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Are Non-Technical Certifications Worth Earning?
Nerval's Lobster writes: Everybody knows that certain technical certifications can boost your career. For developers and others, though, is it worth earning non-technical certifications such as the PMP (Project Management Professional), CRISC (which certifies that you're good at managing risk)? The short answer, of course, might be, 'Yes, if you plan on moving into management, or something highly specialized.' But for everybody else, it's hard to tell whether certain certifications are worth the time and money, on the nebulous hope that they'll pay off at some point in the future, or if you're better off just focusing on the technical certifications for certain hard skills.
HR likes MBA PHD masters
What I find interesting is that most people who earn certificates and then place all those acronyms after their name are the ones that have difficulty adjusting to the real world. Critical thinking is more important than certificates. Most certifications teach you a specific way to do things and not to go off the rails.
Half of writing history is hiding the truth.
sales call a month advertising PiMP certification, it must be awesome. Just awesome. /s
Having worked in IT for a number of years, I can tell you that a certified Project Management Professional is someone you definitely want on your project. Some jackass who thinks knowing how to half-ass a chart in MS Project being in charge is a very bad thing. Get a PMP and save a lot of grief.
Especially If your company will pay for it. Monetary free knowledge is one of the best kinds of knowledge.
But, really, what are these certs worth to you? Time, money, more work responsibility? Worse case scenario, you go get a non tech cert but don't put it on your resume or nothing comes from it at work. Better to have it and not use it than to need it and not have it.
There are thousands of different types of certifications, so many that most are unheard of and useless.
As a matter of fact, if you send me $100, I will certify you as being a online purchasing specialist. I'll even print you a nice Word 97 template certificate of completion to hang on your basement wall!
I don't have a snazzy acronym for this certificate filled in yet; I'm trying to find descriptive words that will fit the acronym A.S.S.H.A.T.
This should certainly make your resume memorable to future hiring managers.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
Having a solid understanding of what actually needs to go into a project - even if you are not a project manager - is a huge help in making sure that you are doing your part for the project to succeed. That's the flip side of the same coin as the project manager having a fundamental understanding of the development and programming process.
Time - Resources (headcount) - Money -- The three primary legs of a project.
I'm not saying that you need to go all the way and get your full PMP... but taking a couple seminars on the core PMP would definitely be a step that would help you immensely.
How do projects succeed or fail? One day at a time. One day at a time.
FredInIT
After discharging the 90% of Six Sigma Training that's either nonsense, or common sense, the rest is rather useful.
Sorry, but I am management. I don't need the certificates. I hire people with the PMP (or CISSP, or whatever) and expect to know how to do the job for which I hired them. I need to know whether they're full of crap and giving me a smoke enema or whether they're doing what I need.
Bark less. Wag more.
Mike Janus can get you a job and at least a $1K signing bonus, if you have PiMP'd youself up. Apparently, only PMP registers as a nontechnical cert to this group, so far...
It depends on who you ask.
HR incorrectly screens people, and thus prefers certifications, because they have no idea what they're doing in terms of real qualifications, so they get a list of "people in this industry with this profession will have these certifications" and then just look at those, instead of "can s/he do the job".
CEOs think they know what they need, but they also have no clue, so they just use the buzzwords and certifications they think will work. So if the CEO hires you after sitting next to you at a conference, it might mean nothing.
Managers actually tend to know what the job entails, so they know certifications frequently are useless, so they'll ask the hard questions that actually matter.
But, in the end, people hire other people who are like them, so it's more important that you look and act like the people hiring you, and they'll ignore your actual qualifications, anyway.
(sorry if I burst your bubble, but this is why tech firms are filled with mostly white and Indian guys who have certain hobbies, and sales firms are filled with golf players and football enthusiasts)
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Ahhhh, yes.
The answer is PMP is a useful certification, but like every cert there's always a bunch of clowns that can pass the course but can't manage a wet paper bag. Experience and a good track record is always a much better indicator than a cert.
"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem." -- Jefferson
Mentioned except it spam. It must not be legitimate.
And this my friends is what PMP is. It is just a bunch of spammers.
Please reply to this email with your interest
Holy crap PMP people are idiots.
I'm a certified Lobster Boiler.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
The most important certs just about anyone can get that most will never put on a resume would be a First Aid/CPR/BLS course. If you are an outdoors person around bodies of water a lot, a lifeguard course wouldn't be too bad to have under your belt as well.
After that, certs really become more specialized training in whatever your work field is...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
No
I don't think that "non-technical" means what you think...
Can we get a "schlocklobster" tag for Nerval's crap yet? Then can we get a proper filtering system, preferably one that outright rejects it in the firehose phase?
Even sadder than the PMP scam is that people still fall for that scam, and even sadder is that companies will hire people that fell for this scam.
I took the PMP test from a company that was not the official PMP outfit. I passed it with no problem. Anybody that studies for a week or two could pass it. However, the real PMP class and test costs hundreds to thousands of dollars and there is continuing education associated with it. I did not consider it worth my time to pursue the actual PMP certification and upkeep as it would not have brought in an extra dime for me. However, if a company would pay for it, then why not?
