How rare are IT certifications?

[OVerLoRDI]

Certs alone are useless. Certs plus experience is key.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

in all other parts of IT you just care about tech, dont have to actually be intimiately involved with the business domain.

this is why i consider all other parts of IT slightly less legit :awe:

I don't know, after being "intimately involved with the business domain" as a Sharepoint developer, I'd welcome going back to the backoffice functions and not have to deal with idiotic, backstabbing users.

 

[Comblues]

Hmm...

I get offered $95k-125k W-2 opportunities and then quite a few contracting C2C opportunities mostly every single day now...

I'm a CCNP/CCDP and I like to think my certs come into play.

I have some experience too.

It works for me.

I'm staying certified for life or until I find a better way to get paid for what I know.

My title is Network Engineer.

 

[Red Squirrel]

My goal was to get one once I'm at work and gain more experience, then I found out they expire. No point unless I plan to apply for a job soon that requires it. Probably take a year or so just to get one... so much stuff to learn by heart. The whole concept is silly but sadly lot of companies do require it. Knowing a bunch of theory stuff by heart vs actually being able to apply and use technology is two different things.

I'm good at figuring stuff out but learning stuff by heart not so much.

One of my first tasks when I got hired was to setup a Cisco PIX and RSA appliance as a VPN setup with tokens. I figured it out. A cert is not what determined that I was able to.

 

[JimmiG]

Certs alone are useless. Certs plus experience is key.

I wouldn't say useless.. Once you have the experience, people trust you know what you're doing anyway. When you're new, having a few certs can be an advantage.

 

[ichy]

In my experience the CISSP is very useful for getting past stupid HR people. People who actually work in the field won't be impressed by it.

 

[JM Aggie08]

If you're shooting to work for a larger company, they'll do you no good. Schooling and prior experience are what counts.

Smaller companies seem to value them a lot more.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

If you're shooting to work for a larger company, they'll do you no good. Schooling and prior experience are what counts.

Smaller companies seem to value them a lot more.

Yes, you can have every cert known to man but when you interview at a larger company, they're still going to drill you with technical questions in all likelihood regardless of whether or not you're certified. Companies aren't going to look at resumes and say "Gee, Billy has all the certifications we need, so let's hire him."

Very high-level certifications still have some respect, but no one really cares about the lower-level ones like MCSA/MCSE (unless you work as a consultant).

 

[OutHouse]

Don't forget VMWare either.

I would love to get VMware cert but the damn class is almost 7K, and you have to have the class to take the test. i cant afford that and my boss said LOL LOL LOL LOL.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Hmm...

I get offered $95k-125k W-2 opportunities and then quite a few contracting C2C opportunities mostly every single day now...

I'm a CCNP/CCDP and I like to think my certs come into play.

I have some experience too.

It works for me.

I'm staying certified for life or until I find a better way to get paid for what I know.

My title is Network Engineer.

And I have no recent certifications (outside of the silly ITIL Foundations cert, which work required me to get) and get those opportunities for Sharepoint as well.

 

[OutHouse]

Certs alone are useless. Certs plus experience is key.

you base this statement upon what?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I would love to get VMware cert but the damn class is almost 7K, and you have to have the class to take the test. i cant afford that and my boss said LOL LOL LOL LOL.

Are you sure about that? I checked a few months ago and thought they reduced the cost to under $4K. I am seriously considering it too.

 

[MiniDoom]

when I did my vcp5, the class was about 5k. You can also take the test before the class. that might give you some ammo for your boss when you tell them you've already passed the test and just need some beneficial training to be a vcp.

 

[OutHouse]

Are you sure about that? I checked a few months ago and thought they reduced the cost to under $4K. I am seriously considering it too.

yea, i want to take the 10 hour per day class, the one you are talking about is 8 hours per day. the 10 hour per day class got a bit deeper and is what i want.

 

[codyray10]

I've been looking at taking the CCNA sometime soon. I've got an Associates Degree in CIS and almost 2 years exp on the job. Jobs around here are tough to get, especially for someone like me. I'm sure my resume is overlooked quite a bit by HR departments in favor of the people with multiple years of experience.

 

[mnewsham]

We did A+ back in high school, haven't even really looked at certs since 10th grade.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

It looks like certs are going the way of bachelors degrees. They get you past HR and to an interview.

It also depends on the certs. CCNA's are fairly easy to get. CCNP/CCIE level still command some respect (CCIE mainly). For security CISSP is kind of still relevant. I don't see many benefits of MS certs, if you're going for server stuff I'd stick to VMWare.

