Certifications worth it?

There has been some recent discussion about Certifications lately. If they are worth it or not.

I finally had some first hand experience to see if these Certs were truly worth it. This summer, I finaly decided to work with somthing in Computers, Im a Computer engineering major and wanted an easy job with decent moeny. so I applied as a Pc tech at Circuit city. The pay is about $13/hr and i work about 30-40 hours per week. Most of the work is Virus removal which is great for that wage. Only bad part is my feet hurt alot from standing to much.

I went up and competed with about 5 other guys for the Job. I have a few certs. Including my A+ which they seemed rather impressed with.

I have a decent rusume and beat them all out pretty much do to those Certs.

so In the end, people might look down on Certs and say they are not worth it, But they can only help. so Go for it Guys.

with A+ Net+ CCNA MCSE/MCSA and 3 years corporate IT experience) I couldnt get a job at a local shop, so it scares me to think what the person who got the job had, :lol:

the PS to that story is the guy who was hired seemed to be dumb as a brick and my suspicion is I didnt get the job because of my age (I was rather young at the time, maybe 19 or so) That being said, they look very good in small IT companies both to your employer and to the customers.

Customers love seeing the certs also which is somthing I think they want. It just adds to the customers feeling confident for there purchase.,

Well, you get a discount on an MSDN subscription if you pass a Microsoft test (well, I'm pretty sure, but they might not)

Really depends on what your goals are and who you want to work for. Some companies love certs. The last job I had wouldn't let you work in the server room without MCSE or at least 10 years experience. Cert's seem to be more popular with people/companies with little IT experience. They just see you have this cert and think that means you know everything. I applied at a local tech shop about 6 months ago, and I'm assuming I didn't get hired because I didn't have any certs. (guy's business card had like 3-4 certs and there was posters about it all over the place)

On the other hand I just got hired on with Cerner in Kansas City. My Manager has been with the company 15 years and doesn't seem to care about certs. (I figure with about 2-3 years work I'll be worth more than an MCSE cert can give me) Cert's are worth something, but IMHO real experience is worth much more.

VincentP said:

Customers love seeing the certs also which is somthing I think they want. It just adds to the customers feeling confident for there purchase.,

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Having alphabet soup after your name is all well and good, but keep in mind that MCSE stands for Must Consult Someone Experienced. It's quite possible to pass a cert exam with zero experience.

At $BIG_FORTUNE_50_COMPANY where I work in the IS Security group, your experience and college status speaks far more than any alphabet soup.

Bios24 said:

Really depends on what your goals are and who you want to work for. Some companies love certs. The last job I had wouldn't let you work in the server room without MCSE or at least 10 years experience. Cert's seem to be more popular with people/companies with little IT experience. They just see you have this cert and think that means you know everything. I applied at a local tech shop about 6 months ago, and I'm assuming I didn't get hired because I didn't have any certs. (guy's business card had like 3-4 certs and there was posters about it all over the place)

On the other hand I just got hired on with Cerner in Kansas City. My Manager has been with the company 15 years and doesn't seem to care about certs. (I figure with about 2-3 years work I'll be worth more than an MCSE cert can give me) Cert's are worth something, but IMHO real experience is worth much more.

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from the tome you assume, many with the certs actually dont have experience?

is this correct?


because I have certs(A+, network, server+, CCNA, MCSE, MCDST ). and I have alot of expericne and well dont own any books on these certs. I just took um. No study books or anything. Ive taken some classes like withs labs for the ccna.

But to come to the conclusion as I see with most tech guys is, If you have certs you a noob with no experice and vice versa,?

whicch is absolutly false.

so maybe some certs

Im no recrruiter but here is how I determine the knowledge level of techs I run into. If the first words out of thier mouth when you ask (what do you do/experience) is about thier certs they don't know jack ****. This has been true more than one would think. Frankly, a person with both experience and certs knows that they know what they know because of the experience not from taking the tests. A person who simply grabbed a book and took a test thinks they know it.

pik4chu said:

Im no recrruiter but here is how I determine the knowledge level of techs I run into. If the first words out of thier mouth when you ask (what do you do/experience) is about thier certs they don't know jack ****. This has been true more than one would think. Frankly, a person with both experience and certs knows that they know what they know because of the experience not from taking the tests. A person who simply grabbed a book and took a test thinks they know it.

