When I started in the commercial world of IT, I was lucky. Back then, experience counted more than certifications, education, and actual training. Most IT professionals were self-trained or had a base amount of education with the rest filled in on their own. I was trained in IT in the Navy and had several years’ experience by the time I got out, so getting jobs was never a problem. At that time, most interviews were conducted by HR and a technical person, who would question you on your experience and knowledge, and they could tell if you actually had the experience you claimed.
http://www.cc-sd.edu/blog/the-great-debate-education-vs-experience
As time passed, I noticed more of a focus on certifications, and more interviews were conducted solely by a HR rep. Certifications became your foot in the door, but you still had to perform. There was a high level of suspicion reserved for certified people with little experience - We called them “paper techs.” They would buy a study guide, pass a test, and were suddenly declared an expert in a system on which they had no experience. This would usually show up pretty quickly, and they would either move on or would be paired with someone with actual experience to learn the ropes. More recently, certifications have implemented hands-on portions of the test that help to weed out those individuals just trying to pass from a guide. This forces you to have actual working experience with a system before you are granted expert status.
For a long time, I didn’t pay much attention to certifications. I had twelve or fourteen years in the field by that time and was getting by on the fact that I had a lot of experience. Then I was turned down for a job I was interviewing for simply because I didn’t have the proper certifications. In the Navy, I had obtained a MCSE in Windows NT 3.5 but had not bothered to update anything since. The strange thing is that I really wasn’t that interested in the job or the certs until I was denied. I quickly updated my certs to Windows 2000, then 2003 and so on; I have also gained several other certs in various technologies, so this is no longer an issue. I will agree that certifications are at least a fair indicator that a person has a base level of knowledge in their particular field. One thing I don’t really trust is the “cert grabber,” like a Windows guy that has a Linux Red Hat engineer and a Cisco cert, with a Solaris cert thrown in for good measure. Pick a discipline and focus on it - There is nothing wrong with being well rounded, but a jack of all trades is a master of none.
http://www.avidtr.com/Job-Seekers/Industry-Articles/Work-Experience-vs--Certifications---What-Do-Emplo.aspx
Lately I have seen the trend shift from experience and certs to formal education. Most job postings now have a four year degree minimum but can be offset with enough actual experience. The majority of the IT professionals I know now are chasing a degree, and with the focus on a BA or BS, most are going to the Master’s degree level (like me) just to try and stay ahead of the game. So if you have a good mixture of experience and certs and education, you have a better chance of filling in more of the HR person’s check boxes, getting an interview, and walking in through the door… Once in, though, you still have to prove yourself every time.
http://virtualizedgeek.com/2013/09/09/vendor-certification-vs-college-degree/
It does make me feel sorry for the guys trying to break into the IT field now. How would you get started? At one time I would have said, “Go get a basic cert.” The A+ used to equate to about six months in the field. Now I guess I would say the same, but I would also advise getting into at least a two year program and building as much experience as possible. In my opinion, formal education is more of a path for career advancement and progression to managerial levels. But as the IT field develops more and more specialties, the certifications become increasingly important – especially those in the areas of risk, project management, and security.
http://www.cio.com/slideshow/detail/130807/18-Hot-IT-Certifications-for-2014
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