Are certifications still taken seriously these days?

loss4words

Hey guys,

I can't afford going back to college and I might be out of work really soon so I thought to myself why don't I go and get certified to be more employable if it comes to it. So I read few books on a subject I'm interested in, practiced on a VM and all that good stuff. Feeling that I'm finally ready for the test I went ahead and googled where is it that I actually have to go to online to sign up for such an examination. And there on the front page at least half of the hits were braindump websites. I googled the name of the exam I'm wanting to take and maybe only 2-3 websites were information/practice test websites and others, again, braindumps. Now I'm not to sure if I want to go on with taking the test. If it's so easy to **** what's the point of these certifications anymore? Just feeling a little let down by this discovery.

msteinhilber

Yes, they are taken seriously these days. Some employers it's difficult to get past HR weeding through resumes if you don't have certifications that they are looking for. As far as cheaters go, they generally get themselves weeded out somewhere along the line be it during a technical interview, or if they land a job eventually enough issues will come about that prove their lack of knowledge unless they happen to be a one man shop or a shop full of cheaters.. then it might be harder to detect.

I wouldn't let the fact that there are braindumps out there for an exam discourage you though, there are many people out there who will go through great lengths to **** their way through many things in life and not just certifications. I would say go ahead and get certified where you are considering doing so and take pride in knowing that you are legitimate.

What certifications were you interested in out of curiosity?

kalebksp

People are stupid and they ****, unfortunately that's not going to change.

People that use **** may get an interview, but hopefully the interviewer will be sharp enough to throw out their resume. Certifications do not get you a job, your knowledge, experience, education and personality get you a job.

I do certifications for two reasons, they help with getting the initial interview and give me a structured way to learn new technologies.

jnwdmb

I am sorry that you are frustrated by braindumpers.....I can certainly agree that they are making things more difficult for us as well as themselves in the big picture by cheating. But you need to remember that every position that you apply for likely has someone who has lied on their resume, Over embellished their previous job responsibility, fudged their GPA, or lied about their previous salary. A large percentage of people are willing to do these things, but that does not mean that you should do it or that you shouldn't even bother trying to get the job because you will be in competition with them. You need to have confidence in your abilities and let the potential employer worry about the integrity issue. Sure, things happen and opportunities are sometimes missed/lost, but if you work hard, and are honest.....all the rest will "wash out in the laundry" eventually. You will never get a job saying that "I didnt bother getting this cert because a lot of people **** to obtain it" .....you get the cert, schedule the interview, and when the interviewer just talked to braindumper #1, and bonehead #2 before you, and then goes to interview you....you find a way to display the knowledge you have and you will easily outshine the others.

By the way, if the company you are seeking employment at doesn't do a pre-hire screening, you don't want to work for them anyways. If you did get the job by just waving a certification at them, well, chances are good that 6 months from now you will be posting about how your managers are idiots and you want to leave the company. Consider the fact that they hired a moron.....(sorry, the politically correct term is braindumper, not moron)...... instead of you as a blessing in disguise.

UnixGuy

It depends on the certificate and the employer.

Be smart, if you're working with a partner (Cisco partner, MS partner, Sun partner, IBM partner..etc), then your certifications are important for their partnership.

Also, any certification with LAB is respected, and the certifications that you can't **** are also respected such as:

CCIE, CISSP, RHCE, OSCP, CISA, CISM

other certifications that need classroom training and status working in a partner, I know one example but I heard there are a lot more

Sun cluster implementer (this comes after you pass one prometric exam, and after you get 5 days advanced training and after you pass 5 days practical training).


Good luck, just work hard and do your best and things will be fine.

royal

jnwdmb wrote: »

Over embellished their previous job responsibility

Like the guy I interviewed as a Lotus notes to Exchange migration specialist which I found out the limit of his knowledge was running a script for consultants that came into his work to migrate Lotus Notes to Exchange. And his only Exchange knowledge was installing Exchange in VirtualPC but never configured it. Guy didn't know how DNS worked, etc...

Essendon

royal wrote: »

Like the guy I interviewed as a Lotus notes to Exchange migration specialist which I found out the limit of his knowledge was running a script for consultants that came into his work to migrate Lotus Notes to Exchange. And his only Exchange knowledge was installing Exchange in VirtualPC but never configured it. Guy didn't know how DNS worked, etc...

