Criteria for "mean something" are: 1. Learning helpful things 2. Meaningful on a resume
Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#2Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#3Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#4Otherwise I like the RedHat OpenShift Developer certs if you deal with their ecosystem. (i.e. EX288)
At the end of the day though, certification will never really mean the same in SWE as it means in the vendor lock-in world of cloud - and this is a very good thing.
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#5Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#6A number of years ago I did do a certification on project management from Coursera, which is a good look. Your software related experience should speak for itself, but tangential certifications like project management look like an 'above and beyond' type of thing, IMO.
When I see an actual software certification, my thinking is that this is a person who likes checking skill boxes, but who will miss the big picture when it comes time to actually solve problems.
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#7IEEE Professional Software Engineering Master
I haven't taken the exam, but started an online course, and it's been interesting.
Very textbook stuff, but towards a more succinct reference than lots of books about how software gets built. Not that formalism isn't important, I just haven't had a season of interest in it, particularly since it's so sparse and mostly without principles.
Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#8Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#9Re: Ask HN: Software Engineer Certifications That Mean Something?
#10Another respectable cert track is CCNA/CCIE. That is, of course, entirely networking, but it's really interesting, and the context it provides is very useful for day to day dev work.
Those are the only two I'd put any positive signal in on a resume. The rest would be either neutral or negative (if you have a dozen different certs listed on your resume, it triggers apprehension in me).