What is the value of certifications to a college résumé/CV?

buu700

Hi, I'm a junior in high school right now, so I'll be applying to colleges soon. I'll be majoring in CS, and possibly also something related to IT. My ideal school would be MIT, but any other prestigious university with a good CS program would do. So, here's my question: how valuable would certifications be to my college résumé? Would the type of schools I'm looking at even care? If so, how much (ranging from extremely impressed to giving me just a slight edge above otherwise equal candidates)?

Here are my current certifications (in chronological order):

• CompTIA A+ IT Technician
• Certiport IC³ (yeah, you don't have to tell me it's worthless, but the county paid for it)
• Microsoft 70-270
• MCP (by virtue of having earned 70-270)
• Microsoft 70-271
• (I'll also be taking the Microsoft 70-272 exam on June 2, earning that and my MCDST, assuming I pass (with Second Shot, at the very least))

I also plan on earning the following certifications before I actually start applying to colleges:

• MCSA (how important would the Security specialisation be here?)
• MCSE (" ")
• CompTIA Security+ (or a different MCSE elective)
• CompTIA Linux+ and/or some other *nix cert(s) (Debian if I need to specialise)

Would some high-level certifications be worth more than others in my case (e.g. Microsoft v. Cisco, Linux+ v. LPI v. Red Hat, etc.)? If Cisco certifications would be valuable additions to my résumé, would it be feasible to train myself using a spare Linksys router I have loaded with DD-WRT (since from what I can tell the Cisco exams are pretty hands-on), or is that no substitute for the real thing, even for training? (Or am I better off just finding a test prep guide, considering I don't exactly have an enterprise-level network infrastructure in my house to play around with?) Also, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about databases, and I know jack about SQL, but would it be worth it to train myself for an Oracle or MySQL certification before I apply to colleges (I do plan on learning databases/SQL eventually)?

Sorry about all the questions, but I didn't exactly get a huge response on reddit when I gave less details and asked less questions, and my Google-fu hasn't been of any help on this matter either. Thanks in advance to anyone who volunteers to enlighten me a bit!

tl;dr: Is there a certification path anyone could recommend to me that would be well-received and valued by academia?

Kent Allard

This is the age old question between certifications and a degree. It really depends on what you want. If you want to be a systems administrator, or a network administrator, then you would just need MCSE and CCNP. You may also want to get your RHCE. All of which you could get in much less time then getting a degree, about a year for each of the certifications that I mentioned. But if you want to move up in the corporate latter, then you would need a degree. I would recommend a degree in business management and certifications if you really want to be an IT director of a company.

I can tell you from my own experience that a degree on it's own really it isn't worth much compared to certifications. When I graduated from college, it took me a while to find a job, and it payed alright, but when I was ready to move up in the pay scale, I had a really hard time finding a job because I don't have my MCSE and CCNA. So many places I interviewed for said that they can't hire me because I don't have my MCSE and CCNA. I told them I have a degree and experiences with Server 2003. But they all said, a lot of time you just get a degree to get a degree. One interview I took, was with the owner of the company and he said that he has a masters degree (didn't say in what) and he said he doesn't even use it.

Now I am working getting my MCSE, then next year I'll start on my CCNA/CCNP.

Since your still in high school, I would start on getting your MCITP: Enterprise Administrator (I would wait for the Windows 7 exam to become available , before you take your client OS exam) and your CCNA, then go straight to college after you graduate from high school. Then once you graduate from college, you'll have a degree and your MCITP and your CCNA, and you shouldn't have much trouble finding a job that pays really good money. I am guessing any where between $60k to $72k. Also start looking for jobs at least two to three months before you graduate from college.

Just remember, the second you stop learning is the second you become unemployed. And that's not just for computers, that's for every career.

Aldur

I think that it would make since that the more certifications, especially the higher level ones, would give you an edge when applying at a well known college.

With that being said it's hard to say what exactly they would be looking for. I would think that the well known certs, Cisco, MS, would go far and anything *nix related too.

Kent Allard, gave some good advice, IMHO I also believe that a BS degree isn't worth much without some certs to back it up, then again if you have no experience then those certs/degree don't tend to matter all that much either.

