Is there such thing as too many certifications?

A couple of points I wanted to make and of course get the forums opinion

I find that some people on here including myself feel the need to consistently go for certification after certification. Can you remain competitve in the job market and not binge certify? I did two this year and I feel like I have been slacking. Is that normal, something tells me no.

I know this is a certification forum and I am by in no way saying certs are bad or you shouldn't get them. But is it really healthy to set insane expectations to only come up short?

What are some warning signs that you may be falling in this trap?

What are other constructive ways of staying current without certifying?

Thoughts?

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Comments

networker050184

I think its pretty pointless to rack up a bunch of random certifications. It's something I see a lot of people want to do when they are first getting into IT and certifications in general.

What I have found to be true in my career is that your time is much better spent concentrating on a single track to the expert level rather than to spread yourself thin trying to certify in every technology that sparks a little interest or gets a few hits on the job boards.

dave330i

You can succeed w/out certs, but if you want to excel you need certs.

Nothing wrong with setting your goals high. Its what drives me. Just don't beat yourself too hard when you come up short.

Iristheangel

I don't know if there is such thing as "too many" certifications unless you have 30 certs and no experience whatsoever, but I know that's not your situation, N2IT. There's a few reasons I take some certifications off my resume. For example, I took my MCSE years ago and I never really used 90% of that knowledge. I probably forgot most of it and I couldn't even list a FSMO role off the top of my head . If I listed it on my resume and applied for a MCSE specific job, I'd probably fail at it since my boss would assume that I still remembered enough of the exam content to succeed at the position. Another job required me to get a stupid service desk HDI certification. Since I am no longer applying for service desk positions and most employers have never heard of HDI, I don't bother listing it on my resume since it just takes up valuable real estate.

tr1x

Other than being a waste of time and money, there is no such thing as too many certs. You can just leave them off the resume if you feel you have too many. No one has to know...

rwmidl

I guess for me it is what certifications do you need for your job? Since I'm a Windows Admin, it makes logical sense to do Microsoft certs. Why would I do Cisco when I don't touch any Cisco equipment (anymore at least). Even with the Microsoft certs, does it benefit me to take anything on Exchange when I don't support Exchange? Not really, unless I wanted to learn something new.

the_hutch

Personally I feel like I've learned more with each and every one of my certifications than I did in my entire bachelor's program. Its a good way to learn and having extra letters to put after my name gives me something to shoot for.

FloOz

experience in the field will always out weigh certifications. however, a mixture of both will set you on a very good track. As far as getting "too many certs", i believe it is possible. Personally, I never want to become one of those people that has 20+ certs just to have them. I will only go for certs that are beneficial to me and my career path that i have planned out for myself. Working hard at your job and showing your dedication will get you more pay and promotions, not a ton of certs.

RomBUS

I believe in the motto "you can never stop learning", epecially in the IT world I am a firm believer in that. I don't think that there is such thing as having "too many certifications" as long as you stick to what you want to learn more from. Though there is such thing as too many UNEEDED certs of course, where you can kind of go off-track for whatever reason (exam price, picked up a free learning course, company pays for it even though you dont necessarily need it in your dept., etc. the list goes on)

FloOz

yes, however, learning by reading and learning by doing are two completly different things. I would much rather learn how to configure a network hands on then read about it in a book. What im trying to say is depending on what you do at your current job should be indication of what certs you should go for. For example, i am a a recent college grad and am a full time desktop engineer with my A+ which i passed in january during winter break. This cert helped me break into IT and obtain an entry level position.

NOW i began studying for my network+, HOWEVER, if i do pass it i do not expect to get a promotion to network services because i have no real networking experience. But what i can do is go to maintenence nights and along with the knowledge from the n+ maybe in a year or so i may get my promotion.

JDMurray

Too many certs where? On your resume or CV? You have no ethical obligation to include all of your certs on your resume, CV, LinkedIn page, email sig, or your bio section here at TE. Go for all the certs you want and only advertise the ones that will get you the job.

I have personally disregarded resumes from prospective job candidates that had an arm-length of certs. My opinion was that somebody with that many certs will expect a lot of on-going training, and that the position we had would not hold the long-term interest of the candidate. I've done the same thing with people's resumes who have Ph.D's too.

N2IT

Awesome post JD

Thats a very interesting take!

