What Certifications are Valuable in Today's IT?

ganjadude asks: "I am a twenty-something who took the CCNA classes back in 2001. College at the time was not an option, so I am mainly self-taught in the field. I was wondering if there were others on Slashdot who took this route, and what certifications they have found will best further their careers. Does college matter in the security field anymore, or are certifications the way to go?" What certifications would you recommend as the most pertinent in today's IT market?

Comments

A Few to Note

[eldavojohn]

I'm going to list off the only ones I have heard my employer mentioning:

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
• Oracle Certification Program
• Sun's Java Certification Levels

A few things I can tell you to steer clear of is Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer or Microsoft Office Power User. In my workplace, all I hear is people making fun of those certifications over and over and over again. I don't know if they are jokes but from what I hear, it's a stupid idea to pay for them.

I think in order to get good answers from people, you need to break down what division IT is. I know the CISSP is very important to my employer due to a lot of our apps requiring major security. If you're a glorified secretary making powerpoints with click-actions then maybe "Microsoft Office Power User" is right down your alley? What job are you looking for? IT is a HUGE and now diverse term. It could mean everything from networks to programming to simply moving hardware.

College at the time was not an option...

That's a shame, with a name like 'ganjadude' I think you would have enjoyed college quite a bit.

Re:A Few to Note

[MyLongNickName]

I hold the Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer. When I went job searching, I had so many folks calling me that I stopped returning calls.

Having said that, the credentials open up a lot of doors to interviews. However, once you get the interviews, you still have to prove the work experience and knowledge. The only places that accept credentials without verifying knowledge are companies I do not want to work for.

Bottom line: Certifications help you to rise to the top in the first cut. Work experience, personal skills get you through the second cut. In depth knowldge gets you the job. Business skills get you the promotions.

Ignore the certs if you want, but you'll have a harder time getting the interviews.

Re:A Few to Note

[ahmusch]

Certs are important to your bosses, because they're able to bill higher rates depending on the alphabet soup on your resume.

Such billing differentials may or may not roll down to your salary.

They're only important to you as a CONsultant because you're less likely to have to burn bench time if you've got more certs, because you can be placed in different roles on different projects.

Yes, college still matters

[Ankh]

A good university degree should help you to learn and reason, and will teach you stuff you don't want to learn but that will later turn out to be useful.

In some jobs, especially in larger companies, there's a ceiling, you can't be promoted above a certainl level without a degree.

And yes, if you want to be a consultant, the contacts and the prestige of being associated with a well-known university are worth an awful lot, like it or not.

In computer security you need to stay ahead. Certifications use a course curriculum which was set maybe a year, two years, even three or more years ago and updated; with a certification you'll always be behind the curve, ever so slightly. You need to learn how to be on top of reasearch, be comfortable reading research reports and know how to follow and understand citations. So there's a whole cultural thing that you may need to be part of.

Yes, all if this is vague and hazy, and all of it is long term. By the time there's a concrete need for it, by the time you lose out on a contract or are passed over for promotion, and realize you needed a degree, you won't have one :-)