I have done my share of interviewing people and I don't care about their certifications. So to mitigate this barrier, make sure you have the requested certifications for the jobs you'd like to have. Of course some good guy might be filtered out, but if there are enough people 'Good Enough', then losing a better guy does not weigh against making the hiring process more efficient. They have received some keywords (of which certification levels are often a big part) to filter on. As Hansang already pointed out, there is a large HR-force at the gate of each big company that need to sift through lots of applications.When you want to be an instructor for a certain vendor, you also need certification.Having the certificates can help to get a job at these companies. So basically this means your employer needs you to certify. When working for a distributor/reseller, the Vendors demand certain levels of certification before doing business or before giving discounts.Personally I see a few reasons for certification: As a manager, you have to be able to separate the 'phonies' from a real candidate.Ī real technical interview and a weed-out written test is the only way to do this, IMHO.Īs a professional, I have had to pass some certification exams for the companies that I worked for. I once told someone 'just because you've been doing it for 10 years doesn't mean you've been doing it right!' So I realize longevity doesn't always equal experience. In larger enterprises, there is an army of HR people who screen candidates based solely on key words. But experience with certification is better! Also, if it can you past the HR gatekeepers, it may be worth it.

To me, experience always trumps certification. The only one that I really studied for and was proud of was my CCIE. I got them because it helped my reseller and not necessarily because it helped me. I have just about all the certifications that exist in TI (CCIE, Novell, Microsoft, Sniffer, and even CNX). However, if I have two equal candidates (equal in presentation skills etc.) I choose the one with more certification. As a hiring manager, I can tell you that I always hire the person with more experience.

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