Advice for Freshers – To Certificate or not to Certificate – that is the question
Discussion now is whether there is any point in getting certified. How much does a certificate help you or hurt you in your job search. Should you go after certifications or should you just focus on the learning process.
How about getting certified when you really have no knowledge in the subject matter? – You know it happens more often than we care to believe it does. We have seen plenty of people who have successfully gotten themselves certified in something like say VC++ and havent really written any VC++ program.
There are several professional certifications out there. Most of them are for IT/Software professionals. Sun Certified Java Associate , Oracle Certified Professional Java SE Programmer, Microsoft Certified Professional – the list of software certifications is a long one.
There are some non-software certifications as well – thankfully in smaller numbers
– PMI Certified Project Management Professional, ITIL Certifications, Six Sigma Certifications are some of the most famous.
These are all respectable certifications issued by institutions of repute. Now there are a slew of certifications that are not as popular or well-known. Take for instance php certifications in general. The PHP community has not, to the best of our knowledge, agreed on any particular certification in general although there is the Zend Php Certification.
So what should be your approach? Let us say you are targeting the Java platform for a job. Then by all means DO get certified if possible. The truth is that when employers scan resumes for potential candidates, they will give more importance to your experience. But for freshers, that benefit is lost. So how will you prove that you know a particular skill or language. So certifications are a huge benefit for freshers. At the same time, your certifications should give a particular image of you as a candidate. So if you already have an Oracle Certified Java certificate then you can also go for a Linux Certificate.
As a fresher, even certificates issued by training centers (if they are well known) could give you an edge over other candidate who don’t have these certificates.
Our advice is that if you are a fresher, everything that gives your resume an advantage is good for you. So getting certified is a good idea. But make it a point to learn the topic that you are getting certified on. Why? All the certificate will do is get your resume selected for an interview. On the interview, if you are questioned on the topic, you should be ready to answer confidently
Discussion now is whether there is any point in getting certified. How much does a certificate help you or hurt you in your job search. Should you go after certifications or should you just focus on the learning process.
How about getting certified when you really have no knowledge in the subject matter? – You know it happens more often than we care to believe it does. We have seen plenty of people who have successfully gotten themselves certified in something like say VC++ and havent really written any VC++ program.
There are several professional certifications out there. Most of them are for IT/Software professionals. Sun Certified Java Associate , Oracle Certified Professional Java SE Programmer, Microsoft Certified Professional – the list of software certifications is a long one.
There are some non-software certifications as well – thankfully in smaller numbers
– PMI Certified Project Management Professional, ITIL Certifications, Six Sigma Certifications are some of the most famous.
These are all respectable certifications issued by institutions of repute. Now there are a slew of certifications that are not as popular or well-known. Take for instance php certifications in general. The PHP community has not, to the best of our knowledge, agreed on any particular certification in general although there is the Zend Php Certification.
So what should be your approach? Let us say you are targeting the Java platform for a job. Then by all means DO get certified if possible. The truth is that when employers scan resumes for potential candidates, they will give more importance to your experience. But for freshers, that benefit is lost. So how will you prove that you know a particular skill or language. So certifications are a huge benefit for freshers. At the same time, your certifications should give a particular image of you as a candidate. So if you already have an Oracle Certified Java certificate then you can also go for a Linux Certificate.
As a fresher, even certificates issued by training centers (if they are well known) could give you an edge over other candidate who don’t have these certificates.
Our advice is that if you are a fresher, everything that gives your resume an advantage is good for you. So getting certified is a good idea. But make it a point to learn the topic that you are getting certified on. Why? All the certificate will do is get your resume selected for an interview. On the interview, if you are questioned on the topic, you should be ready to answer confidently
