
Google offers certificate to help IT career growth - jonas_kgomo
https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/grow-with-google/new-certificate-help-people-grow-careers
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tombert
I don't mean to come off as dismissive, but as someone who has a bunch of
these company-sponsored certificates, does any employer (outside of the one
issuing it) care at all about these certs?

I have a few from EdX, something from W3Schools, and something from RedHat
that I still put on my resume for some indiscernible reason, but having asked
interviewers about it after being hired, they don't appear to have been of any
direct practical use.

I'm not saying you shouldn't learn all the stuff required for the certificate,
but at the same time, I think it's naive to think that putting it on a resume
is going to be much direct help.

~~~
jsight
I suspect that they help in getting past the prescreening filters in HR
departments. I'm not sure that they do much beyond that, though.

~~~
commandlinefan
I’ve never seen any evidence of this happening in real life, but here on HN
(and on Slashdot back when I read it) it’s common to see people insist that
they would never hire anybody who _had_ any sort of certification. The
reasoning usually goes something like “everybody I’ve met who had that
certification was an idiot, so I can extrapolate that everybody who has it is
also an idiot”.

Of course, there are people here who say the same about college degrees, too.

~~~
perl4ever
I was long ago told a story about interviewing a candidate who had on her
resume that she was a member of Mensa, and seemed to have no real
achievements, at least that she was prepared to talk about, otherwise. The
implication was that if you have your IQ certified, you're probably a loser.

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lame-robot-hoax
Does anyone want to comment their thoughts on the course contents/the syllabus
for the certification?

1\. Crash course on Python.

2\. Using Python to interact with the operating system.

3\. Introduction to Git and GitHub.

4\. Troubleshooting and debugging techniques.

5\. Configuration management and the cloud.

6\. Automating real world tasks with Python.

To me, this actually seems like a pretty dang good syllabus.

~~~
sjellis
The only one that I found questionable was item 5, because they specify
Puppet, which is a legacy server configuration system that is not particularly
great for cloud anything. Ansible or Terraform would make far more sense.

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gamblor956
I think it's quite ironic that software developers complain all the time about
assessing the skills and experience of job candidates when the whole point of
certifications is to establish a specified level of skill and experience in
the matter certified.

Many certifications are entry level, but some are not. Many certifications
just require you to sit in a room for a few hours and take a simple test, but
some certifications are strenuous, in-depth tests that require you to actually
_study_ and know the subject tested.

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dayofthedaleks
So the certificate here is a participation prize for consuming 120 hours of
paid content on Coursera at $50 a month rather than an exam-based
certification. Maybe it’s the best Python Automation seminar ever, but it
feels like Zynga is trying to take over my career development.

------
jorblumesea
I'm pretty skeptical of any IT cert after having a few really bad experiences
with "AWS certified" devs. It doesn't seem to certify competence at all. We
had a dev with tons of certs struggle to understand and setup a load balancer.

What's the point of accreditation if there's no actual expectation or
understanding of skill?

~~~
sdinsn
AWS' certifications are entry level

~~~
eropple
That's a little vague. Cloud Practitioner is entry level, and isn't worth
anything. Associate is what I'd expect out of a mid-level infrastructure
engineer, though the test is easy enough that I'd want to verify it. And the
topic-specific certs are variable (I have the Security one and I wasn't
impressed by it, but others look more interesting).

Somebody able to pass the Professional certs, however, I'd be willing to trust
somewhat; it's not an easy test and it requires some significant depth of
knowledge.

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uncle_j
Most employers don't care about your degree (at least in the UK), I doubt many
places will care about this.

I am also "Sitecore Certified". Sitecore Certified basically means your
company paid for you to sit in a room and complete a training course for a
week and do a multiple choice test which can be completed by using the Object
Explorer in Visual Studio. Does that make me knowledgeable about Sitecore?
Nope not at all.

I'd rather see a website, some scripts on github, talking through a problem
rather than a piece of paper saying you completed a course.

~~~
rchaud
> I'd rather see a website, some scripts on github, talking through a problem
> rather than a piece of paper saying you completed a course.

This is something that is feasible for someone who completes this course. If
the job descriptions specifies that a github portfolio is preferable, then I
would simply omit mention of the certification (it's free, so no big deal) and
link to the profile instead.

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thefantasma
> Among the many people who’ve enrolled in the IT certificate, 60 percent
> identify as female, Black, Latino, or veteran—backgrounds that have
> historically been underrepresented in the tech industry.

I’m probably just cynical but this seems like it’s just Google trying to pat
themselves on the back for “improving diversity”.

I’m curious how many of these IT professionals Google actually hires.

Grow with Google but still not good enough to get into Google.

If Google really wants to improve diversity, how about changing the interview
process so it’s not biased towards Ivy League grads. Most people of color
aren’t there.

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balls187
This is also on HN's front page.

[https://tomaytotomato.com/certs-waste-of-
time/](https://tomaytotomato.com/certs-waste-of-time/)

Interesting juxtaposition.

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lightedman
I wish CompTIA's A+ cert would get fixed. I know of a guy that has his A+,
works as a computer repair tech, and doesn't know that you can plug a speaker
into most motherboards to get POST Beep diagnostic codes, or how to watch a
drive activity light to see if the system is indeed posting/loading and you
might have an issue like a bad GPU if you get no display but still have a
single "GOOD" POST beep.

~~~
commandlinefan
I don’t have any computer repair certifications, but I wish I knew more of
that sort of thing myself.

~~~
zamadatix
Pick up an online copy of your/a motherboard manual. Usually not that long or
wordy but describes all of these features it has and has pictures/diagrams for
the connectors.

~~~
lightedman
Actually, you'd be surprised. Every mobo I've dealt with recently doesn't
include POST beep diag code listings. Not ASRock, not ASUS, not Gigabyte, not
MSi.

At least the motherboards tend to have screen printing that tells you which
header pins works for switches/LEDs without the need for the manual.

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OedipusRex
[https://xkcd.com/927/](https://xkcd.com/927/)

~~~
RandomGuyDTB
Not sure this applies here. This certificate isn't mean to be a one-size-fits-
all, it's just to affirm that the holder knows Python and Git.

