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Ask HN: How important it is to have certificates? For example AWS, Azure, etc.?

5 points by firstSpeaker 5y ago

oenetan 5y ago
IT/Security - important Devops - less so important Coding/programming - useless, just have example code like a github portfolio with your work instead.
- firstSpeaker 5y ago
  Thank you. What do you think about things related to Project Management Professional (PMP) and the like?
  - oenetan 5y ago
    I don't know much about that, but a quick Google/Duckduckgo search reveals that over 1 million people have the certification, meaning it must be important in some way. Honestly, I see "old guard" companies be the strictest about certs/formal education. If you are going to work at a startup or newer company they might care less about these things
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
Depends on where you’re at in your career. If you’re a junior with little or no real-world experience, certificates can fill in gaps in your resume. We can’t always get the experience we want or need right away, so courses and certificates are one way to fill they gap and provide some proof. If you’re 10 years deep into a career and trying to change into something cloud-related without prior experience, getting a certificate or two might help you open up more job opportunities. It probably won’t get you lead jobs, but it can help keep your resume from being disqualified before the tech screen. On the other hand, if you’ve already got years of experience doing cloud work in the real world, getting certificates probably isn’t going to help much. Good real world experience is better than certificates. There are exceptions: Some old school companies rely heavily on credentials over all else, so collecting credentials and certificates can be a way to get into these companies and get ahead. It’s less common at modern, reasonable tech companies though.
- firstSpeaker 5y ago
  I am more thinking how much the recruiters look at the certificates at the initial screening. Considering that they get 100s for resume for a job they should make decision very fast and I thought maybe the whole certificate thing is a differentiator that can make a difference in being selected for a next round of resume screening or not.
  - bradknowles 5y ago
    The primary purpose for most certificates is to get past the HR droid that is filtering applications. Beyond that, I find that most certificates don’t have a lot of value. Perhaps that you’re willing to put in a certain amount of work and pain to achieve a piece of paper, maybe. There are some certificates that mean you actually know something — Netware, Cisco, etc…. Some of the AWS certificates mean something, but that’s limited to the higher level Professional certificates. The Associate level certificates mean that you’ve memorized a few buzzwords, and not much more. You need to go beyond the Associate level to get to the ones that are actually meaningful. Note that I say this as a person who recently obtained the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certificate, which is a level below the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate cert, but that will be the next one I work on. I’ll start by taking some practice tests to see where I might need some fill-in training, but then I’ll probably just launch into the actual test.
firstSpeaker 5y ago
How about PMP/PMI related certificates? Are those really being used/looked at as a value added item in someone's resume?
DataJunkie 5y ago
Working at a startup using those technologies would probably help more. It also depends on your motivation for the certificate. If it's to get a broader or deeper understanding of a set of technologies that you don't work with, they can be useful. If you're using it to check off a box for HR, you may want to work on some projects that use the more major components of these offers (for AWS: EC2, S3, etc. but not all the niche components).

5 points by firstSpeaker 5y ago

IT/Security - important Devops - less so important Coding/programming - useless, just have example code like a github portfolio with your work instead.

firstSpeaker 5y ago
Thank you. What do you think about things related to Project Management Professional (PMP) and the like?
- oenetan 5y ago
  I don't know much about that, but a quick Google/Duckduckgo search reveals that over 1 million people have the certification, meaning it must be important in some way. Honestly, I see "old guard" companies be the strictest about certs/formal education. If you are going to work at a startup or newer company they might care less about these things

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

Depends on where you’re at in your career. If you’re a junior with little or no real-world experience, certificates can fill in gaps in your resume. We can’t always get the experience we want or need right away, so courses and certificates are one way to fill they gap and provide some proof. If you’re 10 years deep into a career and trying to change into something cloud-related without prior experience, getting a certificate or two might help you open up more job opportunities. It probably won’t get you lead jobs, but it can help keep your resume from being disqualified before the tech screen. On the other hand, if you’ve already got years of experience doing cloud work in the real world, getting certificates probably isn’t going to help much. Good real world experience is better than certificates. There are exceptions: Some old school companies rely heavily on credentials over all else, so collecting credentials and certificates can be a way to get into these companies and get ahead. It’s less common at modern, reasonable tech companies though.

firstSpeaker 5y ago
I am more thinking how much the recruiters look at the certificates at the initial screening. Considering that they get 100s for resume for a job they should make decision very fast and I thought maybe the whole certificate thing is a differentiator that can make a difference in being selected for a next round of resume screening or not.
- bradknowles 5y ago
  The primary purpose for most certificates is to get past the HR droid that is filtering applications. Beyond that, I find that most certificates don’t have a lot of value. Perhaps that you’re willing to put in a certain amount of work and pain to achieve a piece of paper, maybe. There are some certificates that mean you actually know something — Netware, Cisco, etc…. Some of the AWS certificates mean something, but that’s limited to the higher level Professional certificates. The Associate level certificates mean that you’ve memorized a few buzzwords, and not much more. You need to go beyond the Associate level to get to the ones that are actually meaningful. Note that I say this as a person who recently obtained the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certificate, which is a level below the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate cert, but that will be the next one I work on. I’ll start by taking some practice tests to see where I might need some fill-in training, but then I’ll probably just launch into the actual test.

firstSpeaker 5y ago

How about PMP/PMI related certificates? Are those really being used/looked at as a value added item in someone's resume?

DataJunkie 5y ago

Working at a startup using those technologies would probably help more. It also depends on your motivation for the certificate. If it's to get a broader or deeper understanding of a set of technologies that you don't work with, they can be useful. If you're using it to check off a box for HR, you may want to work on some projects that use the more major components of these offers (for AWS: EC2, S3, etc. but not all the niche components).