When too Many Certifications Start to Hurt You

At what point does having a certain amount of certifications begin to hurt you, if at all? I've heard from my current employer that you dont want "alphabet soup" on your resume as it makes you look like a test taker rather than a do'er. Thoughts?

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proprioceptive

It's not a matter of how many certifications you have on your resume so much as it's a matter of how many certifications you have that APPLY TO THE JOB for which you're applying. Sooooo many people completely lose sight of practicality when they're trying to look "impressive".

SephStorm

Quite right. I only list the certs that are most relevant to the position i'm applying for, no matter how many I have.

Doyen

proprioceptive wrote: »

It's not a matter of how many certifications you have on your resume so much as it's a matter of how many certifications you have that APPLY TO THE JOB for which you're applying. Sooooo many people completely lose sight of practicality when they're trying to look "impressive".

That is an interesting perspective and I have seen people lose focus when they are studying for certifications that don't need. Then again, they could be studying for the job they want.

WilliamK99

You have to cater your resume to suit the job you are applying for...If I am applying for a Project Management position , I may mention some of my SANS certs in my resume and of course my PMP, but if I am applying for a pen test job, I mention my high level certs related to that job...To me, becoming certified and actually KNOWING the material is what keeps me on my toes...That that go stagnant will not have as many opportunities as those who continually try to improve themselves..

srabiee

I've never heard of such a thing. As professionals begin obtaining high level certs (MCSE for example), they generally tend to remove the low level certs from their resumes (such as the CompTIA stuff, MTA's, etc)

This is a non-issue, because you can easily tailor your resume as necessary. In other words, as you grow and morph as a professional, so does your resume.

netsysllc

You can put or omit anything you want on your resume. Many people start out with A+ and Net+ but once they progress in their career they might leave them off as they probably have more advanced certs such as MCSA or CCNA. Some certs are built from lower ones, the MCSE takes 5 certificates to complete and you would not list them individually in most cases. Having a bunch of certs and no experience is the biggest issue. Many people have to cross into multiple subject domains in their career so multiple certs is not a bad thing.

bigdogz

This may be more true in the past compared to today. Most exams including the new Network+ and Security+ require some tasks that have to be performed at a command line or diagramed out.

This depends on multiple factors such as:
What you want to do in IT and where you are currently in your career:
This could be a Desktop Admin, Network Admin, VM Admin, Server Admin, or a Web Developer as some examples. Each requires or prefers different certifications (depending on HR or company that you are currently working for or for future employment). If you are in networking, you may want to climb to a CCNP.
In IT, if you work with operating systems, you should also be familiar with virtualization and SAN's.
If you start off in a help desk role, you may need Net+, Linux+, MCSA, or CCENT. When you move up in your job, the requirements may change to CCNA, MCSE, RHCE, LPIC II.
As time goes on you may just drop the lower level certifications and just show the higher level certs on your resume.

A great deal of people respect those who have obtained their CCIE and CISSP as it takes a great deal to get there.
A CCIE has worked his/her way up from the CCNP and then the CCIE labs that can be brutal. Ar there some CCIE's out there that don't know how to apply the technology or know everything? Not too many but sure. This gets weeded out when I put an engineer in a sand boxed lab and say perform task A.

Where you work:
Working as a MSP requires that I have a great deal of knowledge in different areas. As such, my certifications show my employer that I am willing to learn new technologies and environments. My employer can also show our future customers that they have proven/certifiable knowledge in areas of Virtualization, Networking, Operating Systems, Firewalls, etc. . It also helps my employer that as a reseller/partner we obtain better discounts on products such as routers, switches, firewalls, SAN's, Operating Systems, etc.

Education:
As others have stated on this board applying certifications when applying to college. Colleges will use CIW, CompTia, Microsoft, and Cisco certifications in lieu of you taking the classes needed that would require you to obtain the credits otherwise.

Maintaining credentials:
When folks have to maintain any SANS, Ec_Council, (ISC)2, ISACA, or other certs, they need to maintain their CEH, CISSP, GSEC, etc. by obtaining x amount of CPE's/ECE's, EU's per year. For the CISSP, 40 CPE's are required per year. 1 CPE = 1hour. This can be EXPENSIVE as heck!!! By going to a class the person gets the 40 CPE's and learn something, update a skill set at the same time.

Personal gratification:
Some folks like to work on constantly learning. Something as a necessity in IT.
People would like to have the certification to prove to themselves that they know the material.

I hope this helps.

xenodamus

You should always tailor your resume for every job you apply for. When you follow that guidance, it doesn't matter what certs you hold...only what you list.

markulous

I can't really see having too many certs hurt you. Either their entry-mid level and it only takes a month or two to study for them, or their high-level and have experience requirements that you fulfill. Granted, I've had people tell me that they think certs are worthless, but that seems to be the exception rather than the rule (and a bit ignorant).

