
Ask HN: Software Dev Certifications: Do They Make a Difference? - Escovado
I&#x27;m having a hard time finding work. Does having an official certification (like MySQL from Oracle or AWS from Amazon) make any difference? I have experience in these areas, but it was 5 years ago, and no one will give me the time of day. Any old clue will do.
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sloaken
Purpose of a certificate is to have a Knowledgeable Expert agree that you have
a given skill. Like a University degree, but focused on a specific topic.

Certificates are most useful when 1) your resume does not clearly show
extensive skill, 2)the person reading the resume does not know the material.

Unfortunately a lot of resumes get filtered out on keyword matches. I was once
filtered out by HR for not explicitly saying '.Net Development', verses what I
had 10 years of 'C# development'. Only found out because my friend at the
company hunted down HR to ask why I was not being interviewed. Neither HR nor
the hiring manager understood that C# was .Net.

If the job you are looking at is a shop with a lot of people with the same
skill then you do not need it as they can tell from the interview.

If it is a company with few people, or they provide your skills as a service,
then yes you do need the certs.

Is this clear? Seems like I have been rambling here a bit.

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imhoguy
I have passed a few certs, may be useful if you want to put a foot in the door
without network or land some govt/corporate contract requiring it.

But in my experience professional networking brings the best results - no
questions about certs or silly coding quizees.

Best people I know haven't done any certs. Most people I know who did
certification had not much prior experience in a subject and rarely had
ocassion later on to gain one.

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potta_coffee
From what I can tell, AWS certs are pretty good to have. I haven't had any
other certs really be useful in my career.

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Escovado
Thanks for the comments. I'm looking at the certs mainly to get my foot in the
door.

