List of certifications that will guaranty a Job in this economy

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Pilot, Sep 14, 2010.

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  1. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member


    1. Hysteria from 1999. Any busboy who went to a bootcamp and got his MCSE could earn a lot of money from ignorant companies. Too bad most people who think certs are the way to riches quit reading about IT employment before the bust of 2000/2001.

    2. Rapid change of the field means that the new "flavor of the month" cool tech will be on everyones mind. Employers will line up for the newest thing. Security, cloud computing, project management (PMP), etc.

    3. No standards for IT workers. You need certs to show you know the technology. Work on databases? Oh, you worked on Oracle 9? We need someone with 10 experience. Cisco switches? Just 3750's? What about Catalysts? Sorry, not the right experience. There are even instances of job requirements from employers that ask for a number of years experience in a certain technology and the years they requested were more than the technology had been release. Must have 4 years experience in MS Office 2010. If I become a Pharmacist, I can still get hired on at Walgreens even if I had not dispensed Synthroid.

    4. Some employers value certs. But you still need experience.
     
  2. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Good advise. Check indeed.com, DICE, etc.

    Many providers would love to sell you certifications. They promise jobs etc so yes its good to have some of these certs but it comes with price tag and not all of the certs are in demand.
     
  3. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member


    We've seen some posts on this board about people who had mountains of debt from getting duped by career colleges. Pay 35K to become a pastry chef and get paid $10 an hour to make pies at Perkins. They do a great disservice.

    Used to be the CompTIA A+ was a gateway to a decent job. Now its a thowaway cert.
     
  4. Pilot

    Pilot Member

    I found this top 10 list; but they are almost all IT related; it'll be good to find non technical ones as well

    "Will 2010 bring an economic recovery? No one knows for sure. The job market continues to be tight, but economists and government leaders say there are some bright prospects on the horizon that make the new year look promising. Based on industry news and uCertify’s independent market analysis, here are the top 10 certifications we recommend for 2010."

    Read on:

    Top 10 Certifications for 2010 | uCertify's learning platform
     
  5. Pilot

    Pilot Member

  6. rickyjo

    rickyjo New Member

    I don't think the A+ is a throw-away cert. Sure it won't get you much further than a computer repair shop, but isn't that a good place to start?
     
  7. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

  8. Pilot

    Pilot Member

  9. Pilot

    Pilot Member

  10. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    It's not as easy as you would think. Interpreters and translators who have all the training and experience in the world routinely fail these exams. I say this because there is a dire need in major cities for interpreters, and because even if you can't find regular employment, there are referral agencies with at least some work for everybody and the possibility of doing straight freelance or remote interpreting. For spoken languages, there are other certifications, mostly specialist interpreter certifications like medical and legal, but ATA is considered the gold standard, even to use as a credential for interpreting rather than translating.
     
  11. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    Yes. It's VERY hard to attain, much like Cisco's CCIE certification. Both will get you big bucks simply because of the difficulty of the certification including written AND hands-on troubleshooting exams in a lab environment. The pass rate of CCIE candidates on the lab portion is less than 10% the first time they attempt it. Lab exams for the CCIE cost $1400 each and you need to travel to one of two places in the US or a handful of others around the world. That doesn't cover travel and lodging. I'm sure the BCNE is similar.
     
  12. Pilot

    Pilot Member

    I see; I am a native french speaker.
    I'll look into other "easier" certifications to have a feel for it..
    Thanks
     
  13. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    That is a very nice advantage, especially if you are also a native English speaker. I would suggest that, if you did try it, that you don't take it lightly. Native speakers also fail it all the time. They judge you on nuances of language and provide feedback that very few inexperienced interpreters/translators would even understand.

    If you know the languages well, all you need to do is practice the esoteric translator skills and you should be golden. Heck, it might even be much easier for you than I am making it sound.
     
  14. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    There are no guarantees in live, except death and taxes. :eek:
     
  15. _T_

    _T_ New Member

    As someone who holds both of these, my experience has been that both are welcomed additions to a resume. However, the PMP is more widely known than the SSBB from ASQ.
     
  16. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Many AAS IT os BSIT programs today incorporate A+ and Network+ and Security+ in to their program so one graduates with AAS IT degree and number of entry level certifications. Its a plus to have A+ but it alone may not be sufficient.

    Even RN's today are running to upgrade to BSN degree because AA in Nursing RN is not landing the job. To many RN's are been produced at this time so is with the popular IT certs.

    CPA I think is always in demand, isn't it?

    PMP I think is a good cert to have especially if one is already an established professional and has experience in number of fields.

    Professional = Education + Training + Experience.
     
  17. Beagle412

    Beagle412 New Member

    As many others have already posted, IT certs are intended to provide some level of benchmarking for knowledge in a particular subject area. Note that I did not competence. In the last 15 years, we in IT have seen many certs come and go. They tend to follow the latest IT buzzwords and trends in IT spending - right now virtualization (Citrix, VMWare, Microsoft Hyper-V) and security (CISSP, CISA, GSEC, etc.) certs are hot as those are the areas of operating budgets that are seeing allocations and earmarks.

