Tech Certifications Value

The cluster debates the value and effectiveness of professional certifications in the tech industry, particularly whether they demonstrate genuine skills, aid hiring, or act as red flags for recruiters preferring practical experience like projects or open source contributions.

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Comments
20
Years Active
5
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#9791
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Keywords

SysOps e.g TL CCNA RDS COMPTIA AWS LEARN CCENT ISTQB certifications certification certs certificate cert exam certified credentials resume institution

Sample Comments

manfre Jun 25, 2022 View on HN

Certifications provide a structured roadmap of self studying a technology. As a hiring manager, I give them very little consideration because passing an exam doesn't mean the person actually understands the concepts.

derwiki Jun 23, 2025 View on HN

Well it _has_, but sure you can bring the value of the certifications into question

Forbo Sep 24, 2023 View on HN

Sounds like it's time to make your own certification. :D

dodyg Sep 2, 2014 View on HN

Would you like some Certifications with that?

CyanLite2 Jun 21, 2021 View on HN

Do you work for a consultancy or internally at {Microsoft|Amazon|Google}? If not, then certs aren't for you.

borgzl Jun 18, 2024 View on HN

Cool. Do you allow some kind of certification too?

lin83 Jun 13, 2022 View on HN

Isn't that what certification is? COMPTIA etc?

gaius Dec 18, 2008 View on HN

Certifications are contra-indicative in my experience, unless you are hiring someone to take multiple-choice tests (the answers to which are all over the web on "braindump" sites). I've often interviewed candidates with lots of certifications but when asked, so when did you use this feature/language/technology "for real"?, they come up blank. And of course, people who have been there and done that don't need to bother with certificates.

mnemonik Jan 16, 2009 View on HN

Create a pet project or two, contribute to open source. These will show what you actually know, where as a certification will largely just become a way for people to game the system.

hef19898 Jun 12, 2022 View on HN

That's what certification is there for, isn't it?