Are IT Certifications worth the Hassle?

[Music] one of my favorite things about running a YouTube channel and creating content for you guys is reading your comments and even though I'm not able to respond to each and every single one of them individually I always try to read them and one of the common slash questions that's been coming up quite a bit is you guys are very interested in certifications and at first I you know I didn't really understand why all of a sudden I've been getting a lot of comments about this but it dawned on me it's back-to-school time so I'm sure a lot of you guys are settling into your university or school or whatever it is and certifications you know that's just something that's been on your mind and I thought it'd be cool for me to make a video about this to try to help you guys since there does seem to be interest now I don't want to clickbait you guys and make you wait for an entire video to get me to answer the question that was asked in the title of the video do certifications matter and the answer is yes they definitely do matter now I certainly hope you'll watch the rest of the video because I'm going to give you my opinions on why I feel that way but first of all you know the obvious question is you know why am I qualified to talk about this you know I obviously I have a Linux channel that's the majority of what I talk about but I don't really talk about my personal life or my career very often so you guys may not know this but I actually am involved in the hiring process in my company because I am a director I'm actually the director of the cloud services team for my company so I am qualified to speak about this because I am involved in the process of hiring people so I think that my feedback will be valuable to you guys coming from that perspective however that's not the only perspective I'm going to use for this video because I'm also an educator so there's two perspectives about certifications you know there's the the HR / hiring manager side of things and then there's the education teacher you know instructor side of things be because if you ask in a college instructor do certifications matter you'll get one answer you ask a hiring manager you'll get something else in fact you know no to hiring managers will probably agree on it either but I'm gonna give you guys both perspectives that I think will probably help you make the decision is an IT certification worth getting in 2019 or whatever year it happens to be that you're watching this video because I teach Ainge is and this you know this concept doesn't so first of all I'm going to wear my IT director hat in this part of the video and I'm going to tell you guys my thoughts about Linux certification basically IT certification in general how it applies to the workforce at least here in the United States because I'm qualified to speak on that again I am involved in the process of hiring so that's where this is coming from so do certifications matter when it comes to your career when it comes to your current job or getting a new job and unfortunately the answer is it depends on who you're interviewing with some interviewers or hiring managers they hate certifications because to them it just means that somebody can take a test someone's ability to take a test does not determine their ability to do the job so some hiring managers just basically right off certifications as useless right then and there whereas other hiring managers feel like there's a lot of value and it actually does matter so unfortunately I can't tell you that you know all hiring managers like certifications all hiring managers don't like them or any percentage one way or the other because you know we're all different but what it all comes down to is you know your portfolio the bigger your portfolio the more marketable you are as an employee now that portfolio could include a handful of certifications it could include a master's degree or a PhD maybe you have your github account on there and you have examples of all those scripts and configurations that you've written I mean whatever your portfolio has the more the better because that's really what matters at the end of the day in that situation a certification becomes another thing to add to your portfolio now all things considered that might help you get the job because maybe the other candidate that you're up against has a portfolio that looks exactly like yours and maybe that certification is something that's going to be a tiebreaker in your favor so it definitely makes sense to get the certifications even if yo your hiring manager or your company doesn't really see it that way I'll get into when I wear my educator hat here in a few minutes I'll give you my perspective there and why I still think it matters even if your hiring manager couldn't possibly care less now speaking of portfolio that's gonna be a big thing if you are working in any IT job I don't care what it is you could be an entry-level IT admin you definitely need a good portfolio and one of the easiest ways to do that especially if you're already in school you're already learning is put everything that you do on github make sure that the hiring manager can associate your github account to you as a candidate as a person you know if your screen name is ultimate dragon 86 that's cool but honestly that they google your name they're probably not going to find it if that's the case so I mean you could probably put a link to it on your resume or something like that if that's the case or maybe create another github account you probably want to get hub account actually that's been around a while so they don't see that you've created it two days ago that is established so basically create a github account and put all your stuff in there either link to it somewhere in your profile you know include a blurb in your resume or something so that the hiring manager can go in there and see examples of your work that's extremely important now the topic at hand though is certification