Do you think good developers should have lots of certificates?

Question

When hiring a developer, some HR departments sort received CV's by the number of enclosed certificates from Microsoft, Oracle, e.t.c. And this way they miss a skilled developer sometimes, because they just invite certified people only for the interview. Do you think this is enough reason to sign up for a certain certificate? Personally I prefer to prove my skills writing good code, but maybe this is wrong thinking?

Answer 1

There are as many ways of sifting CVs as there are recruiters.

In my experience it's my work history that has got me interviews and my interviews that have got me jobs.

Having certificates doesn't hurt, but don't wait for a certificate before applying for a job!

Answer 2

I would say that experience is much better than the number of qualification the developer has.

To further my point, please read the Fizz Buzz Problem.

Answer 3

Some companies will send employees on courses, others do in-house training (or lack of it). I don't think it proves anything for programming type skills, but for more knowledge-based areas like network management and server configuration, I can see it being of some use.

Answer 4

I agree, I think this is wrong and quite short-sighted on the part of the recruiter. Some really good developers don't have certification for any number of reasons. The applicants should be looked at on the merit of their previous achievements and CV itself.

Certification proves nothing apart from that the applicant can read and revise from a book. Not everyone has the time or money to spend on certification when they are busy on real work.

Answer 5

A high number of certificates != a skilled developer. Exams and test show how you know how to pass and exam or a test.

Experience on a cv also can count for nothing if the potential employee has learned nothing from their time spent in the field.

Answer 6

No, certificates don't make a good developer.

I'm sure there are many great developers who have numerous certificates, but I certainly wouldn't discount someone before the interview stage if they can't produce x certificate.

Answer 7

If you're a good developper certificates won't make you better, and the contrary is more true.
Then it all depends where you want to work, if you want that job in a high profile company then perhaps certificates are the way to go. But when you end up being the 100 developper in team writing the Exit function for the main menu, aren't your developping skills begin wasted?

Answer 8

I think what's matter is how you read a CV. Someone could care about certificates, someone else not.

Personally, I don't, in my opinion they don't proove too much.

A good developer's CV will just get out of the stack "automatically". If you are good, your CV will speak by itself.

Answer 9

Experience is more important than certification in my view. If someone has no or little experience then certificates could be useful as an indication of whether they know their stuff, but someone who's been out there doing it in the real world for a few years is likely to be a safer bet than someone who has a piece of paper.

Personally, I have no certifications, and I don't think I'd want to work for the kind of employer that would discount me based just on what bits of paper I hold anyway.

Answer 10

While all of these answers are valid... I think it all depends on the type of job you want (i.e. the industry you want to work in). For games I think experience far outweighs crappy certs... however if you're aiming for CitiBank only ever go in armed to the teeth with every conceivable acronym!

Answer 11

The point I think really is that HR departments sometimes aren't really that good at assessing one's skills and so certifications are something they can use as a factor in weeding through the pile of resumes that they may receive. In and of themselves, certificates don't indicate anything more than the fact that you took the time to study for a test or to attend some course(s) and then got an indication of successfully passing them. It doesn't mean you are necessarily a good fit for the work or that company.

In a competitive situation, it may mean that someone who doesn't have your skills will get put in one stack instead of you because he or she got the XYZ certification and you didn't. The result is you might not get through that company's first gate. But, hopefully a place where you'd actually want to work would have an HR department (assuming they have one) that is more than a check-a-box department and actually looks for other indicators on the CV. If they don't, that might be an indicator of the corporate environment and the likelihood of your being happy working there.

Just my two cents.

Answer 12

I think it's okay.

Generally, a company wherein certification is a way of sorting skill means that the general population of developers in that company are good in answering exams and browsing braindumps, and following "best practice" recommendations from mainstream vendors without flinching.

I am not sure if I want to work in such a work environment.

Answer 13

Sorting CVs doesn't help judge developers.
A good set of phone screening questions will let you find out whether or not the candidate is worth interviewing within about ten minutes. As amusing as turning fizzbuzz into golf is (groan) you need to find out whether or not the person can code and whether they have the sorts of skills you are looking for. Most of the certifications (no offense to intended to those who have paid for, er, studied for them) seem to be memory games that don't demonstrate problem solving or actually learning useful techniques.
I have found the five essential phone screen questions posted by Steve Yegge really useful when preparing for interviewing candidates and I think the way they answer questions about coding, problem solving, and whatever else are really important skills for your team (OO, finite state machines... whatever it is ask about it!) is vastly more important than what bits of paper they possess.

Answer 14

Short term, you need to go with what you've got.

Long term, make sure that next time you have more.

It's great if you are a talented programmer. It's even better if you are a talented programmer with some qualifications.

Answer 15

"Do you think good developers should have lots of certificates?" No. But I think rich developer should got more certificates because HR and many our clients love it.if programmers have more certificates he/she will get more money even he/she cannot write hello world or anything.