ACSP(10.5)
Citrix XenServer
CCNA shortly along with a Juniper cert…Taking the certified pen testing specialist course in a few weeks also.
Honestly I am not a huge fan of certs but work pays for them and gives raises after you pass.
none
screw certs
BS Computer Science > Certs
I am :tif: on the degrees
Only ones I’ve ever held. Not that I’m IT…
Hopefully get A+ (for the fuck of it), CCNA, MCSE, maybe a few more.
Never cared too much for certs(since I do minimal networking), but I have a BS and MS, and working on my Ph.D. If I get bored sometime, I will start doing certs.
I’ve got:
A+
Net+
some MCP stuff
some ACE stuff
might be a few more I’m missing… they’re just icing on top of the B.S.
right now I’m working on lean six sigma stuff…
don’t want to be a dick, because I am sure you are very good at what you do, but the things you learn with a Computer Science degree are way above the certifications that you get.
+1. So many people I know in the IT field who make well into 6 figures a year who don’t have any and are all self taught.
As for me, I don’t even count my A+, Net+, Server+ as “certs” and my college degree.( which I didn’t learn shit and graduated 1st in my class with a 4.0 with minimal effort )
Our new VP is pro certification so right now working on getting CCNA and MCSE certified.
I know a lot of people who got out of college with a computer science degree and hit the real world…can’t program for shit…skill set is way behind the times…
The only thing the degree shows is some ability to learn…
90% of all college programs are wayyy behind the times.
I wasn’t really interested in turning this into a debate about certs vs college…neither is going to hurt you…but they don’t make you anything special either.
I was interested to see if anyone had any really obscure certs…
a cake without icing is ugly, a cake made of only icing doesn’t taste good…
from a higher perspective looking down - it’s nice (sometimes required) to say to a prospective customer (say the US govt, GM, staples etc) that when they call for support they get somebody with an industry cert.
It doesn’t make you an expert, but it guarantees a minimum level of knowledge.
School is where one can learn the basics of any skill, and then adapt them to the real world situation. I learned Java in 2000, and when I cooped I had to learn a completely new language, and then when I graduated, they did everything in ASP at the job I landed. Once you learn the basics of OOP, or just the basic concepts and terminology you learn in college (or the work force, doesn’t matter where you learn them), you can adapt them to a life-long career.
Its true though, it does help to get a degree from a good school, if you are going that route. Pay raises are usually more though from degrees than certs, so if its a money issue, do both! Even a masters in IT or CS is pretty easy, so you could totally do both that and a cert while working.
90% of the “IT Professionals” that I know, are complete wastes of space.
The same thing you say about degrees, can be said 10-fold about “certified” IT Idiots.
IMO, in order to be a truely good in this field, you have to have in-depth knowledge of computers, not just know how to configure some stupid server applications.
That is all a certification is, the knowledge to configure a piece of software.
word. Getting a degree is all about understanding concepts. The real world is where you apply the concepts.
I actually do not work with ANY Computer Science graduates, and people are always amazed at how I can learn systems so fast. It is easy when you have a solid background.
I’ll say it again, a cert is not for you or your employer, it’s for the companies that your company does business with.
I guess your understandings on certs is limited to MCSE, A+ and so on?
Look into…
CCIE
JNCIE-ER
CISSP
Degrees also come into play…I know when you bid on government contracts they like to see all your employees have degrees…
The ironic part of that is very few people I worked with in DC had degrees yet the company had the contracts for the Pentagon datacenter and the DoDs SAN and a few other projects.
I do not fully agree.
Perhaps, maybe I should clarify my stance, because I think that I sort of came out attacking the idea of certifications, which I shouldn’t have done.
IMO, A degree should come first always. Just my opinion, and it is highly biased.
However, I do believe that certifications have their place. There are certainly some great certs out there. MCSE, CCNA, RHCE are the biggest that come to my mind. If you take them seriously, they give you a great foundation on which to build to become an expert. you will need experience to truely master anything in the IT field though.
Also, some Certifications are just plain BS
I completely agree with this…
IT is weird because I have met people with no certs that and don’t have a degree who clear 175k+