so certifications do have value but again it depends on the hiring manager but definitely do get them if you're interested in learning something you definitely should get certifications and if only because that helps you learn again where that had in just a moment but the short answer is it depends on the hiring manager but regardless you know I do feel that it's worth getting certifications because if nothing else you will learn things along the way now as far as the hiring manager role of this topic goes the other factor is pay because these certification programs they will advertise you know the average person that certified makes X percent more salary per year that might be true the average person who has certifications very well might make more than the average person who isn't now it's important that you take that comment or that marketing blurb and you think about it realistically does that mean you're going to get a raise maybe but honestly if your current company if you're already working in IT it really depends on if they have an official policy that if someone has a certain certification that they get a certain pay grade and a lot of companies don't have such a policy so you might feel like you know you got this awesome certification and you deserve a raise you know are you gonna get one honestly probably not to be completely upfront with you guys you probably won't get a raise now if you work for an awesome company like I do that maybe might be considered but when it all comes down to it your pay or whatever pay you'll get all comes down to what your employer is willing to pay you if they're not willing to pay you more where it's not in the budget budget to pay you more having a certification doesn't mean you're gonna get a raise so it's important to think about that realistically if that's the only reason you're going for a certification then you might want to take another look and see whether or not that's worth it now what a certification does do is it makes you more marketable so if you're not working in IT currently but you want to get it your foot in the door having certifications could actually help you get your foot in the door and if you have at your current company you know there's a new position that's opened up maybe for example the cloud team has a No opening for somebody there and you just got an AWS certification maybe that might help you get considered for that job ultimately depends on your interviewing skills and some other factors but it could at least get the conversation started and maybe that's all you need to get that job doesn't guarantee you're gonna get it but at least it'll get that conversation started so basically yeah getting certifications it definitely does have value in the workforce it may not be exactly how they're advertising the value to be it's getting a certification isn't a magical thing where you get a 20% increase in or whatever percentage they're advertising in your pay automatically on account of having certifications they help open doors that's what certifications do from an employment perspective and if you again are not working in IT then you know your portfolio is going to really matter the more things you have in your portfolio the better but you know again it goes down to the hiring manager you could have a hiring manager that requires a master's degree and maybe you have 10 years experience and you can definitely do the job but you don't have a master's degree regardless of whether or not you can do the job that requirement they might filter you out and never have a conversation with you because if you're you know resume or your profile doesn't show that you have a master's degree and that's what they're looking for then their system is going to basically cancel you out now that same company might not care what certifications you have because they're only interested in your education other companies they couldn't possibly care less what degree you have they're looking for someone who's certified and if you have those certifications you're gonna get in the door possibly and if they want an edge a certain education then maybe you have to have that but if they don't care about the education then they care about their certifications well there you go now if you have both the degree and the certifications then you're a candidate in both situations so just keep in mind that the bigger your portfolio the better so now I'm going to switch over to where my quote-unquote educator hat and I'm going to give you the educator perspective of certifications which i think is going to be even more important now just to let you guys know I have achieved 10 certifications so I'm definitely qualified in either place to basically give you guys my advice on certifications because I've achieved ten of them all also written you know for Linux ebooks on top of that so I study the market and I'm gonna give you some opinions from the educator point of view now given the fact that I said that I have achieved 10 certifications and I don't say I hold 10 certifications is because these things expire and that's the first thing to keep in mind the more certifications you get the busier you're going to be to renew them so make sure you get the certifications that you really care about and the more certifications you get I mean you'll you could get into a situation where you have you know every year some certifications to renew and that's a lot of work so just keep that in mind now do certifications matter from the educator or education learning point of view absolutely and this is the reason why you should do it I mean obviously if you have a career goal you know go for it but the learning aspect is what's most important because when you actually you know go through the process of getting a certification the things that you learn you know it's gonna cause you to learn things that you wouldn't normally learn otherwise maybe there's some commands that you just don't need at your current job or something but you