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Certifications are NEVER worth getting unless you learn something from them.
If you don't learn anything from them, it's a worthless cert, and you don't want to work for a company that respects it.
If you disagree with me, and think a cert is worth getting for 'respect' or something instead of learning, then you will probably like working for that kind of company.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I am not sure of this.
Maybe certs are good for the regular drone, however I cannot really advocate for them.
I've got high school papers. I tried university, and got good grades and all, but it was not interesting.
Nowadays I make approximately the same as top 1-2% of living beings on this planet. I don't really have certificates, nor did I complete university. I have worked for others in many positions, but in the end the only thing that matters is that you are good at what you do and can learn new stuff when it is necessary. That, and be confident and have faith.
Basic education and certificates make you fare well, but not necessarily great.
Though the Prostitute Management Program certification might actually hold slightly more prestige.
Are Non-Technical Certifications Worth Earning?
The question was answered in the summary, "'Yes, if you plan on moving into management, or something highly specialized.'"
Really, what more is there to say?
Search your favorite job postings website for project manager jobs. Ten out of ten of them will say that a PMP certification is either required or preferred.
A few reasons employers look for a PMP certification: a) several years of professional project management experience are required in order to qualify to take the exam, b) it shows a certain level of commitment to furthering one's career as a project manager, and c) if someone has taken and passed the PMP exam, it means they're at least familiar with standard project management tools, techniques, and practices.
Tom me, those seem like reasonable reasons for adding the PMP certification as a requirement for a project manager job posting. But it definitely means that if you want to move your project management career forward, you should really consider the PMP certification.
Building Better Software
It's sad that companies are falling for this. Other than in job postings and spam, until today I had never seen PMP mentioned. I assumed it was just a scam since that is certainly what it looks like.
I am a certified Mack Daddy.
Here is my graduation photo:
http://images1.laweekly.com/im...
You are welcome on my lawn.
two types of hiring: make it three.
1. cheap candidate. H1B, Indian subcontractor, or simply cheap.
2. You know someone there, and they push your resume relentlessly.
3. Your recruiter buddy already has the hiring manager and Hr biatch in his pocket with gold club memerships.
so no need for any qualifications certificates etc. You could be from timbukto and they will find a way to hire you.
NO.
Although the articles mentions that there is a meaningful financial benefit to the certifications, the challenge is finding industries and companies that recognize and value the certifications. The companies that I have worked at (in particular software) the certifications would be mostly meaningless as a recognition of skill and understanding. Hardware, logistics, regulated companies will likely have a higher value in a PMP or a CRISC.
However, there is a secondary worth to these certifications as a professional. You may end up seeing the world differently. With practice you can begin to intuitively see elements of the certification in your daily professional life. This secondary insight will help you as a professional.
For example, developers with PMP and CRISC don't "pad" estimates, they estimate the risks and unknowns, something that a lot of regular developers don't do. They see estimates as ranges or with relative confidence, those levels of ranges help give better estimates to make better decisions.
The certifications help you indirectly as a professional. That said, you can still skip the certification and read the text books (like the PMBOK), but that won't necessarily fill in all the gaps you may have in understanding.
I have a relative who got some kind of computer repair certification, but I don't want him anywhere near my computers! I don't have any special certifications, and I'm always the one explaining to him how to fix computers. Not all certifications are created equal, but many aren't worth the paper they are printed on.
Are certifications for jobs you don't want worth earning?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
I've moved a few times in the past year and a half.
After moving piles of certificates again during the last move, I realized that nobody had ever - once - asked if I was certified in X, Y, or Z. I also realized that every employer I've ever had that needed certification for X, Y, or Z in order to accomplish a thing, was willing to pay me to get said certification and (again) nobody ever asked afterward.
I looked at this pile of hard-earned paper and briefly considered buying a bulk box of frames from Alibaba and plastering them all over the walls around my desk, but then I realized that if I cared enough to do that, I would already be looking at a pile of framed certificates instead of a pile of loose paper.
We had a lovely bonfire not long after moving in here, and the certificates were part of the firestarters.
It's just paper. And paper doesn't get things done, people do.
(I don't miss them.)
Kid-proof tablet..
Nice story. Now, fries with that.
I was wondering what was all that interesting about companies asking for ITIL for a while until actually they made it mandatory to have it at the job. It just memorising a book from some english oldtards...the same that are making a clusterfuck about keeping gov IT at UK keeping on. Never had such worthless piece of paper.
If you're asking which certs give a high probability that the certificate holder can do the job, that's one thing. If you're asking which certs will get you on the short list for a hiring interview, that's another.
PMP may actually appear on both lists. I know that it appears on a lot of postings for Project Managers. And project mgmt isn't just managing Gantt charts. It's a whole sub-discipline under Industrial Engineering.
The big certs right now appear to be for security pros.
We are the 198 proof..