Unreal....

Pash

Hi loss4words,

Don't be distraught yet . Many IT companies and/or company HR environments require certifications/weigh them accordingly.

My company weighs a mixture of Cisco,Juniper,Microsoft, Linux certifications and even Prince2 for example. These have a big impact on appraisals.

Also one of our customer even requires certain MS certifications to even provide support onsite. Outlined in there own ITIL documents.

Also, above all else, as others have mentioned. If you don't know your stuff but have a bunch of certifications, people will catch on. Believe me.

Cheers,

Kasor

Yes, a lot of job used it as additional requirement for new employee or current employee to enchance their daily job as department requirement. This make the IT department and the boss look good.

If you study and took the exam, and pass. You will feel much better than lying on your resume. Afterall you know your stuff, not something that you have to worry when you are on the job and people expect you to know... It will be too late.

jryantech

royal wrote: »

Like the guy I interviewed as a Lotus notes to Exchange migration specialist which I found out the limit of his knowledge was running a script for consultants that came into his work to migrate Lotus Notes to Exchange. And his only Exchange knowledge was installing Exchange in VirtualPC but never configured it. Guy didn't know how DNS worked, etc...

Why would you EVER switch from Lotus Notes?

Aldur

UnixGuy wrote: »

Also, any certification with LAB is respected

So very true. Once I passed my JNCIP-M and my JNCIE-M, both being 8 hour lab exams, doors opened that I thought couldn't possibly open for me. I have been even told by interviewers that the only reason I was getting an interview was because of my certs, being that my work experience is lacking

So yes certs are very important, I would not be in the position I would be today without them.

jryantech

Aldur wrote: »

So very true. Once I passed my JNCIP-M and my JNCIE-M, both being 8 hour lab exams, doors opened that I thought couldn't possibly open for me. I have been even told by interviewers that the only reason I was getting an interview was because of my certs, being that my work experience is lacking

So yes certs are very important, I would not be in the position I would be today without them.

Well to be fair you do have like EVERY Juniper certification

But yes +1 on the certifications that require a lab.

Aldur

jryantech wrote: »

Well to be fair you do have like EVERY Juniper certification

lol, some day I'll branch out and pick up some cisco certs, just imagine the doors that will open with having a CCIE and a JNCIE, endless possibilities!

royal

Aldur wrote: »

lol, some day I'll branch out and pick up some cisco certs, just imagine the doors that will open with having a CCIE and a JNCIE, endless possibilities!

Sorry, we feel that you're overqualified. But we'll keep your resume on file.

Kidding!

Aldur

royal wrote: »

Sorry, we feel that you're overqualified. But we'll keep your resume on file.

Kidding!

There goes all my dreams of doing desktop support over the phone

mikej412

Aldur wrote: »

lol, some day I'll branch out and pick up some cisco certs

Hey -- I was just recently thinking the same thing about Juniper Certs

But I'm probably going to wait until the current economic downturn is over - and see who is still in business.

Plus Cisco is adding new Certs faster than I can complete my Cisco collection.

JavonR

mikej412 wrote: »

Hey -- I was just recently thinking the same thing about Juniper Certs

But I'm probably going to wait until the current economic downturn is over - and see who is still in business.

Slow down partner, I want to see you get your CCIE first!

Aldur

mikej412 wrote: »

Hey -- I was just recently thinking the same thing about Juniper Certs

But I'm probably going to wait until the current economic downturn is over - and see who is still in business.

Plus Cisco is adding new Certs faster than I can complete my Cisco collection.

Cisco's cert development department has sure been busy lately, I've seen a bunch of new ones lately coming out.

I think's it's safe to say that Cisco will still be in business after the economy turns around, they're just to big to go away. And Juniper is actually increasing in sales lately even though the economic hardships. Although if Juniper did go away I would cry, since my career would too.

loss4words

msteinhilber wrote: »

What certifications were you interested in out of curiosity?

Thanks for all the good replies. I went ahead and signed up for the exam which I'll take in just few hours.

I decided to study MCITP : Server administrator and today's test is 70-640. I've been doing primarily desktop support for most of my IT career but I've had a lot of exposure to servers and had a chance to work with a great Network Admin who had really taught me a lot. I'm sure this one is gonna be a piece of cake for me.