should know them in case it comes up one day maybe you know a task will come up where that command will help you you will learn so many things going through the process of getting certified while you're studying and you know because it causes you to go outside your comfort zone and explore things that you wouldn't normally explore subtopics that you normally wouldn't care about it's going to cause your knowledge level to increase dramatically now that's of course assuming you don't rush your way through it take your time absorb the knowledge read books go to you know watch training videos I have training videos watch my training videos watch another set of training videos outside on my own because I will warn you my train is not aligned to a certification program so I don't want anyone to go through my training videos thinking like they're gonna have the L pick two topics memorized I don't again I don't aligned towards any certification program but my videos will definitely help you learn it so you'll learn it and in my case every time I went to take a test or study for a certification I learned so much especially early in my career it just caused my knowledge to go up I felt so great about it that's the real value that I think people will get from a certification and in addition to that you know some colleges actually accept certifications to allow you to test out of a class or get college credit now when I went to get my master's degree my last few semesters I had an entire semester cancelled out from just my certifications causing me to graduate one entire semester sooner than I would have originally so just keep in mind depending on your school they might actually take or give you credit for though you know those certifications so keep that in mind so from an educators perspective I really think that this is the biggest thing because again you're gonna learn a lot and so don't cheat the system you know don't buy the voucher for the test and then you know memorize a brain dump and take the test you're cheating the system you're cheating yourself because the value of a certification is what you learn from it and if you don't give yourself the opportunity to learn then you know your gut you're just cheating everything everybody yourself you're cheating the the community cheapening the test learn it know it study it enjoy it the best thing to keep in mind is to enjoy it it's a lot of fun to learn something and to watch your skill set grow and your knowledge level grow it's so rewarding so take your time and enjoy it don't rush through it you'll love it I guarantee it and the longer you spend on it you know of course the longer you're gonna or the better chance you'll have at actually passing the test so you might be wondering what some good certifications are that you might consider going for I mean in my opinion you can't go wrong with AWS you know I don't cover AWS on my channe least not yet so unfortunately I don't have any videos to guide you to or point you to here on my channel at least not yet might be something I'll consider I'm not exactly sure there's plenty of people out there who already do this so I'd have an uphill battle to differentiate myself here to be completely honest with you there's a lot of great content definitely learn AWS it's a very big thing you know I recommend getting entry-level AWS second level AWS I'll pick one two and three are great I love those tests because they they're they're hard those exams are difficult so just keep that in mind you've got to know your stuff to get those to pass those exams also keep in mind the higher level you go in I'll pick you know there's one two and three there's three different levels the higher up you go the less training there is available so what that means is you know you go for your L pick one you're gonna find books training videos practice exams there's gonna be no shortage of training resources for you for L pick one you get two L pick two and the amount of training materials drastically declines to where you're down to you know maybe just a few books when I took mine there was only one book in existence for the L pick two one that was it no training videos at the time I don't know if there are right now cuz I haven't looked but at the time there's no training videos there's just one book that's it and then when I was looking into getting Ella pic 3 which I'm gonna revisit and probably get you know there was no training resources I think I did find one book it was a bit outdated but it was barely even a book it was is more like a pamphlet it may be 50 pages if that definitely not enough to learn now you get the the exam objectives from the website of any certification provider and you'll know what you got to know to learn but it's always helpful to have a training book or resources or something and they all pick three it's just it's like a desert there's just nothing there I hope it's changed since I've last you know I've last looked at it which was probably about two years ago or more this just keep that in mind the Red Hat certifications are great because they require you to actually configure a real Linux machine so I highly recommend the Red Hat certifications those are great now one trap I don't want you guys to fall into and this is actually a pet of mine in the IT career is that there's so many people out there that will be there'll be a master of one thing right I mean they could be an amazing AWS person Amazon Web Services and they could just know it backwards forwards left and right and recite anything and they could whip up a V PC and a bunch of ec2 instances like it's nobody's business and they just make it look easy because they know it so well and they're so talented in it but they just feel like you know this is the only thing I should learn because this is what everybody's using so I'm not going to learn the other stuff this is my focus that's a trap don't fall into that trap don't put all your eggs in one basket because if you are for example working