[aklug] Re: What certifications should one have?

On Sat, 2 May 2009, Kurt Brendgard wrote:

>
> I would not be so hasty to dismiss the Microsoft certs in this economy. As much as I hate the idea, there are very few IT shops(internal or outsourced) that only deal with Linux. Everybody else almost always wants you to know something about Windows. They are good to have, and there is usually more money to be made in working on Windows than on Linux, because there are more boxes with it and it needs more maintanence. This usually tends to mean more job openings for people who are Microsft certified as apposed to Linux certified only. I don't always like reality, but reality is what it is.

While I know I'm not the prototypical employer when it comes to hiring, I
don't believe my experience is unique. In short, Microsoft certifications
are worthless. The fact is that Microsoft, in their zeal to make in another
cash cow, turned certification into a paper mill. I've had a endless number
of MS-certified jackasses interview for my positions and it takes little
time to disqualify them. Prospects with the other certs typically fare much
better.

End sum: if the company you're trying to join has the hiring and selection
process controlled entirely by HR folks (i.e., people unqualified to
evaluate your technical capabilities) MS certs may have some value. If the
selection process is heavily driven by the tech folks themselves you're not
likely to get much respect just on the basis of those certs, with the
possible exception of those pure Microsoft shops. And you won't find pure
Microsoft shops in the enterprise arena.

I've talked to several people who are on this list that have MS certs, and
they've almost unanimously agree that those certs are by far the easiest
to get. And they know far too many idiots with those certs that shouldn't
be employed.

Okay, I lied. There was nothing short about that.

> I would also recomend getting a security cert of some kind. You can start with the entry level such as Comptia's Security+ and work your way into something more advanced. A good way to go with this is the Cisco Security route if you're looking to go network admin over sys admin. It is not the most widely recognised or asked for though. That would probably fall to CISSP. Which one you aim for in the long run might be dictated by what direction your career is headed.

I might suggest that even the enterprising sysadmin look at these. Too many
sysadmins know nothing about the network they're attached to and serve.
That doesn't apply to people here (you're obviously on this list because you
have a natural geek inclination to begin with), but I'd wager that the
majority of the IT work force in this nation are clock punchers, not truely
inquisitive and curious geeks.

Getting network certs can definitely be a differentiator. And, of course,
I'm speaking from the hiring perspective. I'm a complete cert-less
hypocrite, myself. I was lucky to get where I am without them, but I can
definitely see how they would have made things easier. But that presumes
that I had a career plan (I didn't), and had the forethought to get some
formal training in all this stuff (again, I didn't). I obviously have to
learn things the hard way. Knowing that, you'd think my life would have
gotten easier by now. <G>

I admit it, I'm a little slow in areas...

> I would also recomend learning something about a database and getting a certification in it. MySQL offers one. MS SQL is probably one that has the biggest growth rate right now, but I have not seen the numbers lately so if I'm wrong, somebody point it out please.(And point me to whatever source you got it from please). It might also help demonstrating to a prospective employer that you know something about Microsoft products. One of the better paying databases in previous history is Oracle. If you can show you are adept at one, sometimes you can get hired on with the idea that you can easily and quickly come up to speed on another SQL database than the one certified for.

There's some truth to this, in as much most databases strive for some level
of ANSI SQL compliance, and to a lesser extent, ACID compliance. That said,
that doesn't necessarily mean you can get a job as an Oracle DBA with MS SQL
certs. Going the other way (an Oracle cert going for a MS SQL DBA job) is
more doable. The trick is that while many databases share a lot of the same
functionality, once you go past SQL it's all proprietary from there.
PL/SQL knowledge, etc., will help with theoretical knowledge, but offer
little specifics that apply to another RDBMS. And trickier still is the
duties of an actual DBA which are more about tuning, hardware architecture,
and so on, which are very much specific to each vendor.

> Keep in mind also that while specializing in something helps you to do a good job at it, more and more employers, especialy in this financial downturn, are looking for people with a wider range of skills. They might you to primarily work on a mail server, but your knowing a bit about how to make that brand of mail server work better with a competing brand of domain server might look more apealing than the next person who only knows that specific mail server.

Very true. As Lazarus Long said: "Specialization is for insects." We're
human, we should be more well rounded than that. And a lot of employers do
look for that.

         --Arthur Corliss
           Live Free or Die
---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
Received on Sat May 2 23:25:34 2009