Comments on: Would you rather be qualified or experienced?

By: Iain Conochie

Iain Conochie — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 02:59:53 +0000

After working as a systems administrator for 10 years I do not have a single certification. I would say that for contract / consultancy work then certifications are important, but for employee level work this is not really the case.

However, this can change if you are an employee at a consultancy firm, or even a hosting firm.

They do look good on the CV, however I would take knowledge / experience over certification every day

By: Rex

Rex — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:49:24 +0000

[This is not the case with IT until you start going higher up the food chain. If you look at all the job adverts for intermediate and above positions they usually specify that you must have CCNA, MCITP etc to go along with 3-5 years experience]

In my opinion, employers have it backwards. I cannot count the number of helpdesk or desktop support positions I’ve seen requiring a CS degree and having A+ listed as a plus, not a requirement. If you cannot get an entry level job with an entry level certification, I don’t see the point of the certification. If you have the experience, the cert is supposed to be a validation; however if you can’t seem to get the experience the cert is supposed to show that you are qualified to perform at a certain level.

By: Dinesh Bahadur

Dinesh Bahadur — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 04:16:30 +0000

Hi,
I agree that certification is not show the expertise level, it only show or reflect that he have an idea on this subject. I also strongly believe that we first learn the subject than after do the certification. I worked 5 years in Red hat Linux after that I did the certification. Same I did in AIX certification also. After working 2 yrs. I did certification on AIX.

I have other question similar to that. Why companies required the degree certificate for there employees? Especially when they have more than 7 yrs. experience?