Which certifications do clients value?

Question

There have been certification-related discussions on SO before, pertaining primarily to one's own career. My question is a bit different - I'd like to know your opinion on whether or not certifications of your employees have any way of influencing whether your company gets a contract or not. Specifically, I'd like to know the following:

• Do prospective client look at certificates at all? Or is the amount of experience/projects completed the only thing we need to worry about?

• Are there any 'premier' developer certifications that do matter? For example, is it reasonable to ask to be paid more for a developer who is a Microsoft Certified Architect (we have only 3 in the country, BTW).

• Are managerial certifications worth investing into? I know that MBA is undoubtedly very powerful, but I'm talking about things like Certified Scrum Master, PMBOK, PMP and the like.

• Does MVP status matter?

My company works with the .Net stack, so by 'certifications' I mean primarily MC** ones, unless we're talking about project management certification.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Here are my thoughts

Do prospective client look at certificates at all? Or is the amount of experience/projects completed the only thing we need to worry about?

I think both matters. Past projects are usually of more importance when you introduce your company to a client. When the client wants a product to be developed in a particular platform then you can say that "we have xxx number of certified professionals with us. etc etc"

Are there any 'premier' developer certifications that do matter? For example, is it reasonable to ask to be paid more for a developer who is a Microsoft Certified Architect (we have only 3 in the country, BTW).

Yes you can ask to be paid more unless you have a very valuable certification (like the architect you mentioned). There is no point in taking a basic certification that everyone can do (MCP for excample) and ask for a pay rise ;-) I think degree or qualification helps more in pay rise than certifications

Are managerial certifications worth investing into? I know that MBA is undoubtedly very powerful, but I'm talking about things like Certified Scrum Master, PMBOK, PMP and the like.

I have heard many people saying technical + management ceritifcation is very good. But I still dont have a clear idea why? My passion is for programming and I know how to manage my projects ;-) and I dont need some one to certify that I am good in management too. I prefer upgrading my technical certifications.

Does MVP status matter?

I am an MVP (2009) and in my experience you get a little more respect than you normally get ;-) people (especially management) look into your thoughts more. also companies or atleast PMs can boast about MVPs in their team. because they know you will do more than what they expect from you.

These are my thoughts alone. Others can have different opinion.

Answer 2

Hi,

With 18 years of software development in 7 different organisations under my belt I can say that we've never found real value in skills certification neither in terms of winning business nor in hiring people.

As Shoban says, different people will have different opinions and experiences.

Chris

Answer 3

For most customers it doesn't really matters what certification you can offer since they tend to pay more attention to your record of projects and earned experience.

Anyway, probably you need to study each customer as an individual case, many of them (but just a small bunch) may have special requirements regarding the products or technologies you'll be using or deploying in they enterprise, but IMHO when it happens it's more like a perversion where a customer embraces a specific technology or vendor for its IT infrastructure/strategy (software or hardware). I can mention a couple of examples I have seen:

*There was a customer that was really committed with Microsoft technologies and they were investing a lot of money on that, because of that management preferred developers and administrators with Microsoft certifications. *There was another customer that was fully embracing RUP, and management felt the right to do was to require the architects and tech leaders to be RUP certified.

Answer 4

As a developer recruiter, I give no extra credits whatsoever to applicants with technical certifications as I am a skeptic of their value. I do value immensely, however, the college they went to. The toughest ones are my favourite as they weed out the less capable.

As for management skills acquired in the classroom, like MBAs, etc., those I do value. They help engineers perform better where they are usually not as comfortable with, dealing with people, having a strategic vision, etc.

Answer 5

On your main question:

I'd like to know your opinion on whether or not certifications of your employees have any way of influencing whether your company gets a contract or not.

In short they could do, but only under a specific set of circumstances. For example if you developed SharePoint solutions and wanted to get a contract to deliver a project for Microsoft, or on behalf of Microsoft (for one of their customers). Do you expect Microsoft to offer this work to anyone other than an organization with certified staff, or a certain level of partnership certification? Perhaps the more important thing here is that the organization is a Microsoft certified partner. However to achieve this you no doubt need to have Microsoft certified staff.

On your follow-up questions:

Do prospective client look at certificates at all? Or is the amount of experience/projects completed the only thing we need to worry about?

They may look at whether the company is a Microsoft certified partner with a specialization in the matter that they are dealing with. If they are looking for expertise they may start by searching the Partner directory that Microsoft offers. Any sensible company will look at your experience but psychologically a certified partner feels safer to someone working in a procurement department.

This will not make or break you if you are remarkable at what you do. If you are average then additional things like Microsoft certification at the partner level can help.

Are there any 'premier' developer certifications that do matter? For example, is it reasonable to ask to be paid more for a developer who is a Microsoft Certified Architect (we have only 3 in the country, BTW).

Why not but the people who have these certifications are remarkable in other ways, and deserve to be highly paid. You won't get a shot at these certifications if you don't have a lot of other attributes. This also means there are lots of better things to be doing before you get to the point of attempting these.

Are managerial certifications worth investing into? I know that MBA is undoubtedly very powerful, but I'm talking about things like Certified Scrum Master, PMBOK, PMP and the like.

An MBA is not an industry certification. Most HR people tend to treat education and certifications as separate but related things. Industry certifications are often worth having for the day that you deal with someone who isn't able to understand the depth of what you do on a daily basis (eg. anyone not working in an IT or technical capacity).

Does MVP status matter?

Perhaps. It can be used to market your company.