Networking made a great point about scoping in on one or two technologies instead of going wild with a bunch of none related certs

docrice

It depends on the individual's goals and career / personal objectives. At some point, having a long train of certifications in a given time length wouldn't necessarily be beneficial. It's easy to chase merit badges for the sole purpose of populating a resume. From an employer's perspective, there's the perception based on an average. If the typical professional with 5 years of experience has say 3 certs of a caliber, then having 15 certs with the other variables being the same might be perceived in a negative way like perhaps brain **** were involved (although in some cases it could be viewed as the candidate being well-motivated).

But given that most people aren't geniuses and won't retain all that information, if someone has 30 certs on their resume it might start to look kind of odd. On the other hand if you can absorb that much material and apply it well with that level of experience and you can demonstrate it in an interview, fantastic. If your overall knowledge level increases just by the sake of studying for certification exams, definitely go for it.

And that's the boat I've been in for the last 2.5 years. I've been "working with computers" for about 15 years at this point and never got certified in anything until the end of 2009 when I got my CCNA. Since then I've gotten 15 certifications (including the CompTIA ones). That averages out to be a new cert every two months. That's a little surprising to me, now that I look it. Maybe my math is off. Having the work experience already behind me certainly made things easier for me though. I certainly wouldn't have been able to do that if I were still early in my career.

Overall I was able to immerse myself into subjects that I enjoyed, widened my understanding of some areas I was weak in, and filled in a lot of knowledge gaps, so it only helped. However, there's a point where only studying the texts and not enough applying in real-life environments creates a point of diminishing returns if you try to compress too much in a given time frame. The faster I try to absorb new information at this point, the faster a lot of so-called learned knowledge seems to fall out onto the server room floor. I have to acknowledge my limits and pace myself. Labbing exercises aren't truly equivalent to real-world experiences, so they don't really count for me as much as I hope.

For me the takeaway is to use whatever means are necessary to advance your goals. If you want to be a paper tiger and have a long list of wall-postings for bragging rights, cool. If that's also a way to increase your overall understanding for your personal satisfaction, even better. Just know what your balance is because it's easy to get into the mindset of "the chase," and also keep in mind what a potential employer may be thinking when looking at your resume. Lots of certs may be good ... or may be a liability.

MrBishop

I don't think you can get to many but you should have a good direction of where you want to go and only get those certifications, unless you're current employer asks you to get them or is willing to pay for certifications. I say that you should focus on one track (Cisco related) and just go to the expert level. It will get you the job and the money dire, plus then you can focus on other areas since you'll retain most of what you learned if your working with it everyday.

Plus, you can take then off your resume like others said if they're not related to a job you're currently applying for.

WafflesAndRootbeer

Get as many useful ones as possible. Only list the commonly used ones on your resume unless you have specific certs that could be relevant to a job you are applying for.

spiderjericho

Depends do I want to be the master of a realm/skill

Renaissance Man (master of none)

Or a b.s.er who thinks a mountain of certs either by hook or crook.

I used to want to catch them all, but like others have mentioned retention is difficult when you're constantly going from one cert to another, especially when it can be in different realms like security, networks, system engineering, storage, VOIP, database, etc.

I can see the benefit in a SMB to have someone with CCNA, Network+, Windows 7 and security+. But when tasks and scope start getting more complicated, it's a different story.

Also, the money and time factor come into play. I have at least a half dozen CompTIA certs and other than the trinity and possibly CASP (though it has no market value), they were all a waste of time and money.

But I do agree like medicine, the IT field is vast and ever changing. So a practioniter should be keeping up. If you're a system admin, you should probably delve into Win8 or Server 2012.

universalfrost

some of the lower level certs are ok to have a few random ones in, but once you figure out what you want to do / like you need to concentrate on that field. having too many random certs will even hurt your chances for certain jobs.

if you are applying for a server admin and you have lots of non server certs it could lead the possible employer to question just how long you would stay in that position and leave for another non- server position.

DPG

It seems like the cert collectors are only learning how to pass a test.

N2IT

DPG I am guilty of this for most of my CompTIA's. The exams aren't that hard and powering through the books taught me enough to pass the test.

Once I hit ITIL, PMI, ISO, etc I slowed it down and really started to apply the knowledge. I did that with some of the CompTIA's as well, but no where near like I did with ITIL etc.

Cert collecting is really more of a hobby for a lot of IT professionals. I've seen help desk guys going for the CISSP. It's all kind of weird if you ask me.

***Again when I was beginning my adventure I had that mind set.

JDMurray

N2IT wrote: »

Cert collecting is really more of a hobby for a lot of IT professionals.