 

[freegeeks]

lol at people thinking that a cert like CCIE does not hold any weight

 

[Vdubchaos]

Back in my IT days Certs were considered a joke. Most people that had them were book smart but lacked experience and common sense......as well as willingness to actually learn (which is required at almost every job).

But they don't hurt and they do get you thru HR to an interview (like others have said).

 

[IndyColtsFan]

lol at people thinking that a cert like CCIE does not hold any weight

Who said that? That's a higher-level certification. Also, last I checked, the PMP is now regarded as the highest paid certification on average and is not that hard to obtain if you have been in the workforce a few years.

 

[freegeeks]

Who said that? That's a higher-level certification. Also, last I checked, the PMP is now regarded as the highest paid certification on average and is not that hard to obtain if you have been in the workforce a few years.

there are some broad statements here that certifications are not worth anything, I'm just stating that some are still very valuable like CCIE

 

[zCypher]

It's pretty ignorant to say certs are useless, it's just yet another way to learn. Getting a degree, going to trade school, getting a certification, none of those things mean jack shit if you don't use the knowledge and credentials to get a job/start your career. Regardless of how you educate yourself, what determines your success is still YOU and how you use said credentials. I don't think anyone really expects to just get a cert (or whatever) and just magically life is good.

Knowing what type of work you want to do and what type of education would put you in a better position to get that type of work is what's important. Don't get a CCNA if you're not interested in supporting a network, etc. Find out which jobs REQUIRE which certifications and get those.

If you just blindly get a certification, and expect that it will give you an advantage over someone with more experience but less certification, for a job that doesn't explicitly outline that said certification is required, then you just wasted a lot of your time for nothing. Target the desired position and required credentials, attain said credentials, and voila.

 

[Arkaign]

there are some broad statements here that certifications are not worth anything, I'm just stating that some are still very valuable like CCIE

Yep. If you can form coherent sentences, and have achieved a CCIE, it's child's play to make 6 figures here in Texas. That kind of work drives me crazy, but it's good paying work. Also I know an OCM cert guy that is tipping towards probably 200k-250k, but he also has security certs and 15+ years experience.

It might be fair to say that most lower level certs don't amount to much after getting started in the field. Experience, success, and social networking through work will be the tickets up the ladder once in the door. But for high-level certs, they remain either essential or at least ludicrously helpful for certain positions. Positions that can make solid money.

Weirdly though, it's often the guy who doesn't have a swath of certs that jumps up to some executive position, makes a few well-placed connections, and gets into the 7-figure game eventually.

 

[Scarpozzi]

IT stuff used to be "new" to most people in the industry. Certs were a quick way for companies to make $3-5k/week per person taught in prep classes. Companies that didn't know how to hire technical staff relied on how many certificates people had since most of the admin products weren't covered by university degrees.

Things aren't much different now, but technology has somewhat hit a plateau. If you consider there were the COBOL programmers, Unix guys, etc in the 80s....then C programmers, Unix guys in the early 90s....then Java Programmers, Linux guys/Visual Basic, Windows Guys...in the late 90s. Now it's a mix of high level languages like C#/Java/Dot Net. The OS and basic hardware certificates are pretty useless. Real companies typically buy support with their servers and desktops...most come with options for onsite tech support...so hardware isn't rocket science. It's swapping out stuff.

Microsoft certs are valid if you are a domain or exchange admin (which most orgs need). Aside from that, if you are a load balancer guy, virtualization admin, or network admin...it wouldn't hurt to have certs or at least attend training occasionally from F5, VMware, Citrix, and Cisco.

No need to actually have the certificate if you have an understanding of the product and know how to RTFM.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Yep. If you can form coherent sentences, and have achieved a CCIE, it's child's play to make 6 figures here in Texas. That kind of work drives me crazy, but it's good paying work. Also I know an OCM cert guy that is tipping towards probably 200k-250k, but he also has security certs and 15+ years experience.

It might be fair to say that most lower level certs don't amount to much after getting started in the field. Experience, success, and social networking through work will be the tickets up the ladder once in the door. But for high-level certs, they remain either essential or at least ludicrously helpful for certain positions. Positions that can make solid money.

Weirdly though, it's often the guy who doesn't have a swath of certs that jumps up to some executive position, makes a few well-placed connections, and gets into the 7-figure game eventually.

Yeah.....security certs are something I didn't mention. That's a big trend the past 5-6 years. Most big companies and many government jobs are out there. I'm sure those certificates can give you an edge combined with experience.