I’m no expert but I think a lot of employers use those to weed out people. It might get you an interview, but that’s about it.
Only you would know if you should invest in any additional certifications. That said, without them you do have a much more difficult to!e getting interviews when searching for a job. You need to getast the HR screeners before someone who can really assess your experience will even see your resume.
Just like a college degree, without them doors do not open. Your analysis is skewed because you already have them.
My apologies, I really can’t type worth a damn on my tablet. let’s try again.
Only you would know if you should invest in any additional certifications. That said, without them you do have a much more difficult time getting interviews when searching for a job. You need to get past the HR screeners before someone who can really assess your experience will see your resume.
Every bit of continuing education you can document add to your arsenal - it never hurts and shows prospective you’re keeping up.
Imho certificates are good to enhance a resume as well as to enhance one’s credentials when consulting and submitting proposals for engagements.
In my experience, in very large technical environments, people sit up and notice PMPs and Security certificates (CISSP). The other stuff is “nice” but not always seen as terribly significant achievements.
I get an average of 4 calls a day from head hunters or internal recruiters , some of them even beg. The secret for me has been experience. I started out getting that experience with sandboxing at home. for the past 25 years, I've always had some sort of low-budget Frankenstein network and mini-data center running in my basement.
I pick the technologies based on what I see listed most commonly on job boards and after a while, the rest came naturally. for instance, right now I have a full-blown VMWare cluster running at home, complete with redundant networking, fibre channel storage (SAN), iscsi storage and a simulated DR data center. I spend my free time staying sharp and tinkering with the newest trends. Certifications help when it comes to merit increases and maybe initially attracting attention to a resume, but experience trumps all. when I hire new people, the conversation tells all. Simply studying and getting certs won't get you through that with an experienced IT guy.
I have different goals though. If a company requires a college degree, I wouldn't even talk to them because it's an indicator to me that they don't even know what they need. This often baffles recruiters when I tell them that. I recently even had the outstanding pleasure of directly telling Salesforce, Angies list and Facebook dev that I would starve to death before I considered working for them. I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed that opportunity.
You will know when you are doing it right it right, you won't have to look for a job ever. They will be looking for you.
when building a resume, don't rely on your job history section to list out your individual skills. I always include, immediately after the introduction/goals section, a quick list of all the things I am experienced in. Not only is it excellent keyword bait, it offers the reader an opportunity to see what you are capable of without having to read your entire resume. If they are interested, they will continue to read.
White Americans have been excluded from most IT jobs for several years. Males who are in their 50’s or above will face enormous resistance. Companies just don’t want to hire Americans.
All I can say is that I chose not to get a college degree 35 years ago (for solid intellectual reasons) and I feel that now that decision is really hurting me.
The three most important things in todays job market are:
A powerful Linkedin account.
Upgraded training if possible.
Flexibility to move to other locations.
I needed all 3 to get my current job.
Once you have a track record of sucess in the field, additional certifcations are a waste of time and money.
How about learning "writing"? That might be useful for articles like this.
In my experience, competent people got positions by their competence, and incompetent people got positions by “credentials”.
But that is a thing of the past. Now, they have made relative competence indistinguishable. You are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of ability. In accordance with Gresham’s Law, the technically competent have left the market, and only incompetent, well credentialed candidates are left.
My recommendation is for you to start a business and be your own boss. There is no place for competent people in today’s corporate world.
Some of the best computer guys I have had working for me had no formal training. Some of the worst had no formal training. The same goes for some with a wall of certificates - best and worst. If your potential employer only looks at certs you may not want to work there.
Oh and if you want security become very good at fixing SAP issues. Guaranteed job for life!
She then learned how to set up facebook and linkedin pages for all those same customers and for herself. She gets a job offer every week in her inbox from her linkedin page, due to her analyst skills, which she did not learn in trade schools or in college.
She has had four or so jobs since graduation from college and recently was invited to Silicon valley to attend a very elite "secret" google analytic conference. She is still single so I asked her about the men there she saw, they are all geeks Mom, I asked her if she was a geek and she said, yes!
All HR looks at in most companies do you have a Cert. They get you past HR.
It surprises me to see the number of comments about getting through HR. Does anyone in IT actually go through HR to get an interview/job? In my twenty years in IT, every job I’ve has come from someone I knew professionally bringing me into their company.
I’d say it would be more helpful to cozy up to your favorite vendor/VAR and quietly let them know you are looking. They’ll be familiar with several accounts with similar technology.