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Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

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Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

#11

Post by waynesonfire »

bigyikes wrote: post #3

I’m sure there are plenty of useful things to be learned from a certification program, but beyond a certain skill level, they are meaningless on a resume. Actually, at a high level role I’d view it as a negative - it reads like a lack of demonstrable skills.

> beyond a certain skill level, they are meaningless on a resume

why not create a certificate that is prestige, even for experienced developers? Maybe it would deprecate the ridiculous leetcode interview process.

The software engineer industry needs the equivalent of CFA (in finance). That means something.

Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

#13

Post by cl42 »

For #2 -- I would suggest looking at the job descriptions of roles you might want to have or apply for, one day. Do they list certifications? If so, which ones?

I generally find a lot of certifications are pretty useless -- hard to tell if people learned anything, retained anything, or can apply anything.

A few folks here mentioned GitHub and open source projects. If you build something small/cool and demo it via an open source repo, then you prove that you can learn, code, build, and ship. Way better/cooler than a certificate IMHO.

Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

#14

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

I can't comment on software certifications specifically, but I think most certifications have almost no lasting value.

I've done a few when my employer paid for them, and they have all had no real world value to me. I have had value from doing degrees, and online courses (e.g. Coursera) that come from good universities. They don't have the brand recognition that certs have, but the education is generally better and has more lasting value.

I can see they might be useful for someone junior trying to get past HR filters. I did know one very senior guy who was obsessed with getting every single certification known to humanity, but he was an outlier in more ways than one ;)

Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

#15

Post by tjansen »

I found Andrew Ngs original machine learning course on Coursera really useful. Not sure whether it is still available. It actually forced you to work with machine learning algorithms, and you couldn't easily pass without having an understanding of how they work. That's a certificate that's useful in my opinion.

Most other Coursera (and edX) courses are quite easy to pass. Either you have multiple choice tests and several attempts to figure out the right answers, or you have peer-reviewed tasks and I always thought that the whole peer review process is quite bizarre.

Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

#16

Post by austin-cheney »

In my line of work ServiceNow and/or MuleSoft certifications are required. Prior programming experience is implicit. These technologies are based on Java but strive for the event oriented asynchronous model of JavaScript. Familiarity with XML and a mastery of HTTP architecture is required. Streaming and sockets are not required but are helpful. I have 0 programming experience in Java and am doing just fine.

In the industry I now work in a security certification is also required. The minimum is Security+ but having CASP or CISSP is helpful.

Jobs that require certs are amazing. They are amazing just for the fact that they filter out a bunch of people who should never be there. That is a night and day difference compared to JavaScript jobs where it seems almost nobody can program and very few of those people should be writing software.

Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

#18

Post by jon_adler »

syndicatedjelly wrote: post #12

Is there a tool-agnostic cloud certification out there? I too am feeling some pressure at work to complete some sort of cert, but I don’t want to fill my head with AWS jargon (even though that’s mainly what’s used in my current role)

Many cloud concepts are transferable to the other vendors cloud platforms. If you are using AWS, you’ll find it easiest to start with learning that.

Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

#19

Post by aeonik »

While not a certification, I find my Amateur Radio License to be one of my most valuable credentials besides my degrees.

1. This credential actually gives you a huge amount of privilege to use restricted radio spectra.

2. It teaches you a lot about how software, hardware, and wireless come together.

3. It's great for emergencies.

4. Opens up a lot of homebrew and DIY skill-sets for projects relating to IoT and smart devices.

I put it on my resume, though, not everyone agrees with this practice.

I will say, it's really fun to find other Hams in the industry, it makes it really easy to chit chat about a shared technical hobby.

Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?

#20

Post by vasili111 »

greenthrow wrote: post #2

I've been hiring for 20+ years, none of them mean anything to me. Degrees from accredited universities with good programs mean a bit, but what means the most is what you have actually done, in particular what have you shipped.

How person that was working with closed source software can show it to you?
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