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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?

#341

Post by [deleted] »

DicIfTEx wrote: post #140
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…

If you have a few hours to spare, you can become a certified rat tickler for free here: https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/3rs-resources/rat-tickling/rat-tick...

[deleted]

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

#342

Post by jpambrun »

I have a PhD so I may be biased towards formal education, but I do review resume often and find certifications to be of no value, lame even. I had very poor performing colleagues with many certifications and they were very proud about it. Doesn't bode confidence at all.

When I see certifications on a resume, I see it as a negative.

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

#343

Post by giaour »

tboyd47 wrote: post #44

The Andrew Ng certification on Coursera for Machine Learning give me all the skills I needed to start my own ML projects. It is excellent.

OP is asking about certifications, which you generally get for passing a test. Coursera gives you certificates, which are a record of having taken and passed one or more courses.

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

#344

Post by cosmodisk »

magicalhippo wrote: post #154
devoutsalsa wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Study almond growing to become certifiably nuts.

Or get a masters degree in cosmology so you can put "Master of the Universe" on your CV.

If you do rain studies, you can call yourself rainmaker.

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

#345

Post by akoshodi »

gzer0 wrote: post #271
deepzn wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cert expires in a couple years, and you have to get it again, with some new stuff added though.

I've got my AWS solutions architect associate and professional, they expire in 3 years. Azure is the worst offender, offering certs that expire in ONE year. No thanks. Google certs expire after 2 years.

At least you don't have to pay for renewals of Microsoft role-based certifications. "You can renew your Microsoft Certifications by simply passing a free, unproctored, online renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn, instead of retaking exams. The assessments measure the skills you need to remain up to date in your job role. They’re shorter than the original exams because they focus only on the latest technology changes." [1]

[1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/renew-...

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

#346

Post by tootie »

creativeCak3 wrote: post #337
tootie wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider side projects to be absolutely meaningless predictors of anything. A cert is a poor substitute for experience but it's a signal of someone willing to learn and grow through diligence. Side projects are usually just arbitrary in value. In the very rare case that someone has a real blockbuster side project with a lot of users I'd be concerned about how much time they'd spend on it. Getting a PR approved on a…

Nice try, manager ;) We work on side projects because we __like__ it. Seeing side projects through the lense of "value" is naive in my opinion. Yes, obviously if the side project has actual users than that's a plus. But companies like seeing side projects because it __does__ show that the candidate really likes what they do for a living. Now whether the company is purposefully using that to expect people to work 60 h…

Value doesn't need to be monetary. Just having fun is something valuable. I'm saying that 99% of the "side projects" I see are junior devs who think they can't apply for a job without a bunch of things on GitHub.

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

#347

Post by giaour »

phpisthebest wrote: post #41
protomyth wrote: post #9

Lack of a Masters pretty much ended my ability to teach some intro programming courses according to the accreditation board. So, the answer to the question in reverse. Damn shame given some future plans, but experience isn't the equivalent.

Outside of money I have never seen a logical explanation for why we has a society have not created a purely experienced based "degree", something that if you have say 6 years experience in a field of Computer Science, and can demonstrate either with testing or work product the same level of knowledge one would gain from a 4 year degree program just issue the degree. Even with money, let me pay $10-20,000 , take a tes…

> Even with money, let me pay $10-20,000 , take a test, prove my experience, and bam I now have a degree...

The system you're proposing sounds ripe for abuse; wouldn't universities get the most money by lowering standards? You can get an honorary or extra muros doctorate if you make a significant contribution to the field, but explicitly tying it to a fee doesn't seem like a great plan.

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

#348

Post by ElemenoPicuares »

smoe wrote: post #305
ElemenoPicuares wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful about the bias in single-metric gatekeeping strategies like this. Contributing to open source projects, having side projects, et al are pursuits of leisure. Certificates are possibly the only foot in the door for folks working multiple jobs with kids, etc. and the government often pays the tuition for low income folks. Once you’ve got them, even if you’re more established, it would be crazy to leave them o…

I think how many certs and how up-center in your cv you put them matters. E.g. if I'm hiring for a junior dev and get some self-taught person having done a couple of relevant online courses and so far managed to get a tech support role looking to become a programmer I'm often interested in talking to them. On the other hand, I have seen cv's from senior enterprise/government engineers, 10 pages long, plastered all ov…

The problem you describe is a resume design problem rather than a cert problem. Would you know what they could do if they merely left the certs off of the resume? I’d guess not.

It sounds like you were looking at a federal resume which are differently structured and much, much longer than private sector resumes. Candidates appreciate feedback letting them know: “Thanks for applying but I can’t suss out what you can actually do based on what you sent. Feel free to reapply with a more concise, descriptive resume.”

If they’ve worked in the federal government that long, they might just not realize how inappropriate their resume is for private sector jobs even if they’re qualified. If they can’t course correct and describe their skills in common business language, that’s a good enough indicator of their ability to adapt to the position, I’d say.

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

#349

Post by giaour »

phpisthebest wrote: post #136
MaxBarraclough wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Work experience can convey that same level of knowledge What kind of work experience would give you the breadth and depth of knowledge of someone with a degree in maths or physics? Having a career in software development does not demonstrate a degree-level knowledge of any academic field.

Having a career in software development, does not demonstrate a degree-level knowledge of software development degree, really?

Certainly not in any standardized way. The variance between what someone does in one software development job vs another is just too high to be a good signal of any particular knowledge.

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

#350

Post by paktor132 »

paktor132 wrote: post #330
robcohen wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Aviation - private pilot airplane single engine land; instrument rating airplane; complex, high performance, and tailwheel endorsements; part 107 remote pilot; DC flight restricted zone; instrument ground instructor (this might be a good one for you, just take the FOI and then AGI or IGI written tests and visit your local FSDO to get the cert issued). Considering getting my commercial, multiengine, and CFI certs Mari…

Also, just to clarify my verbiage on the ground instructor bit, not at all saying that you couldn't do all the other aviation ones too (and you should, they were all a blast to get) and more...just that ground instructor is one you should specifically look into because it is relatively little-known, is straightforward and cheap to get for people like us who clearly find tests easy, and offers a fair amount of practical benefits (advanced ground instructor can teach ground for ANY part 61 rating, also you don't have to retake FOI if you ever go for CFI...flight schools in my area will absolutely hire someone on a ground instructor cert alone). No intent meant to cast any aspersions or to minimize any accomplishments!
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