Ask HN: Would passing certification exams boost my resume? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would passing certification exams boost my resume?

10 pointsonecooldev249 comments

I don't have a collage degree, but I am confident that I could pass the AWS certification exam. Is it a good idea to try and attempt these exams. How do recruiters view these types of qualifications?

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Having a certification can help in some rare cases, but it is by no means necessary. For reference I have never taken an AWS certification exam in my life, but my career so far has taken me from college dropout, to working at a startup that was interested in migrating to AWS, to working as a senior developer, then a backend system architect and team lead, and finally I ended up with a position working at AWS (on the EC2 Container Service team).

It's not about the credentials as much as it is about how well you can explain what you know in an interview. Any decent company would rather hire the person who is fluent and well spoken about what they know about AWS over the person who has a certification but lacks the communication skills. So the best way to get hired is to practice explaining (and whiteboard diagramming) what you know about AWS, and also detailing why what you know can be really helpful to a company's business. That will give you much more of an advantage than a certification will.

I have applied to 50 companies and have received zero interview calls.

To be honest you are better off not applying to companies and instead building out a LinkedIn by doing open source projects and consulting.

If you do this you will get a nonstop stream of company recruiters contacting you. On the other hand if you reach out to a company you are seen as less desirable (because all the most desirable devs are assumed to be hard to get). You have much less of a chance of getting a job when you apply, versus when they apply to you.

An AWS certification will be of most benefit if you're interested in working for a consulting company or MSP that specializes in AWS work. After that it may help you get through the HR screen at larger companies, but that may be counteracted by your lack of a college degree. With that said, there are some tech degrees that are worth the time and can open doors or increase salary. The Red Hat certifications do provide value for system administrators/devops as they're known to be difficult and a good test of linux knowledge. If you're interested in security, I've seen a fair number of positions asking for a CISPP cert. If you want to work in project/product management the PMP does significantly increase earnings. You'll also find that Cisco or Windows certs are valued if you're going to specialize in those systems. Those are the only certificates I've seen companies ask for or value. Every other tech cert seems to be a nice to have and provides minimal value. If you're interested in the certification go for it, but don't expect it to open many doors.

Cert only opens the first HR door but after that, you have to learn real work and it's up to you how fast you learn the new job work.

I'd face the same issue when I'd applied for 1st job (at startup/small WordPress company) and HR does not reply next 1-2 days, So I was thinking to scan that company website and found some security issue so download the DB take some important screenshot and sent to CEO and next couple of hours get a call from CEO :)

After that 2nd job, I'd again found security issue and direct email to the 2nd company CEO. The issue is in INDIA, HR needs Cert/Degree more than what you are qualified for real work.

So in India without cert/degree HR directly rejects you as they don't understand what AWS/Security etc.

No degree, no certs here. I take that back, one expired cert from years ago. I meant to renew it, but that was a few years ago.

It gets you in the door when you have no other in, but not too far. If you go work for a bozo shop, they'll put more weight behind a current cert. However, if you get hired, do what you can to not rely on certification alone. Your peers will smell the bullshit, even if management outwardly loves your certification.

Well if you want to have recruiters attention and to have your resume look "populated" it might be a good idea, but the one who is deciding if you will get a job, or how high your salary will be, usually doesn't care about certifications. Your best weapons are your references and skills.

You don't want to work anywhere where certifications are valued that much to the point that simply having a cert gets you hired. It's an extremely bad reflection of the management and technical staff there.

Aim for a certification that allows the company to have discount/be partner of a bigger one. Something like <vendor> certified sales architect looks good!

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