However, I would recommend not waiting till a few months before graduation to start looking for a job. I've known ppl to do this and it's hard to find anything besides entry level positions that pay entry level wages. Start looking for IT related work from day 1. Having experience will be just as important, if not more, then having certs/degree. Having just certs/degree makes you appear paper certified, having just experience makes it look like you are not motivated, having all 3 is the winning combination.

mikej412

Certifications are something that can help you stand out a bit more from all the other super qualified candidates applying to your favorite Universities.

While Cisco bought Linksys, Linksys devices are not useful for Cisco Certification Study.

We've had University Students here certify to help them land Internships and part-time University jobs to help gain Job Experience that would give them a step up on other high GPA students when they graduate and compete for jobs.

And we've got a couple of High School Students around the Cisco forums working (or finished) with their CCNPs -- but I'm not sure if they are currently High School Seniors. And I'm sure we have a few "High School CCNAs" around the forum -- on the Internet no one knows you're a High School Freshmen.

But if you want to feel like a slacker, check out this CCIE who has already worked as a Cisco Trainer....
http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/40558-university-advice.html
http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccie/40129-congrats.html

loxleynew

Just keep in mind. Someone with TONS of certs but no experience is imo worse than someone with TONS of experience and no certs.

It just doesn't look good i don't think. Try get some experience.

buu700

Thanks for all the advice (interesting that it all came in a relatively short timeframe, a couple days after I originally posted this thread)! I'm not sure I'll be putting much effort into certifications once I'm accepted to colleges though, because I'm really not particularly interested in an IT career. I certainly have the skills, and it might be a nice temp job if I ever need one, but I'm much more interested in CS (also, I'm especially not interested in the new line of MS certs; I'm already on the XP/Server 2003 path from my Network Administration class, so I'm just going to continue down that road, and even then I'd much rather be a *nix sysadmin (I'm much more familiar with *nix, especially with regards to CLI, and TBH I'm really not a fan of Microsoft/Windows)).

Wow, that is really impressive, that Pavel was able to get his CCIE at his age. I think I'm a bit too late in the game at this point for that (and even then there's no way I'd be able to travel from Virginia to California during the school year to pay $1400 to take an exam I probably wouldn't even pass, assuming I even got past the $315 written exam). But I do think I'll go for my CC*A after the summer (and maybe CC*P as well, if I feel confident enough after CC*A).

By the way, I understand that cheap Linksys router hardware is utter crap compared to an enterprise-level Cisco router, but how would an open source firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato compare to the Cisco firmware? Would it be worth using one for configuration practice, or is the Cisco firmware different and/or superior enough that I'm better off just working with study guides and simulations?

About certifications being useless without experience to back them up, my mom's friend, the CEO of IMC, offered me a paid internship, which I'll do some time after the summer, so I will have some relevant work experience to put on my resume (in addition to teaching Rubik's Cube and Chess at Robin Hood Camp last summer and this summer, and possibly Python as well this summer if I can get the owner to go along with that (we did briefly discuss the possibility last summer)).

Aldur

loxleynew wrote: »

Just keep in mind. Someone with TONS of certs but no experience is imo worse than someone with TONS of experience and no certs.

It just doesn't look good i don't think. Try get some experience.

+10

Many higher level certs expect you to have experience to be able to pass them so if you have a load of certs w/o any exp then it raises questions about how you obtained them.

UnixGeek

buu700 wrote: »

Also, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about databases, and I know jack about SQL, but would it be worth it to train myself for an Oracle or MySQL certification before I apply to colleges (I do plan on learning databases/SQL eventually)?

I don't know how much the certifications would help you in getting in, but once you are in, knowing SQL (not necessarily any one vendor's implementation) would help you out with the database classes that you're likely to take.

buu700 wrote: »

By the way, I understand that cheap Linksys router hardware is utter crap compared to an enterprise-level Cisco router, but how would an open source firmware like DD-WRT or Tomato compare to the Cisco firmware? Would it be worth using one for configuration practice, or is the Cisco firmware different and/or superior enough that I'm better off just working with study guides and simulations?

Playing with either of those could certainly improve your Linux and networking skill sets, but they don't run the IOS, so you wouldn't be gaining any Cisco-specific knowledge. A strong understanding of TCP/IP would help you out with some of the classes that you'd likely have in a CS curriculum, and beyond that, being able to rapidly perform binary and hexadecimal math would be an asset in lots of classes. If you can't afford to purchase a lab (2 2501 routers and a 2950 switch would be plenty for the CCNA, IMO), you can also check out the simulator options, such as GNS3.