

Seriously, though, when I've been in the interviewer's seat I've always found real world experience to be vastly more important in for a candidate than certifications. I'd like to say that a certification can offer some kind of baseline evlauation of a candidate's skills, but there are always going to be people who are good at taking tests with no real-world sensibilities.

Answer 3

I've actually seen people asking for ITIL certification if you're a more senior level IT admin/manager.

Answer 4

A+ is good just to get your foot in the door for a support job.

Answer 5

CCNA is good enough for a entry/middle-level network technician/support position.

But - the professional experience counts more than the certifications (YMMV).

Answer 6

IMHO it's fair to say that certifications can be divided into two general categories, where their general usefulness is directly related to their testing style:

1) Pure multiple choice style. Particularly in the Microsoft arena their classic MCP / MCSE (with the exception of the MCSE design exams) range of tests these are quickly losing value. Sadly, I know of many people who have just downloaded and memorised answer sets for these. Unfortunately they are widely available and every time someone does this it devalues the cert. Because of this I am forced to not assume anything when someone has one of these.

2) Cisco CCNA-style skill tests. These tests involve testing mechanisms like simulators and are far more likely to be a true reflection of the candidate's skills.

Also I think it's fair to say that exams which place any value in parrot-fashion testing like remembering specific commands, minimum system requirements etc. (anything which can be easily Googled) are quite useless.

I agree with the foot-in-the-door comments already made. Sadly, recruitment agencies seem to still rely heavily on certs because they really don't have much else to go on. They aren't capable of assessing anybody effectively because they aren't IT people. This means that certs on your CV / resume will definitely help in at least that sense.

Answer 7

It really depends what you want the certification for. If your looking for jobs, getting certified in the relevant area is useful for showing you've done the study and took the exam, it will help get you in the door of the interview. Any good company, that values its sysadmins is going to want you to be able to prove, either at an interview, or shortly after that you actually know what was in the exam and can apply, and have some common sense when doing so.

As for certification when in a job, to prove a skill, my thoughts are that the training its self is worth more than the exam. Yes a nice certificate says you turned up and managed to answer the questions on the exam, but the value is in the hands on learning you do when studying, being able to grasp the concepts and apply them, no exam is going to show that. But organisations see the value in certifying their employees, so if passing an exam is a way to get some good training, I'm all for it.

So anyway, in answer to your question, I think any certification is worth it if the work you do to get there is of value. If your sitting there learning past exam answers, then stop wasting your time, yeah you'll get a bit of paper, but the first time you need to use the knowledge your supposed to have gained, you'll crumble, I've seen it and to those of us who work hard to get these qualifications and knowledge, its vindicating!

Answer 8

I don't undertand one thing every body is saying that experience is more valuable than certificates. But this answer is only valid if someone has choice between experience and Certification.

By saying that Certification has no or less value , then someone say stop giving exam and that will be worst.

IF someone has certification then it looks good on resume and there is a possibility that some manager will hire him based on his certification even though he don't have any practical experience.

i think if someone is asking b/w certification and experience then experience is always better. But if someone if fresh and have no experience then he should give as much exam (depends upon money) to fill his resume

Answer 9

There are a lot of opinions here and I have my share on both sides of the topic, but I will say one thing regarding certifications: When I'm in the interviewers seat, a candidate's certifications show me a commitment to their chosen career path and that's one of the most important factors I evaluate. If you're not commited to your career and not pursuing some kind of ongoing education and training (often in the form of certifications) I'm not interested in hiring you, regardless of your experience and regardless of how good you may be.

Answer 10

Matter to whom? If you mean to employers, then look at some craigslist job postings and see what people want. MCSE still seems to be a standard even though it is old.

Answer 11

I would say if you want to focus in a specific area of IT and you have certifications in that specific area, will show that you put forth the effort and knowledge and there for will help you. Especially if you want to work for a consulting company, as they require a specific amount of certifications to keep up with the vendors. Like Cisco, they require their partners to have a specific amount of certified engineers depending on what level partner they are.

Take for example, if you want to focus on cisco gear and networking. That is your primary function, Sr Network Engineer in charge of the network. You have your CCIE is going to help you out a lot more than not, or having microsoft certifications.

So yes certifications can be a joke and no help, but if you focus on the ones that help your primary job function or area of expertise, they can help quite a bit.

Answer 12

I'd say the real question is when did certification from vendors ever matter? Certifications might get your resume looked at or gain you some peer respect but experience is all that really counts. I'll take the guy with 10 years of solid networking experience over a guy who went to college and got a CCIE (and I think the CCIE is a tough cert to get). I agree with Evans assement of the MCM cert, however it's WAY too expensive ( I wish they'd push the format down and raise the price of the MCITP to increase that certs value but that's another topic).

Another problem with certs is that the vendors (especially recently) have changed the certs, and I expect them to keep changin on a regular basis (MCSE went to MCITP, CCIE has been one upped now etc). This means that the HR folks that use them to screen somehow have to keep up OR the vendros need to do a 100% improvement on getting out the word on the new cert. As as example I've had more than 1 IT manager ask me if a person with an MCITP is as good as an MCSE.

Answer 13

Try getting allowed access into the network security industry (on a white basis) without CISSP or similar certifications and their background checks

Answer 14

I would say that Certs like GIAC's InfoSec certs are becoming more recognized as more than just a multiple choice type cert. Espically with the GIAC Gold.

*disclaimer: I hold two of GIAC's certs. (GSEC & GCIH)

Josh