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I haven’t seen the Azure or GCP certs as a strong hiring signal. The AWS associate certs are similarly low signal, anyone with some skill at multiple choice ca

by ranman 5y ago

I haven’t seen the Azure or GCP certs as a strong hiring signal. The AWS associate certs are similarly low signal, anyone with some skill at multiple choice can pass those. The AWS professional certs and AWS specialty certs (big data, ml, networking) are all a solid hiring signal, to me. You can’t pass those exams without handson experience. Memorization isn’t enough. The networking cert in particular has a lot of content that most struggle with in the cloud.

brodouevencode 5y ago
You allude to an underlying point. Think about what the role of the cert serves. - To learn: maybe you're employed somewhere and you're adopting technology X going forward. This is usually helpful with little to no experience on the content. - To be employed: you want to change jobs and this will make you more marketable. It's usually helpful to acquire certs from the bigger players like AWS, Java, ITIL, many of the CompTIA certs. - To satisfy a personal desire: just cuz. There are certification "collectors". Usually folks whose employers will pay for certs.
bradknowles 5y ago
I can only speak for the AWS certs I’ve seen. The associate certs don’t mean a lot. They are a low speed bump. But they are also the first step on the ladder to the more impressive ones. At the very least, they are an indicator that you’re willing to put up with some pain to start down the path towards something that might actually be useful. But to pass, you have to know the official “right” answers, and not necessarily the answers that would actually be correct and useful in the real world. The professional certs do seem to require some real experience and work to achieve. Historically, most certs haven’t been worth the paper they were printed on. But there were some that were actually an indicator that the person actually knew something useful, like Netware or Cisco certs. As for myself, after 30+ years in the business, I finally broke down and actually got a cert. It’s just an AWS CCP, which I could have gotten in my sleep. But I consider this to be the first step on my path to the professional certs.

by ranman 5y ago

brodouevencode 5y ago

You allude to an underlying point. Think about what the role of the cert serves. - To learn: maybe you're employed somewhere and you're adopting technology X going forward. This is usually helpful with little to no experience on the content. - To be employed: you want to change jobs and this will make you more marketable. It's usually helpful to acquire certs from the bigger players like AWS, Java, ITIL, many of the CompTIA certs. - To satisfy a personal desire: just cuz. There are certification "collectors". Usually folks whose employers will pay for certs.

bradknowles 5y ago

I can only speak for the AWS certs I’ve seen. The associate certs don’t mean a lot. They are a low speed bump. But they are also the first step on the ladder to the more impressive ones. At the very least, they are an indicator that you’re willing to put up with some pain to start down the path towards something that might actually be useful. But to pass, you have to know the official “right” answers, and not necessarily the answers that would actually be correct and useful in the real world. The professional certs do seem to require some real experience and work to achieve. Historically, most certs haven’t been worth the paper they were printed on. But there were some that were actually an indicator that the person actually knew something useful, like Netware or Cisco certs. As for myself, after 30+ years in the business, I finally broke down and actually got a cert. It’s just an AWS CCP, which I could have gotten in my sleep. But I consider this to be the first step on my path to the professional certs.