Managers do you care about how certs where earned?

egrizzly

At work a lot of co-workers would admire their peers with certs but some complain that their co-workers got paper certs without going through formal instruction. This gets to me because some specialist certifications such as the CCNA or CCNP-Security can rarely be found for traditional instruction at community colleges.

So, managers with everything being equal, if the job candidate has experience on the technology how much would you care if they got it through formal instruction or by reading the books and home labbing (doing labs at home)?

OctalDump

The ideal is training/education, certs and experience.

Having a good theoretical base is very useful, and it is best obtained through fairly deliberate study which is hard to do through self study. The main problem is that (at least initially) we don't know what we don't know. So something like an IT/Engineering/Computing degree is good for building this theoretical base.

Cisco is actually one of the certifying bodies that has done a lot of work developing quality courses. Depending on where you are in the world, you can attend training to CCNP level at least and get lots of hands on experience as well as solid theory. The courses are generally delivered over weeks, rather than days which gives time for things to sink in, time for home labs, time for reflection.

Then building from that base to get the depth in a particular area, and certifications. Practical certifications, like most IT tech certs are, are best achieved through hands on experience with the tech and directed study (eg a study guide or videos) to ensure that you've covered all bases. I would expect that someone with a professional or higher level certification has done at least some reading, maybe a bit of labbing (at home or wherever), and has hands on experience (in a home lab or through work).

What matters is that people can do the job, how they got there doesn't necessarily matter, but solid skills at professional and higher levels usually means having a good understanding of the particular technology and how it fits in context within the organisation. That's why formal education + certification + experience is still the ideal.

Xavor

If you mean, did you go to the $3000 training to do the cert vs. setup a CCNA lab at home and did it all, I would say the latter is better. First, you had a hands on lab to learn with which you may have put together from ebay. This means you had to research all the parts and equipment and may have picked up something without cables, or passwords set on the box, or needed more RAM, etc. If you go to a class, you wouldn't get that experience, and you'd have an instructor to hand-feed you how to do everything.

If you follow the book, you may over study and take an extra month preparing for a cert. That's a good thing because not all IOS and devices are the same. I am not a network guy by title, but I have to work on various gear which requires me to work my way through how to configure devices because they're just different.

End of the day you want your people to have the experience and wisdom to deploy and design your network. This not only covers knowledge in a cert, but the mundane tasks such as documentation. Also, having a degree is required for some places of employment to move up the ladder.

blargoe

As long as you can demonstrate said skills, it doesn't matter.

networker050184

I'm not a manager, but I do quite a bit of interviewing. Agree with blargoe. It does't matter as long as you know your stuff. There are many much bigger factors in hiring someone so don't stress over something so little.

paul78

As a hiring manager, I do care about how someone earned a certification. But I care more about why... Obviously, it has to be legitimately earned. I do favor candidates who can described their process of learning, in particular, if the candidate can articulate the type of experimentation with a lab or research that they may have done, that will mean a lot more to me. What I generally look for is to learn if the candidate has a genuine sense of passion for their craft.