Ask HN: Are cloud certifications worth it? There's really no way to answer that question as posed. Not enough information. What do you mean by "worth it?" Wha

Ask HN: Are cloud certifications worth it? There's really no way to answer that question as posed. Not enough information. What do you mean by "worth it?" What are your goals? What's your current experience level? What companies are you looking to work for? Etc., etc. yadda, yadda. What I can say is that some companies do value certifications highly, while others do not. And which certifications are valued varies a lot, depending on what providers a given company uses. All of that said, my take on certifications has generally been "do them, if you do, for the actual learning itself first and foremost." Eg, don't just find and study brain-dumps and then go take the test to get the cert. Study the material to where you can actually pass the test based on knowledge you've internalized. Then you'll benefit from the knowledge whether or not you ever take the test, and - perhaps more importantly - regardless of how any particular employer values whatever certification you do test for (and attain). As far as employment goes, certifications may or may not help, but they'll probably very rarely hurt. If you really want to micro-optimize, look at the LinkedIn profiles of people who work for the companies that you want to work for. If lots of them list related certifications, that's a hint in favor of pursuing those certs. If not, that may be a clue in favor of the obverse. One last thought: in my experience, I've found that big, bureaucratic companies (imagine a Fortune 500 insurance company or something) tend to value this kind of stuff more, as opposed to say, a 10 person startup in SV. YMMV. HTH. OMGPONIES. WTFBBQ.