ces's Journal: IT Certifications?

Are any of them worth a bucket of warm spit?

More to the point are there any more likely to make you call a candidate in for an interview if you spot the certification on a resume?

Yes, provided it's relevant

[WillAffleckUW]

Depends on how many people apply and if I know them.

But in general better to have them than not.

Useful if you're short on experience, too.

Psychological studies on the decision process ...

[tomhudson]

They show that people reach a decision, then use externals (in this case, perhaps the IT cert) as justification, either when asked, or to justify their decision to themselves. That's one reason why we make decisions that seem to defy conventional logic at times.

So, in and of themselves, certs are useless. If the person has made the decision for the hire, it will be on other factors, and the cert will only be used as justification. If they've decided against the hire, the cert is just as irrelevant.

Re:

[ces]

I'm not thinking so much at the "hire" stage but "who are we going to take a closer look at". The resume isn't relevant once you are talking to people in the decision loop inside the perspective employer.

I may look into getting a couple of certs:
The basic Oracle one because I think I would learn something.
The basic Cisco cert because I want to show I know something about networking even though I've not wore a NE hat in a long time.

Depends on the job

[Degrees]

Here in local government land, indeed, not having a cert caused one of my co-workers to get hired for a position below his skill level. He finished getting the cert, and as soon as a slot opened up, he got the position he ought to have in the first place.

It sucks that he is a 'peer' and has lesser seniority (more recent hire date into the job class) than the other guy at his level. The other guy is completely unmotivated and disappears for hours at a time. But if a reduction in force were to hit, the lazy

Re:

[ces]

Hmm, I'll keep that in mind as I've thought of moving to the government or academic sector. Since I don't have a degree the certs will show the box checkers I actually know something.

Re:

[Degrees]

Yes. There is a lot of frustration in those environments; but the trade-off is stability. If you can stand it, you can last until you retire. This is one of the reasons the people writing the job descriptions add the certs as a requirement - purposely trying to set the bar high. Whether the cert actually translates into someone who knows their job is a different argument....

As Echoed Above

[Shadow Wrought]

I think their biggest value is getting past the initial cut of applicants. If you don't have somethign else to set you apart, than they may be necessary just to get to the next interview.