    The Indeed and job search engine searches for certs is an excellent method of seeing what the job market is REALLY looking for, what they're paying, where the jobs are, and most importantly what other skills and experience you need to be a competitive candidate.

    At least in IT, certifications are often not worth more than the paper they're printed on if you can't back up the conceptual knowledge and ability to retain information and regurgitate it on an exam with: 1) hands-on, practical, technical experience and expertise 2) the knowledge and experience to relate the knowledge conferred by the certification to your immediate roles and responsibilities and to other/related technologies, infrastructure, and components.

    To that point, the A+ certification, while it is a basic IT cert, is absolutely still a perfectly good, fundamental certification to kick off an IT career, or validate one's ability to maintain and troubleshoot hardware.

    So many certs (not all) that follow the current industry trends tend to get "watered down" or devalued as more and more folks acquire the certification, and particularly if they do not require continuing training or education to maintain and/or require a practical knowledge exam to obtain. Caveat Emptor. I'll take a crack at a short list of IT certs that are still worth pursuing (and which all have good numbers of postings on Indeed.com searches, not to mention pay pretty darn well):

    1. MCITP: Unlike the MCSE, which historically got devalued by a lot of "paper MCSE's" obtaining the cert through 1-week bootcamps and having never even seen a server, this one has been re-vamped and is going to be valuable as companies will be forced in the direction of x64 platforms and Windows Server 2008 R2 as the platform for Exchange, SQL, etc.

    2. Network + / Security +, A+ : They're vendor-neutral and show that you know the basics. Very good for those changing careers into IT from another field, or those just starting out. They are sometimes required for advancement or for advanced vendor-specific roles (e.g if you want to be a Dell, HP, or IBM support engineer, etc. these may be required prior to getting the DCSE, HP certs, etc.)

    3. CISSP: Some argue it's more of a generalist security degree and that it's getting diluted with a lot of CISSP's being awarded now, but the fact remains that it's a difficult exam, it has a prior experience requirement, and also requires letters of recommendation and validation of experience. It's still a valuable degree and definitely in demand now and for the forseeable future.

    4. PMP: Again, a difficult cert to obtain, requiring several hundred hours of experience in project management, but it's definitely worth the effort if you have any interest in moving into the PM field, particularly in IT. It's pretty much a requirement for any IT PM roles.

    5. Virtualization: It's here to stay, and more companies are requiring certs to validate knowledge in what has become a relatively new area of expertise in the ever-fragmenting world of IT. VMWare's VCP is a good one - requires practical knowledge, and as of right now, VMWare is by far the market leader in server virtualization. Citrix and Microsoft are close competitors, particularly in the desktop virtualization space, where I think Citrix CCA or CCEA certs are going to be pretty hot as more companies look to virtualize to save money through consolidation and optimization efficiency.
     
  18. Godwulfe

    Godwulfe New Member

    I think it's important to remember that NO certification will GUARANTEE you a job.
    At this point the only thing the cert means is that your resume will make it past the keyword filter the HR depts are using.

    As for the PMP specifically, the luster is wearing off as employers are realizing that having a PMP doesn't make you a good PM, it simply means you know the processes and terms. Plus, there are roughly 350k PMP's worldwide, with the vast majority of those in the US. You can do the math for open positions.

    If you're a PM already then you will probably need a PMP as most Hr depts just automatically list it (there are other, and imo, better PM certifications.) If you're not a PM but want one just as a resume booster then there's no harm there either. If however, you're looking at the PMP for a career change and to 'break into' project management you're wasting your time (and money.)
     
  19. dfreybur

    dfreybur New Member

    It's largely because in IT the certs are run by the vendors and there are a lot of vendors. Compare with the other certifications:

    Medical boards, CPA, Professional Engineer, Law. All maintained by the states working with the professional societies.

    Compare a license for medicine, accounting, civil engineering or the bar against any IT certification and see how it works. From the vendor perspective the incentive is to have more workers in their field. From the professional society perspective the incentive is to have better workers in the field.

    There's been recent discussion that the glut of law degrees and thus folks passing the bar means a JD is no longer a ticket to high paying work. There might be a similar trend in medicine fueled by immigration but I suspect that has a better limit.

    I have not seen complaints by licensed PEs being unable to find work while I have heard that from plenty of unlicensed (or vendor certified) engineers of various sorts.

    I don't know enough about the accounting field but I think they have employment more like PEs than like JDs.
     
  20. Lindagerr

    Lindagerr New Member

    Nothing is gauranteed in the current market

    You did not mention pay, but in NJ having a substitute teacher cert is the new thing it doesn't pay much $70-$150 a day and no promise of day to day work. I have found most school districts are desperate for good reliable subs.

    On the other hand my husband with many years of experience including PM took a PMP course and a Quality Management course from Rutgers Graduate school online he did excellent, but the exam is like $600 and he hasn't seen any interest in him taking it. 16 months out of work he keeps coming in second best.

    Sometimes I wonder if you just have to be the right age to get a job these days. I got an absolutly glowing letter of reference from the superintendant of the school district that turned me down for a temp job.

    I know more people out of a job who are either under 30 or over 45 if you are in between there seems to be a better chance. So if you can pass for those ages try not to give your real age away.
     

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