That being said, I try to cut out all of the fat on my resume so I don't list out every single cert. For instance, I doubt I would ever list the CIW Web Developer cert because that's not at all the field I'm trying to get into and I don't want to do that work.

pinkydapimp

Too many cant hurt you. But i could see how as a hiring manager if you run into folks with a ton of Certs but cant explain simple concepts relating to those certs, you would be weary of folks with a ton of them. So as the consensus says, list only the relevant ones and be prepared to answer questions related to your cert so that you arent perceived as someone who just memorizes study questions but knows nothing.

6502

I leave off my old ones and ones like Hyper-V that aren't relevant to the job I want. I'm planning on leaving off my CCNP because I don't get exposed to that stuff daily. When I finally do get a job in that realm, I'll add it back in. Although I'm considering re-adding my NT4 Server MCP because retro is cool!

Danielm7

6502 wrote: »

Although I'm considering re-adding my NT4 Server MCP because retro is cool!

I was thinking about that the other day, but not putting it in my current certs, I had an MCSE in NT4. Like maybe adding it to my first job somehow, maybe it'll set off a keyword search without being a spammy fake listing, hah.

jibbajabba

I never removed any, but it did bite me in the butt in the past where it may have gotten me the job, but for the wrong reason. Because I had "other skills" where I ended up working mostly with ..

For example .. I apply for VMware roles but I also have MCITPs in 2008 / Exchange and the lot ..

Guess what - I was doing more Windows / Exchange support than VMware ... as Vmware Guy ...

pinkydapimp

Danielm7 wrote: »

I was thinking about that the other day, but not putting it in my current certs, I had an MCSE in NT4. Like maybe adding it to my first job somehow, maybe it'll set off a keyword search without being a spammy fake listing, hah.

that may show your age though which may or may not be beneficial.

Danielm7

Well, considering the job was in early 2000 and the cert was from 99 it's not really too much of a reveal. I started young enough that I'm not super concerned about it.

daviddws

Danielm7 wrote: »

Well, considering the job was in early 2000 and the cert was from 99 it's not really too much of a reveal. I started young enough that I'm not super concerned about it.

I would probably mention the MCSE but wouldnt put NT with it. If you were ever asked about it you could tell them its in NT, but that you are currently testing for a new one. Also I would not include any dates. Another option is to list it at the bottom of your resume with a bunch of keywords. For example on my resume at the bottom I have the following.

TECHNICAL SKILLS & APPLICATIONS

APPLICATIONS: Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Visio, Project, Visual Studio 2012, Adobe Premium CS5. CRM: Salesforce, Clarify, Remedy ENTERPRISE: MCSA Enterprise Certified, Server 2008/2003,Active Directory, Group Policies, Permissions, DHCP, Directory/Print Services, Domain, IIS, Data Recovery/ Backup, MCP Certified, Ghost Imaging, Hypervisor (Hyper-V, VMware, Oracle Virtual Box) SECURITY: Security+ Certified, McAfee Endpoint Encryption, HIPS, NIPS, Auditing, Certificates, Multifactor Authentication, ACAS, Retina, and IAVM STIG Compliance. NETWORK: Network+ Certified, Routers, Switches, Hubs, Cabling, CAT5, Layer 2, 3 troubleshooting OPERATING SYSTEMS: Windows7 Certified, Win8/7/Vista/XP, Linux+ Certified, Unix/Linux (Red hat/Ubuntu), And Mac OSX. HARDWARE: A+ Certified Building/Compiling/Configuring/Installing Workstations and Servers. SCRIPTING: PowerShell, Ds query, Batch, and SQL querying.

emerald_octane

I know a guy that has server 2000 certs displayed at the top of his resume.

But hey it's better than not having enough. If I had a dollar for every resume that has "CISSP in progress" I would be RICH.
That or expired Cisco certificates.

Armitron77

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum and wanted to know if there were Tech Notes for the CompTIA A+ Certification 220-801 and 220-802 exams. I do know there are Tech Notes for CompTIA A+ 700 series exams but I do not see any for the 800 series. If the tech notes are available, may someone lead me to them? Thanks. Armitron77

Adam B

So just tailoring your resume to the job solves that problem, fair enough. I only have my CCNA but I have heard of people getting rejected because they are overqualified ect, which I'm guessing means that they dont want to hire someone who will leave very soon because they are ahead of the game. Correct me if I'm wrong

markulous

Adam B wrote: »

So just tailoring your resume to the job solves that problem, fair enough. I only have my CCNA but I have heard of people getting rejected because they are overqualified ect, which I'm guessing means that they dont want to hire someone who will leave very soon because they are ahead of the game. Correct me if I'm wrong

Depends on the organization. If it's a good company with lots of opportunities then the manager would be more like "Wow this guy looks great, lets get him in here and he will be able to move quick." If it's a dead-end company then it's different, but you probably wouldn't want that job anyway unless it's your first IT job.

philz1982

Adam B wrote: »

At what point does having a certain amount of certifications begin to hurt you, if at all? I've heard from my current employer that you dont want "alphabet soup" on your resume as it makes you look like a test taker rather than a do'er. Thoughts?

I don't know, if you are in a role as a 100% travel consulting solutions architect focused on Fortune 100 companies and you have an alphabet soup, I'd say you qualify as a do'er and a test taker....