How Important Is Certification?

Emmett Dulaney

As soon as somebody says "certification", a flood of responses usually follows. Most of the views expressed are typically along these lines:

• Is there any value in that?
• Are people still doing that?
• Isn't that for people who don't have experience?
• What's in it for me?
• That's just a piece of paper...
• Where can I find what's popular and get more information?
• Will my employer pay for it?

And on they go, with people generally falling into one of two camps -- those who think there is value in certification, and those who immediately dismiss the idea. Those in the first camp usually feel the way they do either because they hold certifications of their own, work in HR, or have been told by co-workers/acquaintances that certifications are valuable. Those who fall in the second camp never have certifications of their own, and often have many years experience on the job.

To help understand these two camps better, I want to move away from the IT field for a moment. We have a tendency to think that the profession in which we work is unlike anything else that exists or has ever come before. How can anyone else understand or appreciate what it is like to rebuild a system after a crash, to write a script that pulls out the one key piece of data hidden in reams of numbers, or to implement a security system that allows you to rest easily at night?

The truth of the matter is that there is a great parallel between the IT field and many other professions. Consider automotive repair, for example. There are mechanics who have learned everything they know through trial and error; they have little to no schooling in the trade but are naturals at what they do. Some of them have an uncanny ability to diagnose what is wrong with a vehicle and know just what to do to solve the problem quicker -- and more effectively -- than others. They can't always explain what they do in a way someone outside the field would appreciate, and they may scoff at the idea of being able to learn some of what they know through trade schools.

Working in the same profession are mechanics who have gone to trade schools or dealer training and taken certification exams through the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), for example. They may or may not have the same innate ability to fix vehicles, but they have the certifications to show they've studied the topics and are current in the profession.

Both are good to have in the field and both provide valuable services -- they can co-exist comfortably in the same vocation. On the surface, it is impossible to say that one is better than another when it comes to working on your car, and you only learn that through repeated interaction with them.

Now, imagine that you are the service manager for the local car dealership and you have an opening. Who are you going to hire? One applicant says that he has worked on cars his whole life, scoffs at certifications, and tells you he is a good mechanic. The other applicant also tells you he is a good mechanic but has numerous pieces of paper that you can frame on the wall for customers to look at. Yes, some people with papers are simply good at passing tests and might turn out to be dumber than a box of hammers, but that might be equally true of a mechanic with experience only.

The odds are that those pieces of paper make it easier to slant a hiring decision toward the certified mechanic. Not only do those papers slant it that way for someone in HR, but they have the potential to do that for customers as well. For some reason, I just feel better knowing that the person working on my brake system has been certified as a master mechanic in that specialty.

Moving away from the analogy, apply those same thoughts to IT. While you don't need a certification to do a job, it looks good to HR; it looks good to customers, and it makes you stand out a bit from those who don't have any acronyms after their name. Although a certification may not be a requirement for the job you currently have, it can be helpful in gaining customers/contracts and in helping you land a job.

What's Popular?

Having established that certifications can be beneficial, it must be pointed out that being certified in Windows 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups) will get you nowhere in the market today. If you are going to pursue a certification, it needs to be in something that is presently in demand. That said, the following is a list of six topic areas worth consideration. The list is unscientific; it is based upon the number of times the certifications appear in job postings on Monster.com -- as good a measure of market demand as can be identified:

• Security -- You can't go wrong with a security certification these days. Every business is struggling to balance the need to make resources available easily and simply against what may be perceived as an invitation for harm or an open door to liability. At the entry level, there is Security+ from CompTIA, and the possibilities go upward from there, with almost every major vendor offering some sort of security certification.
• Cisco -- In this category, there is a huge number of listings not only for engineers (CCIE), but also for administrators (CCNA) and others with Cisco certifications. Despite the fact that Internet growth has slowed, there is still a need to support what is out there, keep systems current, and be able to milk bandwidth for all it is worth. Cisco offers a security specialization (CCSP) as well as certifications in a number of other areas of expertise.
• Project Management -- This occupation existed long before IT but has become so much a part of IT today that PMP (Project Management Professional) books are now shelved in the computer section of many bookstores. Of all the topic areas listed here, this one most clearly falls under the category of "soft skills", meaning that it is not directly tied to any specific product or technology, but rather to a set of principles that needs to be mastered. Once you master those principles, they rarely date and are essentially good for life.
• Entry level -- There is always a demand for those with entry-level certifications because there are always more openings at the lower levels of any organization than the higher levels. To obtain any entry-level certification, you usually must pass one or two fairly simple tests (almost always multiple-choice) that show you understand the very basics of the topic. CompTIA has made a business of whipping out entry-level certifications with plus signs on them (A+ for hardware, Network+ for networking, Server+ for servers, and so on). While they are a very big player in this arena, they are not the only one. The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), for example, offers a very good entry-level Linux certification that is worth the paper on which it is written.
• Linux -- Numerous Linux certifications are available, ranging from engineer level (RHCE and CLE) down to the entry level. As the Internet becomes more and more dependent upon Linux as the OS running it, the need for those who know the intricacies of it increases.
• Microsoft -- While some say the engineer certification (MCSE) isn't as valued as it once was, it still crops up time and time again in job postings.

Emmett Dulaney is the author of several books on Linux, Unix, and certification. He is a former partner in Mercury Technical Solutions and can be reached at edulaney@iquest.net.