Ask HN: Any certification that is worth it? Legitimately helped your career? • Hacker News Board

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

#211

Post by xeromal » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 3:58 PM UTC

pcmoney wrote: post #170

Larrikin wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard of a CS degree being a negative in any situation outside of someone with a chip on their shoulder about college degrees in general. The person in your example with the degree would still win out in most situations. The person with experience versus a new graduate degree holder is the actual head to head where the non degree holder has a much better chance.

So the person who has proven they can do the work and get promoted in the same career path is less valuable than the CS degree holder (who in this example, did not achieve as much over the same time period) just because they have a degree? This has never been the case in any org promo committee or hiring committee I have been a part of (100s of candidates). I would say in most orgs after 3 years of proven track recor…

Your example actually made me think of the opposite situation lol.

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

#212

Post by michaelgrosner2 » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 3:59 PM UTC

FINRA Series 57, not only because I learned a whole lot or because it’s useful outside of my industry (derivatives trading development) but because it was a regulatory requirement of employment :-). But seriously, I did learn a lot about the wider finance world outside of the little bubble I sit in. It was also quite hard, it covered a wide range of topics that I had no prior knowledge of.

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

#213

Post by xeromal » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 3:59 PM UTC

k__ wrote: post #118

A friend if mine took many certs for fun. He said, the AWS ones were pretty good. They weren't too easy, you have to train a few weeks to get them and you would actually learn something of practical use in everyday work. Also, they're actually in demand.

Yeah, I think the AWS ones are a good one to have if you're a dev.

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

#214

Post by DocTomoe » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 4:01 PM UTC

donatj wrote: post #145

Years ago after our DBA was let go and I took on a significant portion of their responsibilities, my job told me I needed to get MySQL certified. The sign up page for the course they wanted me to take at the time only worked in IE and I only had Macs at home and in the office. I never got around to installing a VM just to sign up. I’m still doing the same job like 8 years later so I’m guessing it really wasn’t that i…

No career progression in eight years would imply that it might have been.

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

#215

Post by skrebbel » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 4:01 PM UTC

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 warmly recommend the UML certifications. They test whether you know UML syntax rules by heart, not whether you can model software decently. It's absolutely useless, great fun!

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

#216

Post by tacon » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 4:02 PM UTC

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 perked up recently when I learned that one can now become an accredited investor via a Series 7, Series 65, or Series 82 license, bypassing the income/net worth requirements[0].

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/092815/how-b...

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

#217

Post by sloaken » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 4:04 PM UTC

Non-tech - Toastmasters - I think it is called 'Competent Toastmaster' it is the first set. Consists of doing 10 speeches. Significantly improve your ability to talk in public and to do presentations.

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

#218

Post by donatj » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

DocTomoe wrote: post #214

donatj wrote: post #145

Years ago after our DBA was let go and I took on a significant portion of their responsibilities, my job told me I needed to get MySQL certified. The sign up page for the course they wanted me to take at the time only worked in IE and I only had Macs at home and in the office. I never got around to installing a VM just to sign up. I’m still doing the same job like 8 years later so I’m guessing it really wasn’t that i…

No career progression in eight years would imply that it might have been.

I am in the highest non-management engineering position at a job I enjoyed that pays well. I am not looking for “progression”, I am where I want to be, full stop.

This is the dream. I had been lead developer, in charge of people at a previous job and I hated every single minute of it. Managing people sucks. I am just over here actively avoiding the Peter Principle.

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

#219

Post by 300bps » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

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'd imagine financial certs would be the most useful (CFA in particular).

I’m similar to you - have a ton of certifications and I’m an insanely good test taker.

Several years ago I signed up for the Level 1 CFA exam in late August to take it on December 5th. So I had a little over 3 months to study for it.

My first inclination that I made a horrible mistake was when one of my portfolio manager coworkers said to me, “I got my bachelor’s in finance, got my master’s in economics, studied for that test for 6 months, failed it and gave up. It’s just too hard.”

350 hours of studying later, I was the only one from my company that passed Level 1 that year. 33% pass rate.

I’m in software engineering. It has provided no discernible career benefit even though I work at an investment bank.

I’m happy that I proved I could do it but the CFA program is not a certification to collect on a whim. It’s literally a 3+ year commitment and you will come close to killing yourself studying.

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

#220

Post by camjohnson26 » Sat, Jun 25, 2022, 4:07 PM UTC

netaustin wrote: post #66

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…

As far as I know, CPA in most states requires 150 hours of college credit, of which many must be in accounting. My CPA friends largely joined the big four firm on the strength of their CPA, spent a little time in audit, then promptly switched to consulting. What you get from that certification is the ability to sign corporate audits, own an accounting firm, and the right to prepare and defend tax returns. Unless you…

Can confirm, plus there’s a 1 year requirement to work in the industry to get the certification after passing the test, and a continuing education requirement to maintain it. I studied accounting and passed the test, but immediately started working in tech so technically I’m not certified. The test was a beast and took about a year and a half to pass all 4 parts, and if you don’t pass all 4 within a window of time the old ones expire.