I actually got into certs purely from a hobby perspective. I had previously looked at software development certs, but no employers asked for them, so I didn't take them seriously. Then I found the A+/Net+ and was in love. I had been building computers and networks for years and now here were certs to test how good I was at it (or so I thought. Ten years ago the A+/Net+ was fun to study for, but a real disappointment of an exam).

Iristheangel

@N2IT - Same way for me and the CompTIA/old MS certifications. They didn't challenge me enough and I assumed getting as many as possible would open up magical doors for me. I was foolish and naive. Once I started hitting the mid- and higher- level certifications, I had to slow down and I'm glad I did. I retained a lot more and it was much more enjoyable. I try to look at certifications in a different light now: I pick up the books to learn the material and at the end, I pass the exam to prove to myself that I learned the material.

KenC

I'm definitely one of those that believes in a balance between certs and experience, and am extremely wary of people who have lots and lots of certs with little or no practical experience to back it up. I also think that certs are good for people with lots of experience, as it helps to plug the knowledge gaps.

N2IT

@James

It was that way for me, but eventually graduated out of that phase. Still have the passion for IT, just not into getting certifications that don't directly assist me. I am more concerned about experience at this point and transitioning into roles that interest me. I have a plan and enjoy certs still, the only thing that has changes is now the cert has to align with my decided on career path

@IRIS

Yeah I am almost to the point of removing them all together. I passed them within CompTIA's rules, aka no brain dumping, but still I don't feel I did them for the right reasons. It felt at the time like the smart move, but now I feel that I did them just to do them. No passion or interest when I did security or server.

Oh well the life of an IT professional. You learn from your experiences and move forward from there.

N2IT

@Ken

You and I think the same way in regards to experience and certifications. There is no magical number on either side, but when it's insanely slanted it can start to get kind of weird.

No IT experience with EA or CCNP strikes me as weird. Having a ton of experience with no certifications isn't as bad, but can look bad by certain interviewers. A nice blend is key, I've been trying to tame my thirst and keep things in perspective.

Iristheangel

I agree with Ken. If someone walked into a job interview with a CCNA, CCNP, MCITP:EA, etc and no experience, they are one of three things: a) a computer prodigy (VERY rare), b) some who learned enough to pass the exams but lost the knowledge after moving onto the next exam because they never applied it continuously in the real world (fairly common), or c) a brain dumper (most likely)

paul78

@N2IT - I suspect that there is definitely a subset of folks that do collect certs as a hobby. I do fall into that category myself. For me, its a recent preoccupation. I only got my first cert about 8 months ago. I found that the structured process of learning and subsequent validation of knowledge to be appealing to me. One of the big draws was the self-pacing that I could choose to impose.

I am actually quite a novice at certs. I knew they existed but never bothered with them before.

I don't think anyone can have too many certs. I suppose it depends on why anyone would spend the time to get them. I am in the fortunate position where I dont actually need the certs for my job. My job role can be characterized as a jack-of-all-trades. So the exposure to the topics in each cert helps broaden my prespectives. And the certs help fuel my long-standing passion for technology.

N2IT

@Paul

Which certifications have you achieved and/or currently working on?

Just curious

paul78

I started working on LPI but lost interest. I'll probably go back to do it next year. I'm working through GWAPT now. I don't have high hopes of passing the exam since I didnt put much effort to it. But I found the material to be interesting. Most likely I will work on CIPP or CRISC next since its actually relevant to my job.

I also have a passing interest in the CCNA and MCITP. I most recently started to look at CPP.

Right now, I have a CISSP and CISM which I did earlier in the year.

N2IT

Well done! Those are some nice ones to land in your position.

kremit

networker050184 wrote: »

I think its pretty pointless to rack up a bunch of random certifications. It's something I see a lot of people want to do when they are first getting into IT and certifications in general.

What I have found to be true in my career is that your time is much better spent concentrating on a single track to the expert level rather than to spread yourself thin trying to certify in every technology that sparks a little interest or gets a few hits on the job boards.

I agree. Spread all over the place doesn't make sense, but at the same time I don't know what that would be defined to. CCNA > MCITP:EA > MCSE > VM Certs > BS/MA CS is not spread thin to me. Network and system admins are required to know a lot. Maybe getting every cert in the world would be spreading it to thin

drkat

N2 - Yes I believe there is such a thing as too many certifications. If you have tons of certs from different vendors on different technologies, I think you send a clear message of "jack of all trades" rather than "Specialist" whether your certs are PMP or Security or Networking/Systems - should def stay on track