Comments on: Why Get Certified If You Know How To Do Your Job? — Part 1

By: Tyler

Tyler — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:00:44 +0000

IT Skills In Canada – Part 4 (Final)
(This is part 4 of a 4 part series, you can read the first post here)

Here is the final part of my discussion with Shane Schick on the Myths & Realities of the IT Skills & Talent landscape in Canada. This part is titled “Myth 4 – Certifications Aren’t Worth It”.

http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/archive/2009/04/01/it-skills-in-canada-part-4-final.aspx

By: Dan Zombek

Dan Zombek — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:31:41 +0000

The thing I find valuable about getting certified is not so much the certification in and of itself but the learning behind it. Let’s face it; there is a huge amount of technology out there. No one can know it all and even if one were to work with only one specific technology all day long there still might be areas that person is not exposed to. By pursuing certification it helps to shore up that missing knowledge. Plus it’s not easy to become certified. There’s a lot of reading, studying and lab work involved, (not to mention those lovely tests). What a great way to emphasize to an employer ones resourcefulness and initiative.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:54:35 +0000

Cheaters turn to Web to game certification system

Read the article here:

http://bink.nu/news/cheaters-turn-to-web-to-game-certification-system.aspx

this is really disappointing and it’s made worse by popular sites sharing links to these sites.

By: Shawn Anderson

Shawn Anderson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:46:58 +0000

Agreeing with Adam.

I like your argument that staying certified keeps your skills current. In fact, if you stay in one job for a long time the chances are quite good that you’ll become proficient in just a small area that your job encompasses. Certifying is a good way to see what is happening “outside”.

I recall certifying for IBM Tivoli back in ‘01. The cert exams were very specific into types of implementation. For platforms my client used Solaris and Windows, yet by necessity I had to also learn AIX and Linux to pass the exam. For RDBMS they used Oracle, but the exams also pointed me to learn MS-SQL and DB2. These were platforms and applications that, had I stayed with that client, would never have been used. I’m very grateful for the studying that led me to learn the basics in all of these fields.

It has served me well through two recessions.

All the best.

Shawn

By: Adam Ruth

Adam Ruth — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:22:23 +0000

I think a lot depends on the certification itself. For a while in the 98-99 time frame, certification mills were pumping out MCSEs like candy. It made the whole MSCE program somewhat meaningless, kind of like hyper inflation, the more that were printed the less the value of the existing ones. MCSDs didn’t quite suffer the same fate and Cisco’s CCIE will probably always have a lot of value.