CompTIA Reneges, Reconsiders on Lifetime Certifications

garg0yle writes "Recently, it was reported that IT certification house CompTIA had changed their A+, Network+, and Security+ certifications — rather than being 'for life,' there would now be a recertification requirement through continuing-education credits (and an accompanying fee). Needless to say, this made a lot of people very unhappy, and today it was announced that CompTIA has reversed their decision. Basically, any certification obtained before 2011 will still be 'for life.'" Ars notes the coincidence that CompTIA contacted them about the change of heart an hour after Ars's story about CompTIA's initial switcheroo went live.

Comments

CompTIA

[Lord Ender]

CompTIA certs are the community college diplomas of the IT certification industry. Who cares, unless you're going for an internship or level-1 helpdesk position?

Re:CompTIA

[johnlcallaway]

I agree. I had to take the CompTIA Linux certification several years ago to teach a class and thought it was odd that there was no re-certification requirement. I passed it the first try without too much studying, just taking the sample test and finding out where I needed to brush up. I didn't have to pay for it, so I really didn't think too much about it, it was just one of those things I had to do to make a little extra spending money.

After I took it I found out that an NT guy with zero Linux experience passed it simply by studying for it.

CompTIA certs only impress people who don't know anything, and are helpful to get you through the HR screening by pasting it on your resume.

Re:CompTIA

[TheRealFixer]

CompTIA certs only impress people who don't know anything, and are helpful to get you through the HR screening by pasting it on your resume.

That accurately describes most college IT degrees, actually.

Re:CompTIA

[Attila Dimedici]

CompTIA certs only impress people who don't know anything, and are helpful to get you through the HR screening by pasting it on your resume. That accurately describes most college IT degrees, actually.

That accurately describes most college degrees, most of the time they are necessary to get past HR screening, but tell you nothing about the qualifications of the individual in question.

Re:CompTIA

[hduff]

And what good is an MBA?

You avoid standing with the Liberal Arts undegrads in the unemployment line, i.e. you get your own special Hell.

Re:CompTIA

[Lord Ender]

In pursuit of my engineering degree, I learned useful things I would not have "discovered" on my own. I understand how things work under the hood. I also learned finance and communication skills.

A diploma from a real college means something.

(oh and I got to build robots!)

Re:CompTIA

[Jaysyn]

Don't you mean accountants & PhDs in Economics?

Maybe you are right, but I don't work in banking. The MBAs I know are mostly small to medium business owners.

Re:CompTIA

[causality]

CompTIA certs only impress people who don't know anything, and are helpful to get you through the HR screening by pasting it on your resume. That accurately describes most college IT degrees, actually.

That accurately describes most college degrees, most of the time they are necessary to get past HR screening, but tell you nothing about the qualifications of the individual in question.

College is about having goals, meeting deadlines, and dealing well (i.e. obediently) with authority figures, your willingness to allow them to determine the use of your time, your ability to follow their detailed instructions, and your willingness to be a cog in a large institution. Those are the qualifications employers find desirable. They likely know that in this industry, a degree does not necessarily indicate skill or ability and that many of the most skilled developers and technicians never went to college. What they do know is that it demonstrates you are willing and able to jump through hoops of the sort that they find useful.

Re:CompTIA

[jank1887]

As an engineering major, I'll assume that I fit in to the exception to your 'most' qualifier.

Re:CompTIA

[dcollins]

This is such horseshit. I found my time in college to be uniformly exciting and mind-expanding. I can't even imagine what kind of personality it takes to have never found a single college class be educational. It's like the whole "mentor/student" concept has a been a hideous gaffe for what, 4000 years?

Re:CompTIA

[Mister Whirly]

If you are looking to the academic world to teach you about the business world, you are already two steps behind.

Re:CompTIA

[infinite9]

This is such horseshit. I found my time in college to be uniformly exciting and mind-expanding. I can't even imagine what kind of personality it takes to have never found a single college class be educational. It's like the whole "mentor/student" concept has a been a hideous gaffe for what, 4000 years?

My university experience matches yours. My work experience matches the GP.

Re:CompTIA

[causality]

This is such horseshit.

Without altering its meaning, this can be rephrased as, "my perspective is different from yours, therefore yours is horseshit." How nice, you've elected yourself the arbiter of validity on a matter of opinion.

I found my time in college to be uniformly exciting and mind-expanding. I can't even imagine what kind of personality it takes to have never found a single college class be educational.

I'm fond of the way Samuel Clemens summed it up: "I never allowed my schooling to interfere with my education." If you are able to pursue knowledge and understanding for its own sake, on your own when no one is looking, because it enriches your life, you have found a much purer guiding principle than appeasing a professor, making a grade, or obtaining a job. If you cannot do these things or cannot do them effectively outside of an institution and hierarchical authority structure, then what sort of student are you? If you can and are doing these things on your own and take personal responsibility for your own education, knowing that no one has your interests at heart quite like you do, then the only thing left to prove to any employer is that you are not too much of a wolf, that you can also play the sheep who can follow orders.

