Tech certification questions?

Snow.bros · June 2013

Scenario: You are a tech already employed and working in the IT field with the required level of experience and all your certs happen to expire, now will that affect your current job in any sort of way, are you going to get fired, can you get a job with your expired certs and how important is it to upgrade your certs compared to your level of experience.

Any opinions, views or comments are very much welcomed please!!!

ajs1976 · June 2013

Depends on the job. If the company is a reseller and required to maintain a certain number of certified individuals and losing your cert affects the companies profitability then you could get fired. I would think that all of that should be made clear before it happens.

instant000 · June 2013

Your Scenario:
Employed, experienced, certs expired

Your Questions:
1. How expired certs affect current job
-- retention/advancement - this may not matter that much, unless you're in an organization PE, which might care more about this type of thing

2. How do expired certs affect future job opportunities?
-- getting jobs with no certs - In the United States, it would be significantly harder. Also, the jobs that would be available with no certifications generally pay less -- a lot less. That is, unless you're in a line of work where certs don't matter. However, I suspect that you're in the type of career field where certifications do matter (or else you would not have asked this question).

3. How important is it to upgrade certs?
-- versus experience level - Very important. You may find your pay capped artificially low due to not having credentials commensurate with your experience level. This is purely anecdotal. If you can do the job, you can do the job.
-- in general - Keep in mind that certifications are enough to get you "acquainted". After that point, it is on you to dig deeper, and know more than is required for the test.

In summation, if you don't care about having more advancement opportunities, it is no big deal. Be warned that you may see yourself passed over for less-experienced candidates who've worked harder at their "portfolio".

I mentioned the PE organization earlier, so this is as good a place as any to provide the story of four organizations that you will be a part of.

Organization CE - Childhood Enjoyment (i.e., younger years of life)
Organization CE - Comfortable Escape (i.e., Retirement)
Organization P - Pitiful
Organization PE - Performance Excellence

If the organization P does not recognize achievements for promotion or advancement opportunities, then you should leave for greener pastures.

If it is in an organization PE that recognizes achievements for promotions or advancement opportunities, then you should get as much as you can out of it. In some cases, you will find yourself creating the PE on your own.

I started my career by leaving my CE (childhood) and joining an outstanding PE organization (U.S. Army). I have been hopping from P to P ever since. I'm looking for a PE so I can eventually get to a CE and do more volunteer work.

Seriously, I've been learning MPLS for my entire life and didn't even know it! (Either that, or living out my very own Quantum Leap!)

Dr. Sam Beckett wrote:

Oh Boy!

Hope this makes sense.

Snow.bros · June 2013

ajs1976 wrote: »

Depends on the job. If the company is a reseller and required to maintain a certain number of certified individuals and losing your cert affects the companies profitability then you could get fired. I would think that all of that should be made clear before it happens.

Our company is a reseller and what you saying is true, we are encouraged and required to get up to speed with our certifications and the company pays for our certifications. I was just asking for future reference.

Thanks for your advise

Snow.bros · June 2013

instant000 wrote: »

3. How important is it to upgrade certs?
-- versus experience level - Very important. You may find your pay capped artificially low due to not having credentials commensurate with your experience level. This is purely anecdotal. If you can do the job, you can do the job.
-- in general - Keep in mind that certifications are enough to get you "acquainted". After that point, it is on you to dig deeper, and know more than is required for the test.

In summation, if you don't care about having more advancement opportunities, it is no big deal. Be warned that you may see yourself passed over for less-experienced candidates who've worked harder at their "portfolio".

according to my understanding certs can help on your career advancement, experience is needed for knowledge of the job but experience without the required certs for the job at some companies is a set back on your career.

instant000 wrote: »

Hope this makes sense

Thanks, it makes perfect sense no one could have explained it better than you. Just have a quick question though.

instant000 wrote: »

I mentioned the PE organization earlier, so this is as good a place as any to provide the story of four organizations that you will be a part of.

Organization CE - Childhood Enjoyment (i.e., younger years of life)
Organization CE - Comfortable Escape (i.e., Retirement)
Organization P - Pitiful
Organization PE - Performance Excellence

Is this the pecking order for different types of organizations in the IT industry?

instant000 wrote: »

I started my career by leaving my CE (childhood) and joining an outstanding PE organization (U.S. Army). I have been hopping from P to P ever since. I'm looking for a PE so I can eventually get to a CE and do more volunteer work.

Good luck on joining PE organization and hope you join soon. It's a positive idea you planning.

JasonIT · June 2013

FWIW, in my current job, if our certs expire, we have six months to get them renewed to keep our job. No one has let them expire so I am not sure if they would follow through or not.

Best to keep them up to date anyway, could always end up looking/needing another job.

J

blargoe · June 2013

Unless getting and maintaining certifications is part of your job requirements with said company, you are not going to get fired for not maintaining certifications, and having relevant experience will be the most important thing in landing a new job (though adding recent certifications to that would help).

bigdogz · June 2013

Snow.bros:

I agree with instant000.
In addition, if you like your current position then you should at the very least obtain the certifications for the type of job you have or you are looking for in the future.
This could be considered a Yogi Berra axiom "In order to be prepared for the future, you better be prepared" which is to say work hard to obtain your goals now in case you need to rely on some certifications needed for a new position, or just to prove your efficiencies within your work experience and need to look for a job sometime in the future. The US market is competitive and will weed out those who do not keep up in the industry.

In order to stay updated in this field you should obtain certifications and update your credentials. It makes you look motivated and updated in your skillset. The CompTia certifications use the CE program in which case you need to keep up to date doing various things such as: Listening to podcasts, reading books, watching webinars, and attending seminars.

Good Luck!

gkca · June 2013

This leads to the question of ROI or to put it simply which certs are worth renewing or even acquiring in the first place.

Snow.bros · June 2013

Thanks for your advise guys.

You could say certificates are representation of your skills and competence especially when you are in a competitive environment

Tech certification questions?

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