They prove that you have spent some minimum time with some subject matter in a standardized environment and something expected to register did to some degree.
In many situations you are looking for actual talent, a more than ordinary skill for dealing with some matter. But since certification processes have to pay for themselves, talent is actually off their scale.
Unfortunately, this holds for a lot of degrees particularly in arts, literature and philosophy. You can make a useful determination of how useful for his line of work an engineer may be after 4 years of university education based on a solid highschool math and science background.
But stuff like philosophy or English Literature? After two years or so? That's just crap. You need to be immersed for decades in the field before you can actually hope to make a difference. The degrees are not much more than a way to get the entirely hopeless out of the field early.
And a certificate program is much worse than a university degree. That's sort of first layer call center knowledge we are talking about, or surviving twenty minutes of smalltalk.
I got the 100m swimming certificate when I was 7 and it has stood me in good stead since.
I thought your name was "Elena Davies"
I can tell you that those things are good if you're in the consulting business. Not so much to prove to the other person that you know your stuff - no different than trying to impress your hiring manager - but to prove to their higher ups about the validity of a report to decrease insurance/ liability rates.
It's like taking a broken computer to the local shop (even though you know it's broken) but they will test it and write a note on their letterhead certifying the computer is dead, just so you can get a warranty claim.
Getting a certification / diploma, whatever prestigious is a path to disaster in a career. I know a lot of people who went in somewhat good MBA and yet failed. Not because their MBA sucked, but because they didn't knew why they did it. Wanting a "nice career" is NOT a path or a project. A lot of these certification just find people who stagnate and tell them, "Sign up, do it, and you'll be a manager earning XXX". But if your only reason is "my career is stagnating and I want a boost", then keep clear and invest the money instead (in stocks or real estate or whatever investment). On the other hand if you have a project in mind which is clear to you, then you can find a certification / diploma that will help you achieve it. The diploma doesn't count at all. It's what you learn and who you'll network with. I'll give you an example, two friends from the same prestigious european MBA : One did it with a purpose. When they had meetings with C-level executives doing talks, he was able to express his project and got hired with a big salary. The other did it because her career stagnated and she hoped a boost from the MBA. At the end, she went back to her former employer at the same position and with a lot less money in the bank (and new friends). She was given the same opportunities than the other friend, but was unable to leverage them. So don't do a certification, a MBA and any other diploma because you'll get more money / a better career. But if you do want to acquire project management skills and this certs seems a good way to learn them, then do it. If it's only to be able to display PMP after your name on linkedin, think about what you want to do next.
This in no way prevents dilution of the credential. I've been to several firms around the world, where the manager tells the employee to get PMP certified, provides the employee what to write as experience, and sets their exam date. The exam is on paper, to a group, without a proctor present.
Whether the employee knows the material or not is irrelevant: the company can tout a high percentage of their PMs are certified. If the individual gets audited, they lose the credential, and the firm lines up another to repeat the process.
Might not have anything to do at all with your IT duties, but very often generates an interesting conversation. Most people assume you're a bit more competent/mature/serious (whether that's the case or not).
Depends where you are, of course, but over here in Europe having certificates for speaking languages can help a lot, even for anti-social loner nerds like me. The certificates show potential employers that you'll do hard work to gain new skills, and that you have skills that will always be useful somewhere. I might only use English professionally, but being able to share jokes with the locals in their own lingo gets lots of brownie points. I found, to my surprise, that as a software engineer, it's not difficult to pick up natural languages, maybe because the job involves using lots of (artificial) languages. Mind you, in some places, such as where I live & work now (Luxembourg), the locals use four languages, not one; people really need to speak a few of them not to come across as congenitally stupid. When I was 50, I was a monolingual English speaker. Less than a decade later, I have my marital arguments in French, tell rude jokes badly in Luxembourgish, fend off job ads in Dutch, & get the pizza I intended in German.
There are really two components to this. First, is the time/effort/expense worth it to gain knowledge that may be useful in your profession or career generally. Second, will that certificate confer any additional monetary benefits or different/more advanced position in the near term.
The former is completely independent of the latter. Not everything you may know or do is assigned a tangible value by your current or future employer but having such knowledge may make your job easier to do or allow you to outperform others.
The later may often be true for all but the most specialized certifications. Rather than just list a bunch of acronyms it might be better to reference having 'a number of additional certifications in related fields' and allow the hiring firm to enquire further if they are interested. By doing so you show you continue to improve and stay current for its own sake and not to wave a bunch of letters at someone.
If you can skip HR and go to the interview with the hiring manager, then you do not need certs. Any IT professional knows certs are worthless unless required by some mandate (such as Security+ to work any IT Federal Government job). Even then, the cert is still worthless. Having a piece of paper does not imply to me you know how to operate in the IT environment in a secure manner.
Unfortunately you normally cant get past HR without certs. They have no knowledge of IT normally and do not understand that anyone can get certified with enough time and mind dump sites.
Are those considered "non-technical"? They're not in the I.T. field. Take me for example... i'm in paleontology. i'm doing ok.