A lot of aggro from coworkers after getting certification
NoNameNoob
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Anyone else ever experience this? Every other hour, I hear a sentence phrased like this: "Well im not <cert> certified but I would do this" or randomly out of the blue a person will come up to me and give reasons why they are not certified. I don't even bring it up at all (Put in for a company reimbursement upon pass and Boss sent an email to the 15+ people on the team) but all my coworkers constantly remind me. They also think i'm now available at anytime for their trivia quiz questions so I can prove my knowledge to them and If I miss i'm a fraud. These guys have been in the same position for 3-5 years, complain about their pay day after day and yet don't make an effort to try to learn something new. /rant
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I am not going to go so far as to say people want to see the other guy fail. However I would say a lot of people don't want to see the other guy succeed.
The certs have never made me an expert, but over the years, they have definitely helped me grow personally and professionally. I work with a couple co-workers that seem to learn IT by osmosis, but I don't have that gift. So, I pick a cert as a goal, and move forward. And I learn a lot.
I work with a whole lot more co-workers that don't bother to get certs...nor do they bother to learn anything new. And they are slow to learn new technologies and slower to solve problems. Their lack of learning shows, and I'm sure they know it. And my certs and degrees may get their goat, but that's their problem.
I remember working with one dude who would bad mouth certs and university degrees as a "waste of time". He was an OK tech, albeit had never attended college nor attempted a cert. I generally tried to let it go at first. One day when he opened his yap about "education is a waste", I told him "It's funny to me how you 'know' so much about what a waste certifications and school are, yet you've never attempted an exam nor attended college to know how to be successful at either." He was mad for a bit, and got over it. Over the years I solved a number of complex issues that he had no idea how to start fixing, probably mostly due to my continual learning, and not because I'm an "IT god", and that helped humble him some more.
Same as you, I don't talk about it and only let my immediate manager and finance team know so they can process the reimbursement of the exam fee (and a couple of colleagues, but only if they ask).
So we'll be talking about something, and they'll give their two cents, and then I'll say something like, "well as the most certified person here, I think we should do blah blah." Mostly just messing with them cuz they talk about certifying but haven't motivated, and I beat them to it. One guy actually passed his CCIE written, but I use every opportunity to point out that it's not a certification.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality
Edit: iBrokeIT, you beat me to it.
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Now when I was dropping weight like crazy and getting fit, that I did get a lot of resentment from some coworkers, even I never said anything about losing weight, I just did it (the results spoke for themselves lol).
Ignore the naysayers and do what is right for you and your career.
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It's just jealousy and insecurity showing through. Be the better person and ignore it while you continue to move on up.
I personally never announce my accomplishments at work and only list them on my resume and sometimes linkedin.
"Oh, you're just book smart" or whatever. Nah, I've got the stuff to back it up. I tend to keep my accomplishments to myself and my boss, but some of the bigger ones have been let out of the bag by online profiles and such.
But, in the end I just have to be that guy.... Yea, I'm ruttin' AWESOME! I'm kicking some major booty and furthering my career and bettering myself, because I'M AWESOME! You need a high five and a congratulations, not someone to try and beat you down. So, congratulations on your cert! They can be a real ***** and it takes a lot of effort, time, commitment, brain drain, and just a good determination to get through.
It's hard to not knock them down, and I'm trying to say this nicely, but some people are fine with this being just a job and just doing the minimums to get by. Those of us on this forum are definitely not like that at all. As long as you're happy with your approach, great. Not knocking either way...
YES! Welcome to Internet Technology and Services. You will see people say that to cover their own insecurities. They usually think they are the "Kings and Queens of I.T." and they usually get in the positions that they are in solely by some sort of "social interaction" that they have to their supervisors or management, with "very little" knowledge. Some companies, do not have any reimbursement even for a "book" so I think that is awesome that you are taking advantage on that. And I would tell those guys asking you questions, that they should know the answers already after "x" amount of years, you don't need that harassment.
Like I posted in another thread, here is the main three reason to get certified, remember this:
1) For Yourself FIRST, either to better your own understanding or to prove to “yourself”that you know this skillset / area. This is the number one thing to remember.
2) To get into a better job or a better raise and to better yourself.
3) To better your company and also maintain your position in the company. Leaning more skillsets makes “YOU” an valuable employee to your company. And again.. maybe in regards to your company as well -I've actually seen people that have got laid off” of the company“first” because they never went for any types of certifications even if that company “paid” for them to do so!
Keep your head up.
I left and never looked back, every other team I've worked in its been a case of 'you know it more than me, help me understand it' which I've always been happy to do and they reciprocate back.
Get out of there. Negativity breads negativity.
That's the attitude in my office. We're a team, and we help each other out. I've helped co-workers with certifications, and others have helped me. It's great!
Don't allow them to test your knowledge..be a bit aggressive and say things like "im not your google" or something...just don't let them test you, they're not your boss and they're not in a position to do that - make it clear.
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The boss there played down my CCNA and Cisco in general (aside Americans) just because he did 1 (one !) wannabe cisco seller cert with around 35 q's 10 years back where he dumped everything. He has no idea what Spanning-Tree is or does know anything else of value. Yes, he holds a degree (Diplom similar to master) in an electrical field but, he forgot everything.
He tried to mock me daily with my eager-ism to get the LPIC-2 and CCNP Switch...after 4 month I left. Prior I told him the consequences and he was pissed.
Long story short.
Life in IT is like a RPG and only the LvL 50 Warrior with vulcan glass mega armor can beat the skeleton king. Let the goblins be goblins, you are the one who rescues the virgin lady.
The flip side is that people often use certifications to chase money and end up skirting around the edges of barely passing or worse yet, cheating. I have lost count of the times that I have worked with another engineer or consultant who was certified out the wazoo but had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Certification alone does not replace experience nor does it automatically infer that you have in-depth knowledge about a specific topic.
Personally, I look at the overall package before I judge someone. A very junior person who is certified at a higher level but fails to perform their job function at their level - I will second guess. A junior engineer who is certified at a higher level but goes out of their way to provide clients with that extra mile and always seems to be curious about things - will get nothing but praise.
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