

Ask HN: Hiring managers, Do you take online certifications seriously? - PennyWhistle

I&#x27;ve been thinking about taking a data science course for a while to compliment my DB chops but I was just wondering how much weight do these certs pull with actual hiring managers?
======
steffan
I don't consider them to be much of an influence.

If you can gain something from the course, take it for the knowledge. Don't
expect it to make much difference with most employers.

Some legacy businesses may place more weight on certifications and courses,
but I always look for relevant experience and demonstrated skills over pretty
much anything on paper.

If you are strictly trying to make an impression on hiring managers, your time
would be better spent creating a project or becoming involved with an open-
source project that would allow you to demonstrate your skills and gain
relevant experience with that domain.

~~~
PennyWhistle
that is interesting. How can I find an open source project to contribute to
that is actually open to beginners?

~~~
trcollinson
There are a lot of open source projects that are open to any help at all, as
long as it conforms to at least a few best practice guidelines. For an
example, take a look at jquery's policy: [http://contribute.jquery.org/open-
source/](http://contribute.jquery.org/open-source/). They are very open and
inviting for people to contribute.

I would suggest finding an open source tool or application you use often and
finding their project (most likely on Github). Take a look at bug reports and
issues. See if you can help out with these. Maybe they are just usage mistakes
("I can't get this thing to work right!!" "Oh, have you tried to click the
button which does that? Here's a screenshot."). As you go through issues
you'll find real bugs and some won't be terribly hard to fix. Jump in and fix
it, then submit a pull request to have it merged into the project. The project
will either accept the pull request or comment on it if they feel you a) need
to add more to it or b) didn't actually solve the problem. You can then learn
from their advice and soon you'll be far from a beginner.

Getting started in open source can seem daunting but really it's fun and not
nearly as hard as it might seem.

~~~
hobs
100 times this. I want to state for the whole world (even though this thread
is a bit dead) that Paul Irish is a really nice dude and the barriers to entry
to help are tiny in jquery.

I remember one day just showing up in #jquery on freenode and complaining
about some spam on their wiki. 10 minutes of talking later it was "Well, do
you want the keys to the kingdom to maintain it?"

I think a big reason jquery was adopted so heavily was not just the tool being
useful, but the attitude and the community around it.

------
codeonfire
Certs may act against you at interview time. If you get a data science cert
and put it on your resume, then the interviewer may start asking you related
"i'm smarter than you" questions about it regardless of whether it has
anything to do with the job.

OTOH, Certs may help you at hiring time. If the company is on the fence and is
questioning you skills in a particular area, then the cert may be the thing
that pushes you over.

One way to play it is to not put it on your resume. If you find out during the
interview that the job fits your certs well, send a thank you email explaining
that you'll throw in some bonus certs (but wait there's more!) for free and
your cert training fits well. This way you delay their knowledge of your
training until the person possibly has bought into the idea of hiring you and
needs to convince other people.

Certs as a learning tool, I think are great as long as they don't cost a lot.
They give you something to feel good about and an excuse to spend all that
effort learning the material.

------
gesman
Specify Certification but do not emphasize that it's "online". Accent on well-
known brand names and respected buzzwords.

------
mrits
I can't afford to hire the people that I want.