at a company you know and you're this all-star AWS person you're certified in it you got all these certifications and you're not a subject matter expert what happens when the company then decides to pivot to Google cloud or something else oops you know you're gonna be in a real bind so always make sure you have a plan B have your primary fine have a plan B as well so maybe get two certifications in one maybe AWS go to the second level after you do that get at least an entry-level certification of something else so at least you can follow along with another competing technology in case you're in a situation where your company is going to change because in IT the biggest mistake you'll ever make is learning just one thing putting all your eggs in one basket you might have an amazing career at first making a ton of money you know impressing your manager the company loves you but as soon as you stop studying and you're just on that one thing and your company goes a different direction they're gonna leave you behind it's just that simple so putting all your eggs in one basket you know don't learn study everything have your primary but read blogs look at other competing technologies continue to learn things outside of your comfort zone keep yourself fresh otherwise I guarantee you'll regret it you might not regret it now maybe not in five years from now but you will definitely regret it so always keep yourself fresh so a couple tips if you're looking into a certification Linux or otherwise have no fewer than three training resources don't put all of your attention on one and be under the false impression that one training resource will prepare you for your certification it could but probably not because all of these training sites will all advertise you know something like we're your one-stop shop for everything you need to pass your exam no not really every time I've used a training resource I've always had it be the case that they forgot something or they're not quite caught up to the curriculum have three training resources so I could recommend one up-to-date book so whatever certification you want buy a book look at the reviews make sure it's got good reviews make sure its current buying a book from you know about Amazon certifications that was published two years ago a lot has changed in two years believe me make sure it's current so have a book make sure it's a good one well reviewed have a practice exam system you know dis Google practice exams make sure they are not brain dumps which means that basically it's actual questions and answers because you're cheating yourself but they'll have similar questions and answers that will help you learn definitely make sure you have a good practice exam if you can get two of them great and then one of your training resources should be a series of videos again my videos are not aligned to any certification training curriculum so do not use my videos thinking that you are going to pass the exam now I feel that my videos are awesome and they will help you learn for sure they will be a great additional thing to add to your list of training resources but my videos are not to be a primary source of resources but maybe some of the stuff that I go through in my videos might be something that another training site misses so just keep that in mind and if you're wondering in okay what sites can I go to I highly recommend Linux Academy for pretty much most of the certifications they have a ton of content they're not a sponsor I love them they have a great system I tell all my employees you know check out Linux Academy so I'm not getting paid to recommend this to you guys i i'm just recommending it because it's true they're awesome check out linux academy you won't regret it but again you know even linux academy will probably advertise that they're you know your one-stop shop probably not they could be one of your three resources but don't put your eggs in one basket for your training resources have multiple and you'll stand the best possible chance of not only learning and taking the best benefit of what you're learning but you'll also have the best best chance of passing the exam as well so i hope that was helpful for you guys i didn't really have any structure or script here and basically just talking off the top of my head because i have a lot of thoughts about certifications i wanted to get these thoughts to you guys so let me know if you guys have any questions about certifications either from the employer perspective or the educator slash learning perspective and i would be more than happy to give you guys my opinions so with that said thank you for watching and i will get some more videos edited and uploaded very soon so stay subscribed if you haven't already done so make sure you do subscribe click that like button do all the things and i'll see you in the next video thanks for checking out my video i really appreciate it if you found it useful click that like button and if you haven't already done so make sure you subscribe so you'll see the latest content as soon as it becomes available if you want to help me out there's links down below for my patreon page as well as links for purchasing my linux books and also my affiliate store which has a listing of linux compatible hardware that i've actually tested personally thanks again for watching and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: LearnLinuxTV

Views: 11,070

Keywords: Linux, LearnLinux.tv, open-source, gnu/linux, redhat, lpic, aws, certified, certification, it industry, education, i.t. certifications, information technology certifications, best it certifications, it certifications, comptia a+, i.t. certs, tech careers, i.t. career questions, certification vs degree, lpic 1, it certifications vs degree, it certifications salary, it certifications worth it, it certifications or degree, i.t certifications, i.t. career questions aws

Id: lr2SWQFNUp0

Length: 24min 31sec (1471 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 02 2019