Which one gives you more advantages: Microsoft or SUN/Oracle certification?

Question

Which one gives you more advantages: Microsoft or SUN/Oracle certification? If you don't mind, please relate your answer to your career (dev, sys-admin, dba), industry (finance, general consulting, business apps, software house), and location (where you live, does it influence your decision?) as well.

One reason I asked this because I heard that having MCP (in C#, MCSAD or whatever the cert is called these days) could give you extra point from the employer perspective if they're a Microsoft Partner. I don't quite understand why and am also wondering if SUN/Oracle certificate holder have similar edge/benefit.

I'm also interested to know if Certification plays role where you live. For example: certification could be a big negative sign in Silicon Valley, but might be helpful if you're in other US/Canada cities or outside USA/Canada.

If you are an independent software consultant, do these certification helps you win bids?

I totally understand that this question might be subjective and could be "closed". But it doesn't hurt to ask I suppose. I also understand that there are people who dislike/disagree (or have negative perspective on technology certification).

While there are people who have the opinion that "these are not the kind of employers you would want to work with", I respect you guys, but sometime a pure software product company might not exist in certain cities in the world. And if certification can help one's career somewhere else, I guess that means more opportunities right?

I've had experienced in both platforms: (short) .NET and (not too long) Java (minus Oracle DB stuff), but I think it's about time I have to pick one of them and be good at. Where I live right now might also dictates my career albeit insignificant. Anyhow, this last paragraph is just tiny blurb.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I got my SCJP certification about 9 years ago. I don't feel like it ever did a lick of anything for me. Never had a potential employer mention it, never seen anyone say they are looking for people with any certifications. It's pretty easy to get a feel for how well someone can code during the interview process that these certifications don't seem very meaningful to me. But that's just my take.

Answer 2

Here is my informal perspective, as someone who has neither certification but who does interviews.

When I interview, I check for skill and fit. It doesn't matter if the person has an official certification, a Ph.D., or just a bachelor's. There's a uniform screening test, and later there are personal interviews to determine coding skills and fit. I don't think that any form of education can replace experience and coding aptitude. If you fail a code test, tough luck... I failed my share (and passed another share) and my degree or background didn't matter. Each organization have different expectations from their engineers.

Where certification and education play a role is in whether you actually get to that interview. Certifications, I suppose, are useful for passing the filter by HR. Especially if you are applying to a very large company that does a lot of business or consulting, or in a small company that doesn't have a clear screening procedure, it might be useful if you do not have a CS degree. It might also be useful for certain government IT jobs or defense contractors when an official certification is important. In the long run, however, as you have experience and past jobs, I don't think anyone would really care about the certification that you hold.

Answer 3

One reason I asked this because I heard that having MCP (in C#, MCSAD or whatever the cert is called these days) could give you extra point from the employer perspective if they're a Microsoft Partner. I don't quite understand why

That one can actually be answered:

The reason is that Microsoft partners need a certain amount of employees with certain certification levels so that the partner can get into higher partnership levels with Microsoft. So if a MS Partner is missing people with the correct qualifications and you have those they likely will have a positive effect on your evaluation.