Which certifications are worthwhile and useful on a resume?

Question

As a web developer with zero formal training, my resume relies entirely on the "experience" portion. But I'd like to get some accreditation in the languages and skills I'm good at. And more than that, I want some feedback to know that I'm actually learning these things properly.

So, what are good certifications for your standard web developer/designer's skill set? (XHTML, CSS, AJAX, PHP, MySQL, Rails, Apache, SEO, Google Analytics/AdSense, Photoshop, etc)

And more importantly, will the value they add to my career/knowledge/ego outweigh the cost of taking the exam? For instance, I know Zend certification can be around $500 to take the exam, but will it be worth it in the long run?

Answer 1

Certifications are basically useless on a resume as far as I'm concerned. I'm much more interested in what you've done, what you're interested in, how you work, how you relate to others, whether you can learn, ...

You might earn certifications in the process of picking up knowledge, but if you know your stuff, the cert isn't important.

Answer 2

just my opinion: experience with language X and hearing about the business benefits of projects that you did with language X is important; certification in language X just tells me that you took a test on it, not that you know how to use it to help my business or my clients' businesses

caveat: i have certificates in a few languages [employer insisted/provided] but i don't list them on my resume

Answer 3

Outside of a very select few certs (those from Cisco and Red Hat pop to mind), they seem to be incredibly overrated.

If your employer wants to provide for training and certification to comply with some audit (SOX, etc) requirement, then I would go for it.

In my experience of dealing with most of the folks I've met who are "certified", they've simply prooved they had the money for the test, and crammed enough to pass.

Answer 4

I'd get involved with open source projects. Or read more books and blogs. Or write more books and blogs. All of these things are likely to add more to your true value than taking exams, in my view. If an employer values someone with a "learn some facts" qualification above someone who's been rocking the community, do you really want to work with them in the first place?

I'd add one exception to this: a good CS degree is likely to be genuinely useful, at least if you want a job doing more than "yet another line of business app".

Answer 5

I agree that studying for a certification exam will help you sharpen your skillset. It will force to you study how to do things you've never done in your language.

One of the challenges I've had is that your certification becomes obsolete so quickly. You get certified in version 1, and the next year there's version 2 (.Net, anyone?), and you're stuck on an endless treadmill of trying to keep your certification current.

I have also noticed over the past few years that there are a growing number of noobs and offshore people who cram for the exam and can pass it, but they really can't do the work. IMO, this has devalued the certifications.

Answer 6

Depends on the country, really. In the UK you really want to have the certificates because they will help you with the recruiting agency. In some other countries they are worthless (you could see that attitude from the other replies to that question).

For the list of skills you mention I could not think of any good certification authority. You may consider Brainbench. Not only will you have a certificate, their tests are actually quite a good indication of your real knowledge as well :)

Answer 7

As a technical interviewer for a consulting company, I see resume's all the time. By the time I see a resume from a recruiter, certifications are meaningless. However, I do know they hold weight with the tech recruiters. I would say their only real value is in bubbling your resume a little higher in the stack, and making it more likely you'll get an interview. But that's it. Essentially it will only help get your foot in the door.

After that point, when I'm actually interviewing you, you better know your stuff. I'm going to ask technical questions that I'd expect someone with a particular certification to know (whether you're certified or not). I'm going to ask not just "what you did", but "how you did it". All of those things will be asked whether you have a certification or not, and your certification won't sway me if you answer poorly. In fact, instead of cutting you slack, it will just make me think lesser of the certificiation standards than I already do.

Answer 8

I've personally screened over a thousand developers over the years, performed hundreds of interviews, and hired a good number of developers.

I consider certifications to be NTH (Nice to Have). It doesn't affect my decision making process either way. It can, however, make a candidate go over the top towards recommendation for hire.

Not as important as degree, ability to answer technical questions, direct experience, and of course ability to interact with humans as well as machines.

Answer 9

I had a colleague/friend who said that he got his Certs (Sun/Java and some others) just for his own edification. He said when he puts them on his resume it's only for that extra criteria someone might look at. i.e. the employer gets down to 2 or 3 people seemingly equal experience/interview skills, the added value of the certs might come in handy at that point.

Answer 10

Certifications can help you get your foot in the door. Other than that, it really falls on if you can apply your skills to your work. For example, I wasn't hired by a firm because I didn't have a certification in A+ (hardware), but I was hired by another firm doing hardware tech and support, plus application and web programming. I was able to demonstrate my skills and that was sufficient. Also, certifications usually require courses and some people are extremely book smart and pass the certification with flying colors; however they aren't as good at the book/coursework as they are in the field.

So it is really up to you if you want to spend the money to get the certifications. Even if you do get them, someone without certification could get the job over you.

Answer 11

As near as I can tell, Certs only help you get your foot a little further in the door, and not much else. (Like others have mentioned, mostly they just prove you could afford a test.)

My basic policy has been to never bother getting one - unless my employer is willing to foot the bill, in which case I'll go for it, because at that point, why not?

Answer 12

I agree pretty much with the other posters. A certification can help your resume rise a bit in the stack, especially if you actually have relevant experience in that area.

Certainly certs are the kind of thing HR managers like, so if your potential employer makes the mistake of letting HR do the first screen of resumes then a certification can get you past that step.

Once you get to the interview one of two things will apply:

1) The hiring manager doesn't really need that skill, so he or she won't really care about your certification.

2) The hiring manager really does need the skill for which you are certified. In that case you'd better be able to handle the technical interview well, or you'll be rejected as a poser.

Bottom line: Don't just buy a bunch of certifications, if you want certification get it in something you really use and are good at.

Answer 13

I worked with a (senior) developer who insisted on putting all of his certifications in his e-mail signature

"Joe Bloggs MCSE MCSD MCSA " and some Oracle and Cisco stuff I think, I can't remember now.

I'm pretty sure he was a smart guy, but he made himself look pretty daft doing that. He was working alongside people with PhDs and other advanced degrees, and with vast amounts of experience.

Answer 14

As someone who tried to hire people (and failed miserably at it) I can say that I fear lots of certification and little work experience. People like this often think practical, real life problems can always be solved by someting they saw on their certification book or something which was a part of their certification exam.

I was like that 7 years ago.

For me what counts more is experience in different jobs / solutions, past projects size descriptions and clients as well as (if I am lucky) some kind of public space / programming blog.

And, of course, the guy must behave extremely well in the interview, answer coding problems properly and show th right atitude (when faced with strange questions / problems)

Answer 15

I'm a .NET developer (as my sign in name shows), and you didn't mention that in your opening post so I won't comment on what the best certification is/the most worthwhile.

I have 4 certs and I am about to take my 5th. My opinion:

-Certs are good as they increase your confidence in a certain tech/in your overall ability to develop. -They also increase your employer's confidence in you, although your employer may still think they aren't all that useful. -They cover the syllabus well. Eg my next exam will be SQL Server which I know some complex stuff on but not all the basics. Doing this exam will give me the right grounding by teaching me all the basics first and then the complex stuff.

But I agree, they test your memory more than your logic. You're filling in the blanks rather than anything else, you're not actually solving anything so you're not improving in any way other than working on your memory so in the future you might know the right method to use from the definitions of what the method does because you learnt it in the exam. But coding is much more than this.

This is why I am looking at tests which are vendor neutral and they tend to actually involve problem solving rather than filling in the gaps.

Good luck with what you decide to do.