So I looked it up and Google is offering certifications in various fields through Coursera, and they claim it’ll help one get a good paying IT job.
People have made videos on Youtube talking about them with varying answers and in the comments, people often discuss using them as a springboard to get CompTIA certs.
But are these certifications actually worth the money financially? Do people actually get hired if that’s all an employee has? Don’t employers want people with degrees too?
I think the only certs that matter right are cloud certs. AWS, Azure, or GCP. Just my experience.
As a software engineer that is involved in hiring decisions, they are not worth anything with respect to software development jobs.
I look for, in order of importance:
- demonstrated experience - this is your work history
- academic achievement - this is college degree. I do not include certs
- additional skills - this tends to be a skills section - I expect people to not lie and will ask about this section explicitly in interviews
- external factors - previous job - circumstances around leaving
And that’s it. Certs don’t ever even get considered.
Conversely, as a system engineer that is involved in the hiring process for software development in addition to various types of platform and cloud engineering jobs.
I look for, in order of importance:
- demonstrated experience
- additional skills
That’s it. College degree isn’t even considered, but if you got relevant experience in college that can count.
Most of my interview time is spent digging into technical details to see if you can back up your resume claims. The rest is getting an idea of how you approach challenges and think about things.
As far as certifications, they’re often required to get in the door due to qualification regulations. Especially security certs. If you list them, I’ll ask a few questions just to make sure you actually know what’s up.
If you work on a government contract they could be written into the contract.
The Department of Defense has the 8570 baseline which defines which roles require certifications. Having these certs are helpful because you can’t get these jobs without them. You can see them here: https://public.cyber.mil/wid/cwmp/dod-approved-8570-baseline-certifications/
I have a bunch of certifications. I use them as bargaining chips for raises and promotions. Like, showing them I’m continuing to grow. And at the senior level, they will always choose the guy with 10 certs + 15 years compared to others. I see it time and time again.
I can’t say they ever helped me beyond that. Most of the testing felt like trivia rather than real world. I’m dumb AF and just really good at taking tests.
I think it’s worth it only if you’re fully okay that it’s just a talking point, and not a measurement of your expertise, or that it will change your life. Also I hate that you have to renew it every few years.
Good for getting your foot in the door. And their content can often be useful if you intend to work on the topic. For instance, I learned some things by reading the Security+ materials without having any intention of getting the cert.
Don’t employers want people with degrees too?
This all varies for the job and the cert or degree, but degrees are good. Certs might be good enough. Basically an employer wants to know you can do the job. Degrees and certs are ways they can verify that. Between you saying “I know how to replace a CPU” and some other schlub saying “I have an A+”, it’s easier to take CompTIA’s word than yours.
And experience trumps all, usually.
