What value do ITIL certs have for sys admins?

At my last job we were ISO 20000 certified and as such I find myself to be pretty obsessive about proper procedures and documentations at my current job. The sys admin over in Europe has almost no documentation whatsoever so I'm working to get ours together all the time.

As sick as it may sound, I actually like putting proper processes in place. I know some sys admins (not the good ones) don't like to do documentation because they feel like it weakens their job security, but I'm of the mindset that if I work hard enough to document everything, it will put me in a position to be promoted at a later time (since somebody else will be able to step into my position).

As such, I'm just curious about what value the ITIL certs will have on my resume? Are ITIL sorts good for a sys admin to have or would they be better if I am looking to change the path of my career (which I'm not adverse to, hopefully my next job will be in management).

As an aside...does anybody else ever feel like they learn about so many different great certs on this site that it makes it difficult to pick one path and stick to it? I've been good about sticking to the Microsoft path thus far but I'm constantly wanting to explore other possibilities after learning about them on here...makes me feel like a kid with ADD in grade school!

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pml1

SrSysAdmin wrote: »

As an aside...does anybody else ever feel like they learn about so many different great certs on this site that it makes it difficult to pick one path and stick to it? I've been good about sticking to the Microsoft path thus far but I'm constantly wanting to explore other possibilities after learning about them on here...makes me feel like a kid with ADD in grade school!

Unfortunately, I can't answer your question, but I feel exactly the same way.

I want that one...oh, and that one...that one sounds fun...and so does this one...

Devilsbane

There are lots of different paths, and I kind of want to touch them all. With that being said, if you don't have at least 1 marketable skill, you probably won't get very far. "Well I have half of an MCSA, a CCENT, I did the first test for Linux+, did a couple MCITP tests" doesn't shout "Hire Me!" in my eyes.

apena7

SrSysAdmin wrote: »

At my last job we were ISO 20000 certified and as such I find myself to be pretty obsessive about proper procedures and documentations at my current job. The sys admin over in Europe has almost no documentation whatsoever so I'm working to get ours together all the time.

As sick as it may sound, I actually like putting proper processes in place. I know some sys admins (not the good ones) don't like to do documentation because they feel like it weakens their job security, but I'm of the mindset that if I work hard enough to document everything, it will put me in a position to be promoted at a later time (since somebody else will be able to step into my position).

As such, I'm just curious about what value the ITIL certs will have on my resume? Are ITIL sorts good for a sys admin to have or would they be better if I am looking to change the path of my career (which I'm not adverse to, hopefully my next job will be in management).

I was wondering the same thing. At my current job, we send clients a variety of equipment (desktops, laptops, scanners, monitors, etc.) and when I walked in on my first day I was almost tempted to walk out

. The computers weren't organized by model, laptops by screen size, hard drives by IDE or SATA, working or non-working, new or used, to donate or use for spare parts. Sure, it doesn't sound like a bad thing, but to a neat-freak like me, it gets maddening trying to find a specific computer model to ship and then boot it up only to find it has a bad motherboard

. So I started implementing ISO 9001 inventory control practices and after 2 months, it's finally starting to come together. I also whipped up a couple of docs and Visio diagrams that illustrates every step I take when adding/removing/invoicing equipment in our asset tracking software database so that the person following me won't get such a headache.

I was taking a second look at ITIL and considering if it would be worthwhile to get the cert. I haven't seen it as a requirement for my job level (with the exception for Dell) that often, so maybe it wouldn't hurt.

Mojo_666

None IMO, some agencies and employers ask for it along side mcse ccna etc but I don't really get why if I am honest. I am happy to do the foundation if someone else pays but do not see the benefit in doing it myself.

Devilsbane

Mojo_666 wrote: »

I am happy to do the foundation if someone else pays but do not see the benefit in doing it myself.

Thats what I'm hoping for. The company I'm with is on an ITIL kick right now. I personally would value my A+ over it, but if they are going to pay for the test and stick me in the classes, I'll gladly get it.

eMeS

SrSysAdmin wrote: »

As such, I'm just curious about what value the ITIL certs will have on my resume? Are ITIL sorts good for a sys admin to have or would they be better if I am looking to change the path of my career (which I'm not adverse to, hopefully my next job will be in management).

That's all going to depend on where you're looking. Companies that are following ITIL best practices will appreciate that they don't have to pay to put you through the training. The other benefit is that you might actually bring something to the table in terms of understanding of ITIL terms, definitions, process and function names, which is primarily the result of a foundation class.

The question I would ask you is which ITIL certifications are you speaking of? If you're just speaking of foundation, then the primary benefit is that everyone learns the same terms and definitions for the same things, and is exposed to the various processes and what they do. Basically the benefit at that level is standardization. If you're speaking about some of the higher level ITIL certifications, then that's a totally different case.

SrSysAdmin wrote: »

As an aside...does anybody else ever feel like they learn about so many different great certs on this site that it makes it difficult to pick one path and stick to it? I've been good about sticking to the Microsoft path thus far but I'm constantly wanting to explore other possibilities after learning about them on here...makes me feel like a kid with ADD in grade school!

Life is all about having unlimited wants while being limited by limited resources to fulfill those wants....

For those of you questioning why ITIL, or what ITIL does, or why it even exists, let me make it very clear for you.

ITIL is a collection of best practices for delivering value in the form of services. It is not specific to IT. All of the best practices that ITIL describes can be boiled down to three basic concepts. These concepts are:

A - Accountability
B - Boundaries
C - Consistency

Organizations generally want more of these three things, because, if you achieve them, you tend to reduce errors, reduce waste, and save money.

On the other hand, if you don't have those three things you tend to have increased costs, increased error, and inefficient management of capital. It just so happens that IT organizations are often really bad at those three things, which is why ITIL exists. That in a nutshell is what it's all about. ITIL is by no means the only way to achieve these things, and every organization is already following some or even many of the best practices without even knowing it.

Foundation, which is what most people take, barely touches on these concepts, and is primarily about learning all of the terms and definitions that ITIL uses.

To be completely honest about my approach to things like this, I have to say that personal opinions about something like this are really irrelevant. As I've said many times here before, I'm not doing what I do because I find any of this particularly thrilling or enjoying. As someone who provides ITIL consulting and training I am simply responding to a market demand. None of this implies that you should give any less than 100% to whatever it is that you're doing....

To have an effective career you too need to learn that what compensates well is not necessarily always the thing that you're most interested in doing. Instead, what tends to compensate well is what the market demands at any given point in time that suffers from limited supply. Holding advanced ITIL certifications coupled with a strong customer list and a proven record for making some key parts of the best practices really work is definitely highly demanded and is in limited supply.

And one day the market will lose it's current affection with ITIL, and guess what, I'll either have sold my company and be retired, or I'll have transitioned into whatever the next highly demanded and specialized area is.....

It's never about what you want, rather, it's always about what the market demands and is willing to pay you to do....

MS

Devilsbane

Thanks for the input on ITIL

mikedisd2

I just started at a ITIL-based company and having the cert is definitely an advantage. Doesn't what your role is, they will prefer someone who understands the processes and terms.

Yes, get the Foundation cert. It'll take you 2x weeks of your life and my experience is recuiters love it.

Todd Burrell

I've been working in IT for over 20 years (dang I'm getting old), and I would say that the ITIL Foundations certification would probably be good for almost anyone in IT support and management to have. This cert gives you a good overview of ITIL's view of the correct steps to setup service and provide it to a customer. And let's face it, in the IT world we all provide services to some sort of customer. If all companies followed some of the ITIL processes IT support would be MUCH easier. Even though most of this cert was a lot of common sense and repeats of other certs (like PMP), I still think there is value in having the ITIL Foundations cert.

As for the Intermediate and Expert levels of ITIL, those are probably more valuable to someone that actually works for a service provider of contracting company.