On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 10:38 AM, Brian Mathis <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Evan Pettrey <[email protected]> wrote: >> Greetings LOPSA, >> >> I'm interested in hearing what everybody thinks about the value of >> certifications in today's workplace. Do you feel they are worth the money >> and time involved in obtaining them? How valuable are they in the >> marketplace? When you are hiring an IT professional, do you place any value >> in them? >> >> I'm not sure if this has been discussed in the past but I don't recall >> seeing the discussion before and wanted to see what everybody thought. >> >> Best regards, >> Evan Pettrey > > > I will quickly try to sum up the arguments before this becomes a flame-fest. > > Argument 1: > Anyone with a certification sucks because they have no experience and > only know how to take tests. > > Argument 2: > Anyone without a certification is good because they had to learn > things on their own and they learned the hard way. > > Argument 3: > Taking a certification is a good start to help you learn some basics, > but you still need to have experience.
This is always a hot topic. My take is mostly #3. I tell new folks to the field that a certification can be good to get your foot in the door. Even when experienced a few organizations expect them, so not having one keeps you out regardless of if you know your stuff or not. I normally don't take much stock in them, but at one point in my career I got a couple of Linux certifications so that I could get a full-time Linux SA job and get out of Windows. Despite extensive Linux use on the side, and past Unix use, I was having a hard time moving from full-time Windows to a position requiring Linux skills. The certification got me past that barrier. Nick _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
