Do your coworkers actively seek Certification?

I keep finding it amazing how my everyone I work with does not seem to care much for certification, education, or moving up.
They all seem pretty content were they are and have no intentions of ever leaving unless they have to.
At my first helpdesk job there were 2 of us who were trying to get certified and we both left that company after 3 months or so because we both got better jobs. All the other guys are still there.
At my current job literally no one has any certs or a degree.(My title is Network Tech) On paper I am the most qualified employee.

When I talk about certs or degrees with my coworkers they usually look down upon them. They say things like "I've known MCSE's who weren't too bright" or "Nothing will change if I get my CCNA."

I am wondering if this is how it is with other people and their coworkers.

On the other side, both my IT employers only cared about the CCNA. And they dont treat it like an entry level cert.

Also I dont mean to sound negative. Its good that people are content with their jobs and if they are happy who am I to judge them for staying static. I just find it odd that so many people are this way (that Ive seen)

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Comments

networker050184

A lot of people are scared to move on and up. Leaves more room for the motivated ones like we have here to stand out!

olaHalo

networker050184 wrote: »

A lot of people are scared to move on and up. Leaves more room for the motivated ones like we have here to stand out!

Yes I am not complaining lol.
And I am not going to try and convince anyone to start taking certs/education seriously. It works to my advantage that they dont care

ptilsen

No. Not at any of my previous employers or current. Some had MCSEs or in that area, but they were done. That's just how ambitious lots of people are. They get to a certain point and stop.

That's not to say I don't understand some of the attitude. Certs aren't everything, and some of them do mean next to nothing. For people with the experience and skill a cert is meant to show, they just unnecessarily prove what they already have. Still, for most of us they both help learn actual skills and add a nice qualification to our resume.

I haven't worked with people who look down on them, however. I've definitely worked with people resistant to not-on-the-job career training, but no one who perceived certifications as being negative value. That I don't understand.

I myself haven't sat for one in over a year, because I'm working on college. Some people deride that with the exact same reasoning as they do certs. It's no different, in my opinion. No matter how much you think you know, you're likely to learn something from any kind of education, and it generally looks nice on a resume.

olaHalo

ptilsen wrote: »

I haven't worked with people who look down on them, however. I've definitely worked with people resistant to not-on-the-job career training, but no one who perceived certifications as being negative value. That I don't understand.

Yes this was very surprising
I agree with your entire post

prtech

Yes, part of our job description is to actively seek certifications.

higherho

Alot of my co workers tend to stop their progression once they get comfortable. I would like to state that not getting a cert doesn't mean that person isn't actively improving their skills. For example; the only time I have to study is at work and test stuff in my development environment. When I'm with the family it’s pretty hard to get cert time in (even though I have all the books I need to get the cert and read them at work when I have down time lol). So I'm keeping my skills up just not takening the tests. However, I should start putting time into that soon why? Well as ptilsen says it backs you up on the resume but it’s the skills / experience that show in the technical interview.

emerald_octane

To me certs are a great token of foundational knowledge (obviously my opinion). When i'm not studying for something, spending time with family, or perusing techexams, I feel like i'm wasting time. The immense gains i've gotten from just a few certifications in terms of salary, knowledge and prestige have been great. Do i think that certification is required to be proficient on a platform? Absolutely not. But I know that many certs offer an excellent foundation on which in field experience sharpens to make you the most agile, and it definitely helps expose you to "what you don't know".

I too am the only one in my organization with certs. I don't think less of them because of it, but I do feel as if i'm one of the more versatile individuals here (and many of my peers agree) because I force myself into these uncomfortable situations (certs).

FloOz

I've never worked with anyone that actively seeks to pass certifications.

veritas_libertas

I have a few coworkers. Most do not.

Dakinggamer87

FloOz wrote: »

I've never worked with anyone that actively seeks to pass certifications.

Same here I try to encourage my co-workers and colleagues whenever I can

EasyMac308

Yeah, my employer offers financial bonuses when you attain significant certifications, but it wasn't until they made it part of the review goals to get 70-680 that my coworkers started on it.

olaHalo

So I guess it seems to be the norm.
And here I thought I was working in a unique place.

ptilsen

I thought so too, but between my four FTE positions and two contracts, I'm convinced this is the norm. Even at the MSP I worked for, which was an MS partner and had huge competency incentives, it like pulling teeth to get people to pass low-level MCTS exams. We put in promotion prerequisites and raise incentives, bought group study materials, even did group study sessions. It was no use. Some people just don't want to do it.

