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

Good, Because Certs Are Worthless

[afabbro]

There are really own two certs I respect: Cisco's CCIE and Oracle's OCM. Both require hands-on lab demonstrations of skill. (Is RedHat doing that now, too?)

All other certs are undervalued by dumps. Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco - you name it, all you need to do is buy or torrent the questions online, memorize the answers, and go in and take the test. Literally, anyone with zero knowledge of the material can do this. It's laughable.

When I've been involved in hiring, I've never really paid attention to someone's certs. I'd certainly hire someone with several years of hands-on experience in a technology who wasn't certified over someone with no experience who was.

Re:Good, Because Certs Are Worthless

[Penguinisto]

It doesn't.

The last time I bothered was for Windows 2000, and only then because the employer at the time demanded it. Not sure if it has changed, but back then you only needed to know that according to Microsoft, only a Microsoft-based solution to any given problem was considered sufficient. This was in spite of the fact that it often didn't make sense.

I suspect things haven't changed much, and in my humble-but-professional opinion, someone with only the cert (and little-to-no experience) usually meant that they were superbly trained as marketing zombies, but were absolutely worthless as sysadmins.

(...example? Clicking "cancel" when Task Scheduler demands a password in Server 2k8 will lock out an AD account in a hurry. Neat little bug, but one of the zillions of subtle things a sysadmin would know, but an MCSA would not.)

Re:Good, Because Certs Are Worthless

[Anonymous Coward]

certifications help the companies that sell the tests for the certifications. They make them money in lots of ways...first, from the sale of the tests. Second the "graduates" will use their equipment/software/whatever because they passed it, or because they are seen by some bosses as being at least competent in using that equipment, so that's what the company purchases. Third, neophytes see the certifications and decide they'll buy that equipment to learn so they can get the certification.

But worst of all, certifications help the incompetent get jobs, because they have a certification that says they are not incompetent. I'm against certifications for this very reason..

Re:Good, Because Certs Are Worthless

[jcoy42]

Who specifically? Because I have skill, and want out of the states.

Re:Good, Because Certs Are Worthless

[garaged]

Redhat cert is pretty much hands on, and I can tell you that a lot of people think they have what it takes and fail on the exam at the very first steps

Re:Good, Because Certs Are Worthless

[MightyMartian]

In other words, a reasonably experienced admin armed with Google and a basic knowledge of LDAP, DNS and Windows configuration is better armed for working with an Active Directory environment than someone who received a Microsoft certification.

Re:Good, Because Certs Are Worthless

[mysidia]

There are really own two certs I respect: Cisco's CCIE and Oracle's OCM. Both require hands-on lab demonstrations of skill. (Is RedHat doing that now, too?)

Microsoft MCM certifications require hands-on lab demonstrations of skill. And there are plenty of other IT certs with similar requirements, that are not simple "pass a test, get the cert".

Have you seen the requirements for the VMware VCDX and Cisco Certified Architect certifications that require prospectives to submit an application, have suitable experience shown, be accepted, build a design to certain requirements, and then defend their design choices in front of a panel?

They kind of make Oracle OCM and IE look like like 'easy' certs by comparison.

There are also things like CISSP-ISSMP, where applicants actually must have 2 years of job experience specifically related to the knowledge base and positive references to certify, in addition to passing tests, and they must show a fair number of hours of continuing education every year to stay certified; so holding the papers there takes a lot more than just passing a test too.

Re:Good, Because Certs Are Worthless

[riflemann]

There are really own two certs I respect: Cisco's CCIE and Oracle's OCM. Both require hands-on lab demonstrations of skill.

As someone who has interviewed over a hundred network engineers for a major tech company, let me just say that experienced candidates with CCIEs and experienced candidates without CCIEs have about the same success rate of passing a technical interview. The only difference seems to be that those without lean towards practical real world experience, and those without lean towards book knowledge.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Hybrid Programmer-BusinessAnalyst Roles

[ppanon]

Sort of. A business analyst may also be involved in business process re-engineering in conjunction with requirements analysis. The classic programmer-analyst generally stuck to gathering/documenting requirements.

RHCE requires a hard hands on lab. Only 5% pass.

[Anonymous Coward]

In 2000, my company flew 20 system administrators to a week-long course all day Monday to Thursday. On Friday, we had to take the exam: a four-part lab and long test (100 questions if I recall correctly). The four-part lab was hard. Everyone had one computer assigned to him. The instructor would load a disk image onto each computer. The OS was broken or mis-configured in some way. For example, it might not boot, or you couldn't logon, or it might not load a webpage. You had to figure out how it was broken and how to fix it on your own. We had no access to internet, but I think you could use the manual (not that it would help you directly).

I had studied every night for a month before the class. I studied again every night Monday through Thursday during our class. During Friday's exam, I think it took me around 30 minutes on average to fix each of the four broken OS images. By the time I finished, many of my coworkers were still on the first or second problem. When the results came back, I was the only person who passed. Our of 20 people our company paid to fly across the country and put up in a hotel, I was the only person who earned a RHCE certificate. My conclusion: I respect anyone who has it. It certainly has no resemblance to a certificate that requires only a multiple-choice exam taken at some Prometric franchise.