It's like the whole "mentor/student" concept has a been a hideous gaffe for what, 4000 years?

A decent mentor will teach you what he knows and will probably enjoy feeling like someone is dependent on their guidance. It's a common way of feeling self-important. A great mentor will show you that you are capable of teaching yourself and will equip you to be your own mentor.

They probably ought to decertify me, actually

[cptnapalm]

I got my A+ about a decade ago. Tech bubble burst and I couldn't get a job doing A+ work around here. Then I didn't own a computer for a few years and I haven't done anything with Windows in years at this point. They probably ought to de-certify me, quite frankly. On the other hand, I'm not applying for any A+ jobs anymore, so I suppose the question, in my case, is moot.

Non-renewing certs are worthless

[Spittoon]

If the certifying authority doesn't require renewals, or some sort of ongoing training in order to stay certified, then the hiring managers will/should start requiring it. "When did you get your certification? What have you done since then to maintain your current knowledge of the field?" IT isn't like Ancient Literature. What you know today will likely be obsolete tomorrow, and any body that wants to certify qualifications in such a changing environment needs to take that into account. Sounds like they wanted to realize that, but people who just wanted a meaningless cert on their CV wouldn't let them do it.

Re:wow ...

[spun]

You have to jump through far more arbitrary hoops for a degree, even a measly four year. That's what employers want to see. Not particular skills, but arbitrary hoop-jumping ability.

In other words

[natehoy]

They have taken this policy change and turned it into an advertisement.

"If you act THIS YEAR, your certification will be good FOR LIFE! Act NOW!"

They can imply that certifications earned this year will have more value than certifications earned after 1 Jan 2011, because the ones earned this year never expire. Neither cert will be worth bupkus a year after it's granted, but one that never expires probably feels more valuable than one that does, even if the actual knowledge really does expire.

My 1337 386 skillz are still valid!

[Tmack]

W00! this means my A+ from 1995 is still good! Im gona make mad $$ since I know how to boot DOS and unplug keyboards and monitors... I even know how to install a 386sx and 30pin simms!

(not really, Im lame cause I never got my A+, just a job as a sysadmin)

Re:wow ...

[Jurily]

It takes longer and costs more.

Re:Where's your Evidence?

[Lord Ender]

Certifications which mean something tend to vary by specialization. Cisco certifications mean something if you work in networking. GIAC or ISC2 certifications mean something if you work in security.

CompTIA certifications don't command respect anywhere, except maybe to differentiate yourself from the other entry-level candidates with no experience. After your first job, mentioning your CompTIA cert is like talking about where you went to middle school. Who cares?

Re:Where's your Evidence?

[spun]

Well, I don't give a great God damn how useful my certs are on my job. I already know I can do my job. I don't need a cert to prove that to myself. I thought the whole point of certs was to help get a foot in the door.

Re:Nice Ad hom

[elnyka]

Which just about proves my point in it's entirety.

"not to be a dick..."

TY

I always get a laugh at how crazy and defensive you get when you're obviously and irrefutably wrong and shown so,like you were here.

He does have a point man. You are insulting his skills by calling his "computer G.E.D" and by ridiculing his justified defensiveness.

He is still not shown to be wrong in any manner that could be construed as obvious or irrefutable. His question remains unanswered: where is the evidence? I personally and professionally do not think CompTIA certs are necessarily a joke, nor that people who possess them have no significant skills whatsoever.

I have a B.S. in Computer Science, pursued a MS up to my thesis, and currently pursuing a MS in Comp.Eng. I have 15 years of software development experience, both on the commercial and defense sectors, ranging from SysAdmin to programmer to soft. engineer, from developing back-end e-commerce sites to implementations of network protocols to grad research. That certainly gives me a proven insight when assessing the value proposition of certain types of certificates.

Is one CompTia cert a joke? Depends on the individual. Likewise I can say based on professional experience that a B.S. degree (or even a M.S. degree) can be a joke at the hands of a mediocre individual.

On the other hand, when you meet a technician that has been working on the field for years and has a stack of certs like the ones some e-start wannabes like to laugh at, chances are that person knows his shit inside out (as opposed to many compsci dilettantes who have no clue how little they know.)

If there is objective and measurable evidence that indeed we can unequivocally generalize and dismiss people with these type of certs (read "objective and measurable evidence" not feel-good dick-waging), then let's hear it. On another note, I do not see what the problem is with certs having an expiration date. In a technology field, certs should be hold for re-examination and renewal (or they should be versioned like the java certs.)