how did you study for the Lpic 101?

Technowiz

In my career I've generally encountered two types of folks who say certifications are worthless. The first are people who tend to be older and have worked in technology for decades and already were experienced before certifications came along and thus didn't see any career benefit in getting certified on knowledge they already had the resume to prove they had. As time goes on there are fewer and fewer of those in the work force. The second group tends to be people too lazy to put forth the time and effort to get certified and feel the need to diminish the achievements of those more ambitious than themselves.

I've known and worked with a lot of people in IT who had been doing IT for more than a decade and weren't certified. Everything they learned was on the job and while they were competent at what they knew their rate of gaining new knowledge was low because they didn't do independent study. Their careers stagnated as a result. If you just want to live paycheck to paycheck and be among the first on the chopping block in a downsizing then be one of those people who think they are either too good or don't have the time to do certifications. I've also seen people enter fresh into IT with zero experience and they studied consistently for a few hours every night for several years. In a matter of a few years they were earning a six figure salary. Sure the experience they gained along the way was important but what distinguished them from their peers who had much more on the job time was the time and effort they put in studying and getting certified. It matters in any field but in IT it is vital. As soon as you gain some knowledge a clock is ticking for how long that knowledge will remain marketable. In this field you're either learning and making yourself more valuable or you are on a path toward obsolescence.