Getting your way around the command-line is, IMO, a great skill to have. With more and more companies using Amazon and other cloud services to host their apps knowing linux is very handy even as a developer. Most of the job listings, especially for startups do require the developer to have linux / command-line familiarity.
I definitely agree. The question I have is if it is worth paying for a verified certificate? It is $250 for the certificate and if it does not really count towards anything I would rather take the course for free and then go write a Linux certification instead.
>'The question I have is if it is worth paying for a verified certificate?'
I'd say that depends on what you want to get out of it.
I have a couple of verified certificates. I haven't had the chance to put them on a resume yet, but I fully intend to for a number of reasons. I'm already pretty well established in my career, I believe in what these programs are doing and I'm plainly proud of my accomplishment.
That said, I expect people will look at them the same way they do technology certifications or most degrees - worthless.
I understand where they're coming from as we've all encountered incompetent people with such credentials, but I think it's a bit unfair to toss these certificates in the same bin.
Reason being, these certificates have no established value.
Logically and anecdotally, people sign up for these courses because they want to learn something. If someones goal is scamming their way into a job they'd be better served by shopping at a diploma mill than slogging through an edX course.
It's an interesting problem.
How do you popularize these courses while establishing and retaining value for them - goals which are to some degree at odds with each other.
That's a nice way to frame the real question. Does this adequately signal what we've learned or are other methods like certifications required. I'm sure the people behind edx are looking to push legitimacy as strongly as possible but I believe ultimately any of this will boil down to personal projects and portfolio building.
I'm going to try and get my employer to pay for it either way.
