The Plain Truth about IT Certifications
18 August 2006Nothing, but plain truth.
1. IT Certification is one of the biggest trends in IT industry. Every IT professional should consider certification in the career plan.
2. IT certifications are either vendor sponsored or vendor neutral. Unlike college degrees, certifications will expire. Re-certifying is required in order to keep your certification status.
3. Software vendors and training companies gain the most benefits from certification. IT professionals use certification to keep competitive advantage.
4. Each certification exam costs at least $100. You can take a exam at any Prometric Testing Center. Most exams are multiple choice questions.
5. A certification is recognition of a certain level of achievement and knowledge. It cannot prove your working experience.
6. Even without any actual experience, you can become paper certified by merely studying exam preparation materials and pass the exam. Paper certification does have certain value in the job market.
7. Certification is one way of acquiring the skills and knowledge needed by IT Professionals. If you certify you’ll end up knowing more about the certified field than you did when you started.
8. With certifications, it is not the more the better. It is good enough to have couple of them in relevance. Holding too many certifications can only confuse hiring managers instead of impressing them.
9. Certifications won’t help you much salary-wise in your current job. It could give you certain advantages in job changing.
10. Not all technology jobs require certifications. Some jobs, especially those involving networking technologies, often require certification.
11. IT Certifications are not created equal. You only need to certify with a product that has major market share and on the upswing. Certifications from leading IT vendors and respected organizations usually have higher marketability.
12. Training courses can help you earn certifications, but they are very expensive. You can prepare certification exams by self-study. There are a lot self training books and exam preparation materials to help you.
13. Online resources are available to help you for all sorts of certification needs. Although you can take advantage of these free study guides and tutorials, you could spend less time and pass in one shot by using simulation question based preparation guides. This type of guides are sold online for about $30. Some of them are amazingly close to the real questions.
14. It is a mistake if you go for a certification without any knowledge of what it entails and how it fits into your career plan.
15. Certification is no guarantee of career success. Certification on a particular product or field does not guarantee a job.
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