Better knock those certs out before getting your dream job

jibbajabba

For years I have been working towards a set of certifications, always wanting to be good enough to work as a consultant. Now I am a Senior Consultant. And the result? No time or energy to work towards arguing but the weekend and the pub.

I really envy people who have the drive to study after a very busy week.

If you got a boring job, don't quit. Use the time to study, knock those certs out because if you end up having the job you actually want, you may also end up working your butt off more than you ever did and the last thing on your mind is telling your wife that you need additional 'me' time

All I want at the moment its stirring on the sofa with the wife, whisky, Dr. Who on TV and bout going anywhere near a PC for 48hrs....

So yea, use your boring time as long as you can lol.

chopsticks

Time for your to take a vacation!

Params7

Motivating thread, thanks lol

jmritenour

I agree with this to an extent - since I landed my "dream job" at Red Hat last year, I really don't care about certs any more. Sure, I've taken some RH exams and am now technically a RHCA (officially once the pilot exam I passed last month goes GA in Dec/Jan), but I haven't been driven to do it, my manager just wanted me to try to get in some type of training once per quarter as a way of keeping up with new products/technologies, and to keep myself from burning out on billing billable to customers week in and week out.

That said, what I DO find myself doing in my spare time is focusing on practical knowledge. Ie, learning ruby, improving my shell scripting knowledge, familiarizing myself with Docker, etc. That sort of stuff I'm still motivated to do. But I highly doubt I'll try to pick up any more certs just for the sake of getting a cert. I've reached the point in my career where my experience speaks for itself, and I don't need them as a way to get past HR goon filters now.

bridgestone

But the whole point of certs is to try to progress.

If you don't want to progress anymore, or you don't need certs to do that, then why do them?

N2IT

I agree for most people once you hit a certain point certifications become unrealistic. There are always people who can power through, but I am not one of them. I am officially done and I am okay with that, but I agree with the OP. If you have a serious direction you want to move into and have a desire to get the certification at that time then go for it. While I was on the help desk years ago I was able to bang out 5 or so certifications. They helped me a lot to get off the help desk. It seemed once I was off the desk in a more technical role the certifications became less relavent, but that's just my observation.

I knew a guy who did his CCNA while on the help desk. The same organization plucked him from the help desk and he started off as a network analyst then moved into an administrator role. He know longer has time for certifications but he doesn't need them anymore his experience is MORE than enough to get him networking jobs.

Just saying.....

UnixGuy

If you're a busy senior consultant, then you're gaining a lot of practical experience. Certifications are irrelevant to you, I think.

N2IT

@ Unix - No principal senior consultant gets certifications. It just doesn't happen, at least from what I have seen.

dave330i

@jibba,

Welcome to the club.

bertieb

@N2IT I've found that too unless you're like me in a senior role and working for a VAR/Partner where they want you (need you) to pass the latest and greatest certifications to help maintain or push the vendor partner status in any way they can. This can add to the burnout factor considerably as it's expected you'll do this yourself after work in smaller shops of <100 people. Like jibbajabba says, after a week consulting the last thing I want to do is study. Pass me the wine and chocolates!

jibbajabba

I do wonder if the CITP is worth it .. but yea - technical certifications are somewhat useless unless you really shoot for the design path. Well, not useless, but not essential short term anyway ...

Chitownjedi

I agree... I am in a position to be able to knock out about 5-6 certifications as this contract job doesn't go home with me, and I took a step back (out of management) as I like the "doing" part too much of IT. Granted I am on the highest level you can get on the Desktop Engineering side, i've always found desktop engineering not so challenging, so I'm going to learn as much as I can and come out with a few MCSE's and finish my CCNP, and move into some Vmware.

I've told my lady as well, who is on a Service Desk and trying to specialize in Sharepoint... (She is constantly trying to find another position that will require her to have to do more technical work because currently she has a lot of free time and is bored) and I tell her if you aren't trying to specialize in Desktop (which she's not) then why would you find a job that may be on-call and 100x more stressful and demanding when you can study 2-3 hours at work and learn Sharepoint and O365. In a year she can grab an MCSE in SharePoint while getting paid to do so, (While still stacking experience.) And then doesn't have to worry about splitting focus/attention on high level certifications at the same time she's trying to learn a new role/infrastructure.... I will attend WGU at the end of all this too.

Verities

jmritenour wrote: »

I agree with this to an extent - since I landed my "dream job" at Red Hat last year, I really don't care about certs any more. Sure, I've taken some RH exams and am now technically a RHCA (officially once the pilot exam I passed last month goes GA in Dec/Jan), but I haven't been driven to do it, my manager just wanted me to try to get in some type of training once per quarter as a way of keeping up with new products/technologies, and to keep myself from burning out on billing billable to customers week in and week out.

That said, what I DO find myself doing in my spare time is focusing on practical knowledge. Ie, learning ruby, improving my shell scripting knowledge, familiarizing myself with Docker, etc. That sort of stuff I'm still motivated to do. But I highly doubt I'll try to pick up any more certs just for the sake of getting a cert. I've reached the point in my career where my experience speaks for itself, and I don't need them as a way to get past HR goon filters now.

I too have reached this point as well concerning certifications. Sure I would like to achieve the RHCSA (and eventually I will), but I'm more interested in obtaining as much experience as I can now, over the certification. Not to mention how much time it takes to study for and renew certifications. Factor in a family to the equation and whatever other activities you do outside of work....it becomes a lot.