Professional Certifications

[MilDoc]

Certifications mainly weed out the true total absolute incompetents. OTOH, having a certificate does not guarantee competency. Applies to all fields, including mine.

[Richard in Smithville]

I hold certs for five out of seven classes of PIT's, TDG training, Propane handling/filling/dispensing, WHMIS, and the highest first aid class( next step would be to go to first respondertraining). This is all required of me to be at work. Most of these I will more than likely never need until I go for re-cert training but it is an employer requirement.

[FL Buckeye]

I started working in the IT field I think before it was called IT, and never had a certification as it is now recognized. But I attended many schools on computer mainframes and I/O equipment, and other hardware and protocols.
I was good enough to install high $$ upgrades to mainframes, or work at company support centers assisting others that couldn't resolve problems. I could tell you the sequence and timing of all the tags on a Bus in/Bus Out cable for example, or install and maintain an ATM network. (I am refering to the protocol, but was also trained on banking ATM machines.) But after retiring with 30 years it was difficult to find similar work without having "certification". I did find employment with a local school system installing and maintaining their computer network, and found it to be more enjoyable than the previous 30 years. But it always bummed me out to see an ad looking for a hardware person with certification.

[ars_lurker]

I only have a couple. CWNA, CCNA and CISSP being the most recognized. I feel fairly confident that a couple hours of cramming will not allow you to pass the CISSP or CWNA. Cisco CCNA could be done with a week or so of studying.

I did not take any certs until I was about ready to leave my previous employer. They could at minimum help get you an interview and show you have an interest in keeping somewhat current in your field.

[rjwaldren]

Agree with Ars_Lurker, I didn't bother with Certs until recently. I don't see most of them - especially the MS and COMPTIA stuff as a real gauge of anything at all. The Cisco Certs though, are valuable, and the self study I did beyond experience was invaluable.

The response to to my resume has improved greatly since adding the key acronyms.

[JSUPreston]

Not meaning to hijack the thread (BTW: Congrats, David. I know yours wasn't easy), but I'm interested in getting Cisco certs for 2 reasons. The first and main one is the personal satisfaction in working hard and learning the materials and then being able to prove it both on the job and on paper. The second one is so if I ever decided to leave my current job, I could be more marketable.

I really got a bad taste for certifications about 10 years ago. I was a CNA in NetWare 4.11 and decided to finish my CNE in 4.11 and take the upgrade exam to 5.0. I had been supporting NetWare for years and for the most part, really knew my stuff. Not meaning to brag, but if I was stumped, generally the upper levels of support at Novell were stumped as well.

I was well on my way to finishing the CNE in 4.11 when I scheduled the NDS exam. I knew NDS backwards and forwards, or so I thought. After failing the test several times, I called Novell. One time I took it, I failed by 2 points, and since it was adaptive, the exam was supposed to let me continue after 15 questions until there was no possibility of passing (test length was 15 to 30 questions, adaptively), but there was a glitch there. At least that's what I was told by Novell. Anyway, the folks at Novell told me that the exam I was supposed to be taking had been retired, and that I was taking the NDS exam for NetWare 5.x I made mention more than once that I wasn't working on NetWare 5 yet, but they told me tough luck. I told them screw off, and I quit. I think I had one, maybe two more exams left before the upgrade exam.

To this day, I have a warm spot in my heart for NetWare the operating system, but I still don't care for Novell the company. I'm sure I wasn't the only one that got shafted like that.

[KenBurris]

And then there's. . . .

Now that I'm retired, I don't get a chance to complain about the Six Sigma craze that seems to be sweeping what large companies are left. Seemed awfully corny to me, but job listings seemed to imply some places think they're important - but I never saw anybody at either of my last 2 employers wearing a yellow belt.

[JSUPreston]

Ken, I remember doing a paper on Six Sigma while doing my Masters degree. Thought it was pretty much a crock of ....