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Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

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Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#181

Post by robcohen »

dev_tty01 wrote: post #137
robcohen wrote: post #11

I collect a lot of certs for fun, but most have not been helpful. I still like to collect them anyway. I think OSCP was the most legitimately useful in tech https://www.offensive-security.com/pwk-oscp/ PMP has been useful to take on Project Manager roles, but really PrM roles aren't all that exciting to begin with. Still helps when you want to run your own projects. I'm currently studying to be a certified parliament…

I got irritated with the size of a quote for my heat pump repair, so I got an HVAC certification and did the repair myself. A little time, $300 worth of equipment from Amazon and it is still running great after several years. I needed the HVAC certification to buy the refrigerant. Saved several thousand dollars.

That's awesome. I want to get HVAC certified. First I'll knock out welding though.

Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#182

Post by robcohen »

paktor132 wrote: post #48
robcohen wrote: post #11

I collect a lot of certs for fun, but most have not been helpful. I still like to collect them anyway. I think OSCP was the most legitimately useful in tech https://www.offensive-security.com/pwk-oscp/ PMP has been useful to take on Project Manager roles, but really PrM roles aren't all that exciting to begin with. Still helps when you want to run your own projects. I'm currently studying to be a certified parliament…

https://www.nmra.org/education/achievement-program offers 11 levels of certification for people like us who have a profound need for external validation. My certification list overlaps with yours about 60% but Certified Parliamentarian is next level, my hat is off to you

Oh please share your list. I'd love to hear it.

Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#183

Post by prepend »

nsheridan wrote: post #168
prepend wrote: post #95

MCSE really helped me. In the late 90s, 98 I think, I worked for an internet startup that didn’t end up being huge. We were on Novell and a bit if solaris and had just launched a product that used windows nt and server side activex. I was a college dropout web dev/web master making $50k. They had a hard time hiring devs who knew nt and could design and automate server farms. I learned on the job and did an ok job run…

> I always thought it was funny that I did the same job before and after the certs. It’s often more advantageous for the company to have people with certs (it was with MCSE and such in the 90s anyway) - more MCSE etc on staff meant it was possible for the company to attain higher partnership levels with Microsoft which often meant more lucrative contracts and so on. So while you may have been doing the same job as be…

This didn’t apply to my company as we were just a product company and didn’t have any relationships with Microsoft (or Novell or Sun) other than buying their licenses.

I later worked for consulting companies where these certs came in handy for the reason you describe.

Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#184

Post by meristem »

leeoniya wrote: post #166
NoOneNew wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Past CDL holder here. Fyi, you are then a "professional driver" even in a normal car driving to the grocery. If you get a ticket, many states will instantly double the fine because as a pro, "you know better". Plus there's the medical aspect and other bullshit. Unless you're going to actually use it, dont get it. Learn to drive an 18 speed with air brakes etc, sure. Just dont get the actual cdl.

to add to this, if you dont actually use your SCUBA or first responder or pilot skills on a regular basis, those certs are worthless at best, and dangerous at worst.

Lapsed EMT here--this is 100% true.

Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#185

Post by DocTomoe »

pmoriarty wrote: post #108

The bigger and more bureaucratic a company is, the more certs tend to matter. Lack of experience and achievements also make certs stand out more, because you've got not much else to show for yourself. Sometimes certs can be a red flag.. depending on the cert. For example, someone with a whole bunch of Windows certs applying for a job dealing only with Linux? That's a bit of a red flag. Doesn't mean they won't get the…

> The bigger and more bureaucratic a company is, the more certs tend to matter.

Also: The more your role is "external consultant", the more certifications matter.

Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#186

Post by GuB-42 »

Driver's license.

Maybe it sounds obvious, but if you don't have a license, you are crippling yourself.

Even if you don't have a car, not having a license means you don't even have the option of renting one. Also, is is so "obvious" that if an employer notices that you don't have it, he will wonder why. Are you too stupid to drive? Crippled in some way? Economic problems? Have some criminal history? Alcoholic? You may have a legitimate reason, but it is still a red flag and you may need to clear yourself.

Second and just as obvious is a degree. Not so important if you have experience (though some large companies care), but a degree may be the key to a good first job that may launch the rest of your career.

I have never felt the need for any technical certification, not personally, the few I needed were paid by my employer for a specific mission, and done during work hours. Didn't get much use after that. Since I am not an English speaker, I probably could want something like a decent TOEIC score if I wanted to work in a large company in an English speaking country, but I am net even sure.

Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#188

Post by robcohen »

dorchadas wrote: post #156
robcohen wrote: post #11

I collect a lot of certs for fun, but most have not been helpful. I still like to collect them anyway. I think OSCP was the most legitimately useful in tech https://www.offensive-security.com/pwk-oscp/ PMP has been useful to take on Project Manager roles, but really PrM roles aren't all that exciting to begin with. Still helps when you want to run your own projects. I'm currently studying to be a certified parliament…

Look at some CEFR ones next!

Sadly I simply am not capable of learning languages.

I've tried, really hard. I did 4 years of french, 2 years of spanish, 4 semesters of Arabic, 2 semesters of german, 1 Berlitz tutor session for 3 months in Russian and 3 months of tutoring in Farsi. Most of my grades were AWFUL and I barely qualified for anything. I really tried, but I just don't have the medium/long term memory for language. It also doesn't help that I live in the US.

Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#189

Post by [deleted] »

TimPC wrote: post #15

I don't have a single cert of any type and have never needed them. My last role was at the Senior Staff level and I'm currently interviewing for a Principal position. I've found certs are mostly asked for by either very unusual jobs or bottom of the barrel employers that don't trust their own people. I'm not really looking for either of those things so I find I don't need certs.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career?

#190

Post by bawolff »

grepfru_it wrote: post #117
bawolff wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have also seen this. A large number of certs on a resume (more than 4) is the most consistent negative signal i have seen. I assume part of the reason is that certs are expensive and not well respected, so the only reason you would get them is if you had no other options.

Is this recent? I held every cert under the sun in the 2000s and companies GOBBLED ME UP. In the early 2010s I could walk into companies by simply having a VCP cert. I'm sure if I held a K8s or some hashicorp cert, or AWS or Azure certs I would be pulled into any org hiring today. And I put all of my certs on my resume (that I can fit with most recent first). I should also clarify, I only put certs that matter (why p…

Idk, i haven't been in the industry long enough to compare. Also, i work in security (in north america and not gov), maybe other areas are more pro-cert.
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