CertRank.com

While reading an article referenced in another thread here, I came across a link to CertRank.com, a site designated to rank all IT certifications. I think it is a great undertaking, and if this project becomes successful, it will be an easy point of reference for TE'ers.

Now, since this ranking is essentially survey-based , it is as good as the data and sampling size is. I noticed there are very few responses registered on the site right now - so how about we populate it with more data? I think TE members are the most appropriate target audience for forming the results of this type of ranking.

P.S. I am not affiliated with the site in any way, just happened to like the idea.

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Comments

Iristheangel

Interesting. I'm waiting in an airport terminal right now so it seems like a good way to kill time..

SteveO86

How is CWDP higher than CWNE

(Wireless)

YuckTheFankees

The RHCSA is higher than the RHCE as well. It's an interesting site, that's for sure.

ChooseLife

YuckTheFankees wrote: »

The RHCSA is higher than the RHCE as well.

That is RHCA - Certified Architect

m3zilla

I didn't want to go through the process of registering, but how are the certs ranked? CCSA is ranked higher than the CCSE?

There's no Microsoft certs in the top 50?

YuckTheFankees

my bad

ChooseLife

m3zilla wrote: »

I didn't want to go through the process of registering, but how are the certs ranked? CCSA is ranked higher than the CCSE?

I don't know how exactly the ranking system works, but it allows rating only the certifications you claim to have. Once the claim is made, the site asks to rate the cert on the following scales:

* Is it hard to achieve? (expensive, many exams, requirements, labs)
* Is it easier to get a raise with this certification?
* Is it easier to find a job with this certification?
* Is it easier to gain a lot of knowledge during a certification process?
* Is this certification give you more respect in the community?

ChooseLife

SteveO86 wrote: »

How is CWDP higher than CWNE

m3zilla wrote: »

There's no Microsoft certs in the top 50?

This rating is not meaningful until it is populated with enough data to be statistically significant.

This is why I brought it up to the attention of the TE community - the platform has been built, we just need to fill it with data to see results.

JayTheCracker

what's wrong with the "button"? it is asking "do u have it?"

so, the data will lead to "which certs are certified by how many ppl"
not the hardest or highest rank

JDMurray

Just hoping they don't try to tie an average salary to a particular cert. People like me that have both bottom-level (A+) and top-level (CISSP) certs, and live in an expensive area of the USA where jobs naturally pay more, really screws up those stats and makes the metrics very misleading

Zartanasaurus

m3zilla wrote: »

There's no Microsoft certs in the top 50?

Currently only 3 voters for MCITP: EA so far and it's averaging 3 stars across the board. And that was AFTER I rated it 4 stars across the board. Compare that to 35 voters for CCNP: R&S averaging 4 stars across the board. Kind of surprised there aren't more votes for MCITP, although that could be a function of people only voting for things they find in the top 50 and not searching for what they have.

Slowhand

I like the idea, but the questions seem a little too simplistic. The "How Hard is It to Achieve" question encompasses a lot of factors that could EASILY have been separate questions unto themselves. Other than that, it's a great idea to actually ask the community of IT professionals who have these certs to rate them, instead of letting recruiters, sales people, and random managers do it.

N2IT

Interesting thread! Thanks for sharing

I put this link up on my LinkedIn page. Hopefully it will bring the poll some more votes.

Zartanasaurus

They need to modify their ranking formula to include the number of total votes. 3 ITIL and 1 PMI certs jumped ahead of CCIE:RS when the former have 2 votes and the latter has 18.

ChooseLife

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

They need to modify their ranking formula to include the number of total votes. 3 ITIL and 1 PMI certs jumped ahead of CCIE:RS when the former have 2 votes and the latter has 18.

Agreed. Also, I think responses should be weighed - e.g. CCIE's opinion of CCNA difficulty should weigh more than that of CCNA.

Zartanasaurus

ChooseLife wrote: »

Agreed. Also, I think responses should be weighed - e.g. CCIE's opinion of CCNA difficulty should weigh more than that of CCNA.

I don't know about this. I feel like "difficulty" should be based on the target audience of the test. A CCIE with 10 years experience is going to think the CCNA is easy. If Network+ is aimed at 9 months of networking experience, maybe we can say CCNA is 12-18 months. What do people with that much experience think?

JDMurray

All of those metrics are subjective opinions based on the context of the certified individual. For example, two people might take the same certification exam, but one person may find it much more difficult than the other. The only way to accurately rank each certs by these categories is to have a very large sample of opinion contributions. That site has a long way to go before a high level of credible accuracy will be achieved.

N2IT

Another thing I noticed is the audience it was distributed to. I advertised this on LinkedIn and in groups I was apart of. One of which was PMP and RMP forum and ITIL forum.

I have a feeling if you published a link in an MCIPT forum you would start to get more votes in those areas.

Zartanasaurus

Microsoft finally cracks the top 50!

[h=3]Microsoft Office Specialist – Word (MOS)[/h]

ptilsen

They don't have old MCSA/MCSE anywhere on the site. It comes as no surprise they are not in the top 50.

