Do you want to debate the merits of IT Certifications with our offshore Architect?
The note began with Amit talking about his earliest mentor in the IT world who motivated him to look at certifications as an opportunity “.. There is a new technology, a new framework or a new product springing up every other week. It is impossible for our customers or managers to gauge how technically sound a person really is. Since we cannot do the evaluation ourselves; we, and more importantly our customers, have started relying on certifications a lot…” Amit was told: and did he take this to heart?
Amit has successfully cleared close to forty technical certifications and has three technology patent applications pending. He justifies the need for certifications by stating “nothing stops you from being good at a technology or a product and also certified on it. Bear in mind that a lack of certification can really hurt you when it comes to two equals. It is not worth taking this chance. Please do not let this pesky little hurdle come between you and your career growth.” And just to drive home the point, he adds “Einstein was lucky to not have worked in our industry, our age or with our global competition!”
I guess there is no debating this matter with Amit!
ps: List of Amit’s Certifications begins with
- Sun Certified Enterprise Architect
- Sun Certified Business Component Developer
- Sun Certified Web Component Developer
- Sun Certified Java Programmer
- IBM Certified WebSphere Specialist
- IBM Certified XML Specialist
- IBM Certified UML Specialist
- IBM Certified eBusiness Solution Designer
- IBM Certified Enterprise Connectivity Specialist
- JCert Certified Enterprise Developer
- IBM Certified WebSphere Administrator
- Certified TOGAF Practitioner
- ... etc...
Comments
Wow, 40 certifications? That's awesome and a big thing to achieve. But a person can be an expert in something without certification right?
Posted by: Deccan Journalist | July 27, 2008 01:39 PM
Sure DJ, a person "can be an expert in something without certification"... but a certification certainly helps her/him showcase his expertise (just like Amit is doing)
Posted by: Mohan Babu K | August 3, 2008 03:19 PM
Too often certifications are substituted for real knowledge and experience. I tend to be skeptical about people with certifications, especially if they have more than one or two in their primary specialty. That's just one person's opinion, though.
Posted by: Eric R Johnson | October 2, 2008 08:53 PM
To add to what Amit shared...
out here you folks are referring to the top line certifications, there is a need for the same at the bottom line as well... if corporations begin to insist on the same, we sure are on our way to build a huge "knowledge worker" pool in the near future...
Posted by: dheerajj sangyam | January 19, 2009 10:32 AM
As a person who has read Amit's opinions, I have nothing against certifications per se. If they were useless, they would have become extinct by now.
The debate is always on the importance attached to them by the appraisal mechanims.
It is very important to BE a good performer in your work. It helps if you can come up with some ways to showcase it as well. So Amit is right that certifications count when two equals are compared. That means certifications serve only as tie breakers.
But when the evaluation mechanisms are such that the absence of 'showcasing' nullifies the performance entirely, and puts the person in a lower performer category - that is when the problems begin.
Showcasing counts - but it's not the only thing that counts. The appraisal mechanisms need to reflect that as well. Not doing so would be more like the man searching for the lost ring outside in the moonlight (read 'quantifiable') rather than inside where he actually dropped it.
Useful things should be quantified. That does not imply that only quantifiable things are useful
Posted by: vijayraj kamat | April 15, 2009 06:38 AM
But personally, I am not a big fan of certification. I myself am Oracle APPS DBA & PMI certified just to show my learning skills haven't failed over the period of 12 yrs in the industry.
If companies are offering in the corporate world, they wanted to show it to the customer and sell well. So considering the consulting purpose it is o.k. but in case of unemployed who would like to learn and find opportunity... certifications are mere exploitations performed by big companies to get their education business going well in India. Take the case of Oracle or SAP, they as product people wanted developers / architects to know their products.
In fact products companies shouldn't they pay us money being expert at something created by them and we further talking to clients to sell them through consulting/
Posted by: Rajaram | June 25, 2009 01:39 PM