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ive never mentioned my certs unless directly asked. Thogh i do list them on my resume.

Experience is better than any cert. You can show me a Network+ cert, but if you show me that you've been installing/configuring/troubleshooting networks for 1 year, the guy with experience wins.

Certs have advantages and disadvantages.
- They can make you look better on paper
- Interviewers can quickly determine your level of competency, even if they're nontechnical.
- A lot of low-level easy or simple certs can make you look inexperienced in the eyes of someone that knows what levels the certs are, especially if you are applying to a higher-level job.
- They can also make you look overqualified for a job
- If you look overqualified, employers may feel obligated to pay you more, and thus choose not to hire you because they can pay someone else less.
- If you look overqualified, employers may feel that you would be bored with the less technical tasks
- If you look overqualified, employers may assume that you will want to seek more technical employment, meaning they'll waste time training you and you'll just leave when a better job comes up.

I have a bunch of certs, but I don't necessarily flaunt them. Some businesses think they're great, they can boast to their customers that all their techs are certified, or qualify that everyone that works on their servers are certified.

Certs are a mixed blessing, they can be used for good or evil. Having a few is good, especially if they're in your specialty, and as a complement to experience. They can also be good as a substitute for experience, such as applying for a junior position in a different field when trying to switch jobs. However, the deeper you go into the field of the cert, the simpler the cert seems... For example, a CCNA level of knowledge is the least I'd want anyone touching my routers to have, unless I'm using BGP or something like that, for which I wouldn't even let a CCNA touch it.

I see most certs as a basic level of knowledge, you don't really impress me with them, but you let me know your approximate knowledge level. Some certs are better than others, like CLP, which is a practical exam.

certification as said above shows that you can read a book and remeber answers for a test and yes, unfortuantly , most people with cert's done know crap, have no real world experience, and only know 1 way to do things, and that is how their book told them too, often they can not think out of the box.

For those that dont know anything, it will bit them in the ***.

Certs are good for the company that you work for, sometimes anyway. Usually if they have x number of people with certifications from them they are able to be a partner or have some other special status. Looks good to list for customers, but usually it also means special deals and such from the manufacturer. That is part of why certs are worth something to companies when they look to hire you, not so much that they prove you know something.

Mr.Guvernment said:

certification as said above shows that you can read a book and remeber answers for a test and yes, unfortuantly , most people with cert's done know crap, have no real world experience, and only know 1 way to do things, and that is how their book told them too, often they can not think out of the box.

For those that dont know anything, it will bit them in the ***.

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But reading the book is still knwoing the answer and well computers arent that complex that anybody couldent figure out a problem.


Everybody ive met with verts really knows what they are talking about, Ive never met somebody who just read the book and actually couldent fix the problem in the real world.

VincentP said:

from the tome you assume, many with the certs actually dont have experience?

is this correct?


because I have certs(A+, network, server+, CCNA, MCSE, MCDST ). and I have alot of expericne and well dont own any books on these certs. I just took um. No study books or anything. Ive taken some classes like withs labs for the ccna.

But to come to the conclusion as I see with most tech guys is, If you have certs you a noob with no experice and vice versa,?

whicch is absolutly false.

so maybe some certs

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Well, what I meant to say is that cert's don't equal good tech's. I know a few guys that don't have certs and are great techs. On the other hand the Sr. Network admin at my last job had 3-4 good certs and didn't know jack squat. He'd hand stuff off for us to do instead. (He turned out to be more of a manager)

I guess it comes down to a personal preference. Some people trust certs, some don't.

Not really. Unless you're working for a hug corporation that has no intelligent people in it's management. If that's the case, you can make a **** load being an "IT Proffesional". Those fools know, nothing about computers in real world applications. It's hilarious.