Google offers certificate to help IT career growth • Hacker News Board

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#21

Post by commandlinefan » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

lightedman wrote: post #16

I wish CompTIA's A+ cert would get fixed. I know of a guy that has his A+, works as a computer repair tech, and doesn't know that you can plug a speaker into most motherboards to get POST Beep diagnostic codes, or how to watch a drive activity light to see if the system is indeed posting/loading and you might have an issue like a bad GPU if you get no display but still have a single "GOOD" POST beep.

I don’t have any computer repair certifications, but I wish I knew more of that sort of thing myself.

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#22

Post by closeparen » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #2

I don't mean to come off as dismissive, but as someone who has a bunch of these company-sponsored certificates, does any employer (outside of the one issuing it) care at all about these certs? I have a few from EdX, something from W3Schools, and something from RedHat that I still put on my resume for some indiscernible reason, but having asked interviewers about it after being hired, they don't appear to have been of…

Rather than work with all clients directly, the major tech companies run partnership programs for smaller resellers and service providers. A partner account is sometimes the best or only way to download administration tools, firmware images, documentation, etc. or talk to actually competent engineering support. It also confers a license to use the company's trademark in your branding and establishes some amount of trust for clients. Microsoft and Cisco are both really into this.

The key qualification for partnership is N staff members with whatever certificate. So it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be hired, but it may be important to the company that you have it.

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#23

Post by datguacdoh » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:29 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #2

I don't mean to come off as dismissive, but as someone who has a bunch of these company-sponsored certificates, does any employer (outside of the one issuing it) care at all about these certs? I have a few from EdX, something from W3Schools, and something from RedHat that I still put on my resume for some indiscernible reason, but having asked interviewers about it after being hired, they don't appear to have been of…

Depends a lot on the role. I've conducted a few hundred interviews at this point and you're right that I don't put equal weight on all certs, but they do help me prepare questions. For example, if I see a CCNA recently issued, I can make an assumption that opening with a network question should be a way to ease the candidate into an area they are at least somewhat comfortable in and get over the initial interview nerves. If they flounder in what I would assume is an entry level question in a topic they claim to have expertise, then I know I immediately need to adjust the questions and expectations for the rest of the interview. For some roles this could be an immediate sign that they probably aren't the right fit, but that doesn't mean they don't have knowledge and skills in other areas and it's my job to find those and determine if there's another open role that they could be great in. Or if they are open to a more junior role with an ability to grow, if they show great signs in other areas. So in short, the cert does help me tailor the interview a but better.

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#24

Post by growlist » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #2

I don't mean to come off as dismissive, but as someone who has a bunch of these company-sponsored certificates, does any employer (outside of the one issuing it) care at all about these certs? I have a few from EdX, something from W3Schools, and something from RedHat that I still put on my resume for some indiscernible reason, but having asked interviewers about it after being hired, they don't appear to have been of…

In my experience it's the more conservative/less fashionable/less well remunerated entities that care about certs. They serve as something of an insurance policy for managers that don't trust their ability to discern good from bad when hiring.

Edit: they're also used by some organisations to contain salary growth, i.e., even though you're worth x to the company and learnt y and z this year, you don't get a pay rise without a certificate.

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#25

Post by jorblumesea » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

I'm pretty skeptical of any IT cert after having a few really bad experiences with "AWS certified" devs. It doesn't seem to certify competence at all. We had a dev with tons of certs struggle to understand and setup a load balancer.

What's the point of accreditation if there's no actual expectation or understanding of skill?

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#26

Post by itake » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC

jorblumesea wrote: post #25

I'm pretty skeptical of any IT cert after having a few really bad experiences with "AWS certified" devs. It doesn't seem to certify competence at all. We had a dev with tons of certs struggle to understand and setup a load balancer. What's the point of accreditation if there's no actual expectation or understanding of skill?

Anecdote:

A friend of mine told me he just keeps retaking the tests until he passes. For one of his certs, he failed the test 3x. :-/

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#27

Post by nimbius » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:46 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #2

I don't mean to come off as dismissive, but as someone who has a bunch of these company-sponsored certificates, does any employer (outside of the one issuing it) care at all about these certs? I have a few from EdX, something from W3Schools, and something from RedHat that I still put on my resume for some indiscernible reason, but having asked interviewers about it after being hired, they don't appear to have been of…

anecdotal evidence here, I work as an engine mechanic.

Early in my career I thought about becoming "ford mechanic" certified, but talking to some of the old hands at my shop they all just sort of smirked. 11 years later Im coming to see these certifications are sort of pointless. The general design of a car hasnt really changed that much. control arms, coilover suspension, brakes, steering, and final drive are all relatively similar. You dont see appreciable differences until you start working on really, really big vehicles.

brand certification really only served one point: repeat customer business for dealerships and ticking the "job training" box for your more senior/bored techs. I work with an Acura certified tech currently who handles drivetrain because her certification let her learn about drive shafts...but she spent a solid three months under my wing learning about drive ratios, compression calculations, operational RPM calculations, overtorque, etc...So in this case i guess it was a good way to get in the door. a certificate shows you're willing to learn new things, and work at something youre interested in.

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#28

Post by organsnyder » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:46 PM UTC

commandlinefan wrote: post #18

_ea1k wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that they help in getting past the prescreening filters in HR departments. I'm not sure that they do much beyond that, though.

I’ve never seen any evidence of this happening in real life, but here on HN (and on Slashdot back when I read it) it’s common to see people insist that they would never hire anybody who _had_ any sort of certification. The reasoning usually goes something like “everybody I’ve met who had that certification was an idiot, so I can extrapolate that everybody who has it is also an idiot”. Of course, there are people here…

Agreed. That can really be applied to any credential. Heck, there's even people here that would say the same thing about a traditional elementary and secondary school education.

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#29

Post by gowld » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:47 PM UTC

jimbokun wrote: post #19

firebird84 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I purposefully ignore certificates when looking at CVs. Once upon a time, I actually looked at them prejudicially, because the kinds of candidates I saw with certificates were generally inferior and couldn't code their way out of a paper bag. These days I just don't really give them any weight one way or another.

"because the kinds of candidates I saw with certificates were generally inferior and couldn't code their way out of a paper bag" Or in this case, because they are entry level and its their first programming job?

The presumption is that they went for the cert after they tried and failed at accomplishing anything.

Re: Google offers certificate to help IT career growth

#30

Post by tombert » Fri, Jan 17, 2020, 5:49 PM UTC

jonas_kgomo wrote: post #10

tombert wrote: post #2

I don't mean to come off as dismissive, but as someone who has a bunch of these company-sponsored certificates, does any employer (outside of the one issuing it) care at all about these certs? I have a few from EdX, something from W3Schools, and something from RedHat that I still put on my resume for some indiscernible reason, but having asked interviewers about it after being hired, they don't appear to have been of…

Great point, so what do you measure as great signal of someone to hire, besides experience?

Sadly, I don't have much of a good system to handle it; just talking to the person and doing basic whiteboard problems.

Since I'm a dropout myself I typically try and not put much stock into degrees either but I find that they're a bit more reliable than the certificates.