The IT Certs That No Longer Pay Extra

snydeq writes "Overall employment in tech is improving, but the certs you could once count on for a job or extra pay are losing their value, InfoWorld reports. 'Businesses no longer value what are increasingly considered standard skills, and instead are putting their money both into a new set of emerging specialties and into hybrid technology/business roles.'"

Comments

Hybrid Programmer-BusinessAnalyst Roles

[sanman2]

I think that the ability to succeed in a hybridized programmer-businessanalyst role depends on how complex the business and its processes are, as well as how complex its IT platforms are. If you're a more simpler company with simpler business processes and simpler platforms, then it's doable. But if you're in a complicated business environment with complex IT infrastructure, then creating these hybridized roles is asking for trouble.

Re:Hybrid Programmer-BusinessAnalyst Roles

[JaredOfEuropa]

Not everyone should be generalists, sure. However, IT in the past decade or two has in fact shifted towards the idea that everyone should be specialists, and that's wrong as well. Not just for small outfits where people will fill several roles out of necessity; it's true even in large corporations that can afford to retain numerous specialists. Some of those large corporations now see an increasing need for generalists who are able to keep an overview of the tech landscape as well as the business landscape. You don't just need communication between the various specialists and between it and the business, you need coordination, and for that, neither a manager nor a specialist will suffice; you'll need a generalist techie with good business knowledge as well.

Being such a generalist can be a great deal of fun (it's what I currently do), but there is a snag. Good generalists are hard to find, perhaps because so many choose to specialise. It takes a good deal of searching to fill a generalist position, or one has to tailor the role slightly to the person that one finds, which goes directly against the idea of ever increasing specialisation, and the parameterisation and compartimentalisation of IT work. As a results, generalist roles are often poorly understood and perceived to be hard to manage. The work's great and if you do it well, everyone will wonder how they ever did without having someone like you. But in my own experience it is very hard to carve out an actual career for yourself this way. For the aforementioned reasons, not because there is no need for generalists.

By the way, the trend towards ever deeper specialisation does not only exist in tech work; I see it happening in many other fields as well. And it isn't just the result of the maturation of professions; I suspect that there is another important factor: our managers and the methods used for running our companies. These days it's all management-by-the-numbers, spreadsheets and dashboards. The managers behind those dashboards love managing resources, but in general they hate managing people, and there is a difference.

Re:Dev Certs are Not Worthwhile

[c0lo]

In fact, when I read a resume, I am happy to see no certificates.

Me too, the reason being: I appreciate persons that value their time (i.e. better do nothing - not even gain experience - than waste the time with the certification).

Re:Easily answered

[wickedskaman]

Part of being driven is networking and getting solutions using all resources available to you.

Re:Weighing certifications while hiring

[captbob2002]

Careful, some of us with cert may agree with you but we went out and got them in order to get past the HR weenies that throw away resumes that lack the appropriate buzzwords/acronyms.