Hot Certs in Austin
Howdy folks, this is my first time posting.
I'm slowly and stubbornly coming to the realization that in order to get a job that pays more than $10 bucks an hour, I need to get some tech certifications. I took a couple A+ practice tests and passed them all without studying so that's probably a slam dunk, but what next? MCSE? CCNA? I know I need to pick a specific cert and become the ninja guru master, but which?
Any guidance would help out a bunch.
Thanks,
Christian
Comments
If you know a tech recruiter
If you know a tech recruiter or two in the area, check in with them. Recruiters have a pretty good handle on the market; what is hot and what is not.
You could also follow job postings on any of the boards for clues as well.
Who's getting promotions or raises in your organization? Or, in these crazy times, who's being retained / not laid off. Do what they do. Get the certs they have.
Follow your interest / passion. Get certified in what you really love to do.
William W. (Woody) Williams
Project Management Consultant
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w3src Consulting
I agree with threew on
I agree with threew on looking at job postings to see what certs employers value. Frankly, for anything other than some networking, sysadmin and support jobs I don't think that certs are necessarily a good value for the job seeker's time and money. For people in software development and many other areas certs seem to have a lot less value to employers. Now, that isn't to say that if an employer will pay (or at least assist) for them that you shouldn't go for it. I'm just saying that spending the money to get and maintain them may not be a good value for everyone.
Part of the problem I think is that most of the vendor designed cert programs aren't nearly as good as they should be. There are exceptions, Cisco's seem to be well respected, as are Red Hat's and others that are modeled after Cisco's formula. Unfortunately most of them seem to be modeled after Novell (the pioneer in vendor sponsored cert programs) including MS's tend to often be criticized for being weak in measurement of practical application of knowledge. In other words what I am saying is that people can pass them too easily by "Exam Cram" type methods memorizing a lot of static information, but without developing critical field applicable problem solving skills which require identification of variations on problems and adaptation of solutions.
One of the reasons I believe many vendor programs are weak is that the vendor is motivated by profit in two ways to have as many people get the certifications as possible... First simply because they derive revenue directly from the classes, exams and training materials and secondly because they use the "x bizzillion certified monkeys" numbers as a way to market their products to businesses saying they can easily and cheaply hire anybody who can memorize and regurgitate canned answers. Of course they are also at the same time marketing to the job seeker that if you take this exam it is a short cut to making big bucks without really having to spend a lot of time getting real world experience.
Bottom line is, from the employer's side I believe some certs are more accurate predictors of skill levels than others, and from the job seeker's side I think that some are a better value than others. It is up to both sides to do their homework...