Nyblizzard

This topic reminds me of the last excuse I heard for not going after a certification...

"It will expire by the time I will even begin to think about looking for a new job"

Master Of Puppets

olaHalo wrote: »

So I guess it seems to be the norm.
And here I thought I was working in a unique place.

lol me too. Kind of cool though, how here on TE everyone is so motivated to keep getting better.

JustFred

Not at the current job as no one seems to care besides me, but then again at every gig(i love using this word as it always sounds funny to me) i've been at i have always seen my time there as a probation period and it doesn't matter when i stick around for 1, 2 or 5 years. I look at it this way you'd never know when management would kick you out. keep learning new things and enjoy doing so and when they do kick you out, you can walk right into the next gig because you stayed current and kept learning.

nosoup4u

I'm one of "those" people. I worked in IT for about 7 years before I decided to cert up, but it was mainly for WGU and a couple of projects at work which I believed would give me an edge but they didn't to be quite honest.

kiki162

None of my co-workers actively do certs. For me because I have a family and a 1 yr old, I can get at least 1 if not 2 certs per year. I like to get enough to where I can use that on my reviews at work. But then again I'm not sure if that matters much. Obviously, you want someone with the experience and not just the certs. Personally, I do it because it keeps me going. Because it's something different than the same stuff I do all day long.

I think too that some of us do it to stay fresh and relevant, so that if we DID have to move on, that would at least set us up nicely for another position. What I have seen is that a lot of jobs don't provide training these days, and employers are motivated or required to have their employees certs up to date. Although there's the DOD 8570, which I wish was req. for more branches of govt (DoDD 8140 is replacing 8570 this year)

pamccabe

Same with my place of employment. I'm new and talk to the guys about certification. Not a single one has one and has don't even seem interested when I bring it up. Fine by me. I'll cert up though.

jeepster78

I have more certs and a higher degree than my actual boss and I just completed another degree in a non IT major. I have been contemplating doing more certs but at this point I'm not sure it would be worth it in my situation.

gorebrush

It is common place I've found. I work for a major outsourcer and the attitude of many of my coworkers are not interested. I left a job in 2006 because I knew there would be no progression. I recently caught up with them all because of a funeral, they all still work in their same jobs, nothings changed. I've moved jobs 3 times and more than doubled my salary since then.

Some people are content to stick it out in a single role and be comfortable and there is a lot to be said for that - reliable workforce - employers don't have to keep finding new staff.

But, that's never been for me, I get bored in roles and I'm open to admit it. It keeps me pushing on and wanting more, I don't sit around and lament about my lot.

kurosaki00

nop, not at all.
In my previous job 1-2 did.
I have very few years of working experience, but at least so far my experience is people look for a job to stay there as much as they can.

blargoe

I've found the only time anyone gives a rip about certification is during the interview. Usually my managers and peers range from being indifferent about certifcation to being downright disparaging. A couple of people at my last job did pursue relevant certifications, and those were the people that I had a hand in interviewing and recommending for the job.

Hypntick

Part of our individual goals we're evaluated on here are certification based. There are a lot of them that just don't care as it only accounts for 10% of our quarterly bonus. Even though books and the test are paid for, I just don't understand it.

YFZblu

Yes, the majority of my co-workers are working toward a certification of some kind.

Coming across people who look down on certification is nothing new, keep working hard.

vCole

None. Management won't pay for them, and have told everyone that they mean nothing to management in regards of moving up in the company/raise/etc.

coreyb80

vCole wrote: »

None. Management won't pay for them, and have told everyone that they mean nothing to management in regards of moving up in the company/raise/etc.

Way to boost morale in the work place.

vCole

Don't even get me started on this place.

kfcdude

Certs are good if people didnt **** to get th

networker050184

Certs have done great for my career regardless if people **** to get them or not. Nobody would worry about cheating for them if they weren't worth having!