What's the Point of IT Certifications?

erica_ann asks: "Fact: You can have the knowledge without having to pay to be Certified when it comes to computers. Another fact: Just because you have the certification does not mean you actually know the material as well as someone who is not certified. You might just be good at taking tests. So what is the point of getting IT Certifications? To have a piece of paper?" "I have had this conversation with many friends and co workers. One thing I like out of all the conversations is getting more than just one point of view. I know my standpoint on it. I rambled on it for quite a while. But, what I would like to ask of everyone on Slashdot, is what is your opinion? Do you have certifications? Was it worth getting certified? How do employers, employees and management feel about them? Do you pay for them? Does the company pay for them? Is it worth being certified if you do not get a pay raise for it? What certifications bring more than others? Are specialized more employable than general certifications?

I think many people would benefit from hearing more than one side of the controversy. Maybe it will encourage more employers to reward for certifications. Maybe it will help the next person attain the career he or she wants. Is there such thing as being TOO certified for a job?

Or is the whole idea of getting alphabet soup behind your name just certifiably insane?"

Comments

Re:There is no point unless...

[YankeeInExile]

Well, please feel free not to apply for any of the positions I advertise for.

But do keep this in mind: I have seven senior level programmers and designers working for me. All of them have been with my firm for at least three years, and are consistently happy. I have a 100% telecommute force, and they all get paid 90th %ile for their market - even the on in Seattle, WA.

So, you can continue to get certifications, call me names, and whine on slashdot when you get treated like cattle as your jobs get shipped of to India, or you can start learning, show demonstrable skill, and get a good job.

Re:There is no point unless...

[ellem]

So a CCNE, RedHat Cert these suck? I'd like to see you pass the RedHat. Maybe you can... I don't know... but I do know it's no joke of a cert.

And let me guess, you DO want a degree... in Comp Sci; right?

Re:There is no point unless...

[YankeeInExile]

Precisely not.

That is what everybody who has responded to me in this thread has failed to see: I do not believe that certifications require any demonstrable skill, since they can so easily be gamed. For three hundred US I can get a certificate that says my dog has the required skills.

A certification has exactly as much weight and proof-of-knowledge as a degree from the Grace L. Ferguson University and Storm Door company.

Re:There is no point unless...

[YankeeInExile]

Well, this posting has generated a ton of heat and little light, so let me clue you-all in to my hiring procedure.

First: I own the company. I personally, with the aid of two assistants, control the entire screen-interview-hire process. There is an HR "gal" who handles things like tax withholding and reporting for four jurisdictions around the world, and making sure that your check comes on time, but she doesn't know a programmer from a dog catcher, so has no role in selecting candidates.

Second: Your resume is actually the last thing I look at.

The screening process goes like this: You are asked to send in a cover letter and code sample. Specific file-format requirements are posted with the job requisition. The last time I advertised, there were 1,266 responses.

The vast majority of applicants get the no-interview decision made based on failing to follow the application procedure. This is mostly to weed out robots and head-hunters, although discarding people who cannot follow simple instructions is a side benefit.

Of the one in twenty that successfully gets his letter into my hands, over half are discarded as incapable of effective communication in English.

Of the roughly 2% who have made it this far, we actually have to read some of their code and accompanying documentation. Since there are some systems (java at the lead) that I am not an expert in, I delegate the code review to other programmers in my organization. Here we are looking for consistency of style, and most of all efficacy of documentation. About half of the applicants at this point pass on to the next step.

Now, a telephone inteview takes place - since very few of us are on the same continent, your ability to communicate via telephone is of high importance. This is the "what is it going to be like to work with this guy/gal?" on a personality level call. Do you have a sense of humor? Can you form cogent sentences extemporaneously? The first passes have eliminated the chum, and about three out of five make it past this point.

Now, we begin the fact-checking phase - this is where your resume comes out of the file - first all of your references will be contacted. A few 'sneaky' techniques are used to help weed out shills - or, if you prefer, a complex heuristic analysis is used to determine the likelihood of dishonest response. You will probably not be surprised how many people I have caught trying to bullshit their way through this part. If you are not honest applying for the position, you likely will not be honest reporting your billable hours. This is where my anti-certification bias gets applied, but it turns out that it never seems to matter, because very few of the candidates that make it to this stage have certs. Curious, eh?

Now begins the Fun Stuff - which we actually pay you for. You will submit a writing sample -- this is almost always of the form "Here is a library in system-you-say-you-know. Imagine the programer got hit by a train. You have to document it." You will submit more code -- something that should take about one good day of coding for a modest coder. You are expected to give a log of how long you worked on it, what test procedures you used, what bugs you had (and hopefully fixed) , what was harder than it seemed at first, and what was easier than it seemed at first. From that pool (in the last batch of 1,266 responses, seven got to the paid-code/writing-sample stage) we select the best candidate. Two of those were hired -- a twenty-year veteran, and a self-taught high-school dropout.

Anyway - I have to go do some "real" work

Re:What would the little kid say?

[vacuum_tuber]

You may be a recruiter, but my CV doesn't land on your desk. Ever.