Had very similar experiences...

Story: Are Vendor Certifications Worth It?Total Replies: 0
Author Content
DaGoodBoy

Jan 12, 2005
5:51 AM EDT
I got an MCSE back in 1996 by taking all 6 tests in 7 days based entirely off of my work experience. Ditto Cisco CCNA, Ditto LPIC I & 2. I've never really gotten a great deal from training. And I laughed when MS retired my old 3.51 cert and now refer to myself as "a recovering MCSE... I just take it one day at a time". It usually gets a chuckle, which is all that cert was ever really worth anyway.

I always saw certifications as just a simpler way to interact with recruiters. Most recruiters I've worked with are young, stupid and greedy. Getting a recruiter that understood enough technology to qualify experienced applicants must be a real trick, but training someone to search for resumes with particular letter combination is probably much more cost effective for their business model. It's definately got be easier for an employer to request a certification than for them to try to construct a detailed profile of their available IT positions.

I agree that things have changed more recently. I see other, more specialized vendor-neutral certifications like the LPI and the CISSP (information security cert) gaining credibility in the press and market. I believe the continuing dilution of the value of vendor specific IT certs is part of the reason I see a decline in the requirement for certifications in job postings and contract RFPs that cross my desk.

Good article! I'm not sure what the future for certifications holds, but it will be interesting to find out!

Tony

Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]

Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!