Best / most looked for computer certifications in IT field?

[toop]

I'm currently in my last year of school for my Bachelor's in Applied Computing (Networking/Distributed Processing concentration).

After browsing around at a variety of IT jobs, I noticed most prefer some certifications...

For those of you working in the IT field...I'm curious which certs you have and how it helped in landing the job? Did the employer question you about them or question you about any that you did not have?

Thanks

[Papa Dras]

It depends on the direction you are going, but really, without experience you should only focus on the entry level certs. Experience is the single biggest factor in IT and with no experience, a degree and cert are still only going to start you at the bottom. It's not like it was in the 90s.

[SpiffyGTI]

What direction are you looking to go into? Do you want to stick with Networking? If so, Cisco certs definitely won't hurt you. It may seem a bit obvious but check out some job postings in areas you think you may be interested in and you'll quickly get a good idea of what certs they're looking for.

The subject of certifications is pretty heavily debated. Expanding on what dras said, a lot of times I see certs listed on a job posting so the company can weed out some people and attempt to get some more qualified candidates. I work in IT and I know plenty of people that I do business with that have the audacity to list cert credentials in their email signatures and stuff when they don't have the first clue about what they're "certified" in. Then again I know a bunch of people who are experts in a certain area and they have no certs at all. It's widely subjective. I also think that certs carry more weight when it applies to a very specific or specialized job rather than a generalist-type job.

Like said said, the best you can equip yourself with is a combo of cert(s) and experience. In my opinion, experience trumps certs.

[Vision33r]

I'm currently in my last year of school for my Bachelor's in Applied Computing (Networking/Distributed Processing concentration).

After browsing around at a variety of IT jobs, I noticed most prefer some certifications...

For those of you working in the IT field...I'm curious which certs you have and how it helped in landing the job? Did the employer question you about them or question you about any that you did not have?

Thanks

No certs require and I can voucher that since I'm a hiring manager and every guy I've hired never needed a cert. You gotta walk the talk. If you can't walk it, start learning at home and go to free tech seminars to learn the latest trends in IