Information Technology certification
I have received several emails asking for information about Information Technology (IT) certifications. Some people asked whether they should go to special schools to get certified in particular IT technology or go to college to get a degree. One people wrote that he considered the different between amount of money and time spent for a certificate and for a degree to get a job in the industry. It seems that there are many opinions on this issue.
Answer: There is a big different between an IT certificate and an IT degree. Certificate training requires only few weeks to few months. College degree requires four years. IT certificate qualifies you for supporting job in the industry. IT degree qualifies you for variety of careers in the industry. People do not need to go to college to get a job, they have many choices depend on their own situations.
IT certifications is issued by a technology company. Its purpose is to make sure a that the certified person understands some of the functionality of that company's product. For example, Microsoft has several certifications, each focuses on a particular Microsoft product. Workers who support a Microsoft products must learn about that product than take a test to validate that they have the skill to do the job.
The problem is that each company has their own set of certification criteria and they are all different. Microsoft has its own criteria; Cisco has its own criteria, Novell has its own criteria, etc. Whatever Microsoft thinks a worker should know may be different from Cisco. If you have ever taken a Novell exam, a Microsoft exam, or a Cisco exam, you probably have been taught to answer questions on the exam the way a particular company wants you to answer the questions. Sometime, Microsoft want you to do A but Cisco want you to do B in the same situation. So if you want to get certified in a particular technology, you must go to a particular training. If you take a Novell certificate exam, you must answer the way Novell wanted. If you take the Microsoft exam, you must answer the way Microsoft wanted. For the same question, each company could have different correct answers. This is why it is very confusing to people who have taken more than one certificate from different companies.
Because certifications are issued by technology company, the company can change, update, or completely issue a new certification as often as it wants. All certificates are based on the life cycle of a product, such as an operating system or a server. Your certificate only has value when that product is being used. For example, you have paid a lot of money to learn and passed an exam to qualify for Microsoft MCSE for NT 3.5. When Microsoft changed the MCSE to NT 4.0. Everything that you learn in 3.5 is no longer valid. You have to take another class and exam to qualify for NT 4.0. When Microsoft switch to Window 2000, then you have to take more classes, more exams. Now Window 7 came out, you have to learn new things, take more exams, get more certifications to get the most-up-to-date Microsoft's qualifications.
Please consider this: Technology companies only care for their products. They want to have new product come out every few months or year so they can make more money. As the support person, you must continue to learn whatever you need to keep your job. Technology company does not care how many classes you must take or how many exams you must pass to qualify to work. If you work for a company, your manager may pay for your training to upgrade your skill. If you are looking for job, you are on your own. If you do not have the latest certificate, they do not hire you. Regardless how many years of experience that you have with the previous version. If they need a Window 7 support but you have Window Vista experience, you are not qualified.
Because certifications are issued by particular technology company, they do not prepare you to work for the entire IT domain area. You only know one technology, one specific area, and can do limited thing related to what you know. Today most companies do not use one technology but many integrated technologies. For example, a company may use Microsoft, Cisco, Novell, Oracle, Dell, HP, Unix, Linux etc. But as a Microsoft certified, you can only work in something related to what you are qualified to do, not something else.
There is another “sensitive issue” that should be mentioned. Technology company is in the business to sell their products. They are not in the business of training so they outsource it to training companies. Training companies are in the business of training. The more people they train, the more money they make. They do not want students to fail an exam and stay in class taking the place of someone new. Some “Unethical” companies often use “Tricks”, “Shortcuts”, or even give you the “Answers” that you can memorize and pass the certification exams without really know the technology well.
Few years ago, a San Jose newspaper reporter investigated this kind of training. She went to a training school, paid money and received an “Exam answer sheets” where she could memorize in few days to pass certificate exams. She passed seven Microsoft certificates then wrote in the newspaper that she was “Certified” as expert in the technology without even touch a server, or a computer. That article stirred up angers in the industry, prompted Microsoft to cancelled the contract with that particular training school and changed the paper test exams into a simulation type of exam. In my opinion, it is only a temporary solution. Many certificate exams are still poorly written, poorly organized, and not in alignment with the needs of the industry. It is still difficult to know whether a certified person know the technology well enough just based on few weeks trainings. If a person pay enough money, he could still pass many exams because certifications are issued by independent company, no one from government or special authority is overseeing the certification process. Today there are millions of “Certified” IT workers all over the world, many of them just know enough to do minimum work. That is why many IT certified workers do not receive respect from professional IT workers.
There is still debate over the need for a degree versus the need for a certification. There is no resolution. Some people believe that in few months, a certificate can help people to get a job which is better, faster, and cheaper. Other believe an education for several years can help people to get a better view, higher skills, deeper knowledge which would help them to build a career for a long time. In my opinion, they are all correct in their own view.
So it would be best to look in the local job market. Is the job market demands people with degree or certificate? What does the local IT industry need? Do most advertisements require a degree or a certificate?. How many certificates does a person need to get a job? How do we assess a person's skills and experience?
To find the answer for this, I spent several weeks looking at job advertising in several countries to identify a trend in hiring. Today the answer is a college degree is needed to work in the industry in the U.S, the UK, Western European countries, China, Japan, S. Korea which puts people with certifications at a disadvantage. I also called several friends in the industry for their opinions. One senior manager of a large software company summarized it as follow: “There are too many certified IT workers already, many do not know what they are doing. So many people cheat on certificate exams. The supply has exceed demand. There is no way to identify skilled people from unskilled people. We do not hire them anymore” A person attended certificate school told me: “I do not really knows which certificates or how many are needed to get a job. There are too many advertized by training companies that they are the best and can get you jobs but no one guarantee it.”
The best advice I can give at this point is to assess what the local job industry need then ask yourself what is best for you. Do you need a job or a career? What do I want to do next year, next ten years, and for the rest of your life?
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