I like the idea, but the execution is not right. Cert rankings really need to better incorporate career level into the mix. At an experienced level, CompTIA doesn't belong on the list at all. At a junior level, CompTIA should be most of the list.

There are also duplicates and "improper" representations of some certs. Between the massive list itself and the lack of a lot of the more common certs such as MCSA/E, I get the impression the list is not being well managed.

N2IT

PT

Doesn't seem like much activity. I figured that poll would of blown up since it was posted here.

icm

Hello Everyone. I created CertRank, because many of my readers on IT Ceritification Master wanted to see this ranking, but I'm not an expert (don't have too much certifications), so I decided to create some type of user-based ranking.

Of course I would love to change the idea or some aspects to help the industry.

ChooseLife
Thanks. Means a lot to me.
- how exactly the ranking system works - we did a survey on IT Certification Master (430 people) - what is the most important to you when you choose a certification? Results: knowledge, hard to achieve, money, prestige, better job. So we've builded an algorithm based on that and the number of votes.

SteveO86 - It's a very young portal we have only 460 votes (1668 certifications). We need more votes to have more reliable results. This is not commercial project, so we don't have money for marketing and contact people we know

m3zilla -
Registration - we decided to add that, to have a chance to check each person - LinkedIN, etc. So there are not too many MCAs or CCArs on the planet. We still work on the algorithm to make it better.
CCSA is ranked higher than the CCSE? - Still when we have 3 votes (all 5s) for CCSA and 1 vote or CCSE (all 5s) then CCSE is higher.
There's no Microsoft certs in the top 50? - Unfortunately we have no too much votes for Microsoft's certs.

Slowhand - I realize it simple, but of course I want to more it more accurate. If you have any suggestion, I would love to hear that from you.

ptilsen - We want to put only actual certs to the site. I know many of certifications are still valuable - CCIP, MCSA/MCSE (old), JNCIE-M, but we don't have an idea how to move it right now.
- Random people - It's my dream to ask recruiters, sales people, and random managers. We want to start this process (with some changes) after 2000/3000 votes.
- Management of the list - It's a hard process

because there is no single place with that list (except this place), so we do whatever we can and change the list almost each week. But you're right, at this moment we don't have a process to have it 100% actual.

Zartanasaurus - It's implemented, but as I see not perfect

We must adjust it.
Good point with "A CCIE with 10 years experience is going to think the CCNA is easy." - The question what we can do with that.

Mirek Burnejko

RomBUS

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Microsoft finally cracks the top 50!

[h=3]Microsoft Office Specialist – Word (MOS)[/h]

Hehe interesting enough it is the Office cert thought it wouldve been the old school MCSE 2003

None of the certs I have are top 50 though.

FloOz

really good idea for a site. just registered now and will try to stay active in it during my cert journeys

N2IT

Once this site starts to collect data it will start to get more accurate. I posted links in the RMP, PMP, and ITIL forums in LI. I'm sure if you posted a link in the MCITP groups or MCSE groups on LI those would start to climb.

RouteThisWay

One thing also to keep in mind- you can only rank on a cert if you have the cert. People are naturally going to want to add a higher value to their certification because they attained it.

And pretty much quote everything JD said.

N2IT

I also think the opposite could occur too. RTW if someone went and studied and passed the security + exam for instance and didn't get a job like they expected that could lead to them marking the value down farther than it really should.

The more participants in this certification ranking system the more it will iron out.

drkat

i voted for microsoft excel.. probably holds more value than any cert I have. besides I hear excel dudes get mad bit**es

ptilsen

I responded to ICM via email (he emailed me), but I would like to point out that MCSE 2003 is still an attainable cert. In fact, MCSE 2000 is still an attainable cert -- it's just that the exams have retired. MCSE/A 2003 exams don't retire for just under 12 months, and the cert will still be attainable even beyond then, so long as the retired exams have already been passed (e.g. you pass all the required server exams, then take Win7 to meet client need, or Sec+ to meet electives).

Given that people will still be obtaining MCSE 2003 for the next year+, I still see it as worth adding to the list. I can understand not adding retired/expired/unattainable certs, since the point is ultimately to help people pick what to get, not act as a history lesson. But again, these certs are not expired, retired, or unattainable. I could see removing them in Q4 2013.

Slowhand

The first suggestion that comes to mind is to break down any question that has multiple aspects to it, (such as the "Hard to Achieve" one,) into individual questions. I can give you a couple of other things that may be worthwhile to include, in addition to what you already have on the site:

Amount of pre-requisite knowledge required
Overall difficulty of exam(s)
How up-to-date are you kept? (CE units, re-certification, upgrades?)
Availability of self-study material
Availability of classroom or video training
Availability of other resources, (TechNet, Cisco DocWiki, TE, etc.)
Cost to build home/work lab
Overall cost of test(s)
Is it a common cert? (How many others have it as well?)
How sought-after is it in job-searches? (This will vary by geographical area, but should average out if enough people vote)

-
It's definitely a project worth supporting, I'd love to see the site grow into something as big and influential as, oh I don't know, perhaps TechExams itself.

Keep up the good work, I look forward to re-casting my votes for any questions you may add or change and to put some stars next to new certs I earn.