IT certifications – yay or nay?

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Chuy

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I have a pretty obsessive personality for certain things. One of these things is obtaining IT certifications. To date, I have received 29 certifications (the reputable ones that require me to pass a proctored exam) and, at times, I feel like this North Korean general with certs all over my body:

a North Korean general wearing lots of medals on his body. His face is swapped with the boba money mascot

In this article, I want to talk about my road to obtain these certs, and whether it was all worth it.

Chuy’s history of certifications

The first certs

My first IT certs were issued by TestOut Pro. I obtained these certs in 2014 as part of my Bachelor’s Degree in IT from Colorado State University Global Campus. At the time, I was very excited about them and listed them on my IT resume. I even brought copies of some of these certifications to my in-person interviews, hoping to impress my interviewers.

To be honest, though, I didn’t include the TestOut Pro certs in the 29 certs as mentioned earlier, simply because I haven’t found any entry-level IT jobs asking for them as a job requirement (or even as a preferred qualification). Instead, they usually ask for CompTIA certs, so I used the TestOut Pro certs as a practice to obtain CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ (and many years later, I obtained Cloud+ for fun).

Jenkins and Chef

By 2017, I used my IT Bachelor’s Degree to get internally promoted to an IT position within Los Angeles County, and I wanted to get more certs to enhance my resume. I was frequently working on an automation server named Jenkins at the time and so naturally I got a Certified Jenkins Engineer cert, which has no expiration date!

I also got a Basic Chef Fluency Badge for fun through self-study, despite having never worked with Chef ever (and still haven’t). This badge no longer exists and I am ok with that.

Head in the cloud

In 2018, I was an IT Systems Engineer at Snap and finally got a chance to work with Cloud providers like Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS). I got to know the Technical Account Managers (TAMs) from both Google and Amazon, and they generously gave me free or discounted exam vouchers which I used to obtain 10 GCP certs and 2 AWS certs. I became the first person to obtain all 10 of the certs GCP had to offer at the time and got a shoutout from one of the GCP cert program managers in the GCP forums, although sadly I did not save a screenshot of the shoutout.

Along the way, I also got an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) cert voucher and used it to obtain the Certified Associate cert (the lowest level one). I have never used OCI professionally so am not too familiar with the system, but I used my fundamental knowledge of Cloud Computing plus did a little bit of self-studying to pass the exam.

With the popularity of Cloud Computing, Cloud certs are some of the best IT certs one can get, so I am happy that I could obtain them cheaply. Even though most of them have expired, I still list them on my resume.

One of the benefits of obtaining GCP certs is that Google sends (or used to send. I don’t know if they do anymore) you swag for passing a cert exam. I have received a few hoodies, a vest, a cellphone stand, an android bomber jacket, a tumbler, a puffer jacket, and a few goodies. On the other hand, Amazon, known for its frugality, didn’t send me any swags, although their TAM was kind enough to give me a free hoodie.

The last certs

Between 2021 and 2024, I took advantage of my employers’ reimbursement policy to obtain a few more certs:

I also got some vouchers to get multiple Product Management certifications from Pendo (in fact, I am “super certified”), but there were no proctored exams involved, so I don’t include them as part of my 29 certs.

Which certs are the most valuable?

It depends on what you want to do. Because of my DevOps background, certs related to cloud computing (AWS, GCP), Kubernetes, and HashiCorp benefit me the most. Another useful one is CPACC, which is great to learn about and practice Web Accessibility, an increasingly popular discipline, as a Web Developer.

You may have heard about security certifications like the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) that are very good to have as a cybersecurity professional or the Project Management Professional (PMP) for project managers. I don’t have those certs because they are not my expertise.

If you are a programmer, there are certifications for programming languages such as the Certified Entry-Level Python Programmer (PCEP), but honestly, I have never heard of or met anyone with those certifications.

Do I NEED certifications?

The short answer is no. But they are nice to have.

Besides technical consultants, many IT roles do not require certifications as a job requirement. Ultimately, work experience and interview skills are more important to get and hold a job, but having certifications is an easy (?) way to display domain knowledge. The harder it is to get a specific certification, the more impressive it is to have it.

If you have exam vouchers and have time to study, then by all means, take the exams.

How do I study for certifications?

I don’t think any of my certifications are particularly hard. Except for CKAD, all the certs are just multiple choice and checkbox questions. The certification vendor usually has a study guide, so look at that, and then find some sample questions online to practice. Websites like O’Reilly, Udacity, and Pluralsight (and sometimes YouTube!) offer exam prep videos as well.

Here are some common techniques:

  • eliminate the wrong answers to give you a higher chance to answer correctly
  • look out for keywords. For example, in an AWS cert exam, if the question lists “serverless” as a requirement, then maybe the answer will include “Amazon Lambda”.

Summary

IT Certifications are not necessary to become a successful IT professional. However, just like education, it shows that not only do you possess domain knowledge but you also have the discipline to study for the exam to pass it.

While most exams are not too expensive, most employers are willing to pay for continuous development – ask them if they will pay for the exam and studying material.

Good luck with the exams!