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What Industry Certifications are Worth It?
aries78 asks: "I've recently obtained my CCNP certification, and am contemplating on going for the oh-so-scary CCIE certification. In the meantime, I have been considering other potential certifications to supplement my resume while I'm working toward my bachelor's degree. I am curious, though, as to what kind of professional certifications Slashdotters have, and how, if at all, they have been of help."
Funny, but my CNE is now worth a lot more than it used to be, since they are so rare. I was a 4.x CNE that upgraded to 5.x in time to never touch it again until recently.
While I need other experience, the CNE has made people notice me in my interviewing lately. Kind of proves you've been in the field awhile.
I plan to go CCNP but CCIE is a waste to me unless you have a job already lined up that requires it.
MCSE, well nice to have, nothing I mention typically.
I guess it all depends on your goals. If you want to be a CCIE and travel a lot, etc, sure. NOT ME!
YES, there is a McDonald's in Hanoi Square.
I seem to get certified every couple years for Solaris Admin and Network from Sun. Not once has anyone ever asked me about it on an interview. I started leaving it out of my resume intentionally for a while just to see if it made a difference. And when I've brought it up at an interview I always get this look of "oh, thats nice" then a shift in topic to practical questions of how you would do something. So to answer the question , nope, years of on the job real world experience is always more important. 9 times out of ten they aren't going to teach you the real important stuff anyway. They are gonna teach you how to do the generic day to day of using the software and equipment when things are running smoothly for an out of the box environment. I guess it might be nice place to start after reading a book on how to do something or a little extra clought. But from what I've seen certification = desperate. Just prove yourself in the interview as being intelligent and a fast learner and then shadow the local guru in the group when you get there. And if you are already an expert, then no ones gonna care if you got it or not.
Aren't those little crunchy candies?
:) For what it's worth, I am also going back to school for my MBA in 2003, but that's more to let me break into management (everybody and their dog's got an MBA around here!)
But seriously.
I am A+, CNE 3/4, HPUX 9x/10x, AT&T Sys-V and I have various odd little programming and hardware certs (e.g. ISPF/PDF, HP-CZ etc.)
The only cert which has really meant anything is the CNE. In today's job market though, I'm noticing that a lot more head-hunters are scanning for certs just as a way of winnowing the mass of resume's which flood in for every position. (There's several thousand IT pro's out of work here in the Seattle area).
As such, I've done a bit of research myself, including some salary analysis and talking to various headhunters and have come up with the following list (which I hope to have acquired by June of 2002):
MCSA, MCSE, MCDBA, Network+, Linux+, LPI,
i-Net+, CNE 5/6, CCNA and CCDA
These are in no particular order, and please note that my experience is abnormally broad. I would normally recommend a much narrower selection based on a given individual's interests.
I just happen to have the background to pick these up with a minimum of studying so, hey, why not?
Hope this helps. Best of luck!
The "Certified Information Systems Security Professional" ® (CISSP) designation is a recently developed international designation for people involved in information security work. It is handled by the non-profit organization called " (ISC)2", the "International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc." They administer, test, and have a trademark on CISSP®. The first CISSP designations were conferred in 1994, and each year the numbers have increased.
With certification of computer professionals becoming more important, and the incursion of the Engineering field into computer-related work areas, it's a good idea to consider getting a formal designation. The ISSA and CIPS organizations have also been very supportive in promoting professional certification among their members. I've discovered that certification makes a difference in getting consulting contracts, and provides a higher level of trust, ethics, and expected professionalism in client relations. Recently, an incresing number of government RFP's for INFOSEC-related services have requested that consultants preferably have CISSP accreditation.
Applicants must subscribe to a formal code of ethics, and must have at least three years of direct work experience in one or more of the ten information security domains of the information systems security Common Body of Knowledge, in order to sit for the examination.
The ten domain areas are:
Access Control;
Communications Security;
Risk Management & Business Continuity Planning;
Policy, Standards, and Organization;
Computer Architecture & Systems Security;
Law, Investigation, & Ethics;
Application Program Security;
Cryptography;
Computer Operations Security; and
Physical Security.
The exam questions are multiple choice, and are oriented towards knowledge gathered by experience. Someone who just read some text books would have a very hard time passing the exam. Exam preparation training seminars, and a study guide with sample questions are available from (ISC)2.
For more details, see (ISC)2's new WWW site at: http://www.isc2.org/
"I figure you're here 'cause you need some whacko who's willing to stick his finger in the fan. So who are we helping?
I have one certification (Java Certified Programmer), and a Master's Degree in Computer Science. I have not needed any other certifications.
Never play leapfrog with a unicorn. Or a juggernaut.
Post graduate degrees are work experience. I don't know how many times people have asked why I didn't decide to go out to the "real world" and get experience. The truth is, graduate school isn't so much schooling as it is work. Hard work. Sure, you will probably get paid for the work but it's barely enough to live on. Don't get me wrong--it's worth every bit of the pain.
Of course getting a Master's degree or PhD will get you higher pay. But it also sets the "ceiling", if you will, for how far up in a major company you can go. How many Fortune 500 companies are run by persons with their Bachelor's degree? Not many, unless they were the founder. And successors almost always have at least an MBA; but a PhD certainly helps. If you want to be a monkey all your life just following other's leadership and writing what they tell you, then your bachelor's is fine. But if you want to get into management, you really should consider an MBA. If you want to ever be a "director", VP, or whatever, you really want an MBA AND a post graduate degree in a technical field. The extra money earned is because you're worth every penny at that point.
Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
In my experience, there are two factors that influence how an organization views this:
- Do the institutions of higher learning in your area have competitive graduate or professional schools?
- Does the hiring manager have a graduate or professional degree?
In my case, the second-rate institution in my area produces nearly all of the engineering graduates AND the CEO of my company only has a bachelor's degree. Not surprisingly, at my company, graduate degrees are not valued significantly above a B.S. and discussion of graduate-level research draws guffaws (a reflection of the effort needed to put together a "thesis" at the local school)At the other end of the spectrum, I understand there are places where you are a nobody if you don't have your Ph.D. (I've heard this about NIST, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same at other government labs or the big corporate research labs (Bell, T.J. Watson).)
And successors almost always have at least an MBA; but a PhD certainly helps.
As I understand it, companies generally like to draw their top leadership from customer-focussed functions like sales and marketing. You're at a disadvantage if you're in detail-focussed functions like development or operations, though there are notable exceptions to this (Jack Welch, Gil Amelio)
How many Fortune 500 companies are run by persons with their Bachelor's degree?
Just sampling the top ten reveals:
- H. Lee Scott (Walmart)
- Sanford Weill (Citigroup)
- C. Michael Armstrong (AT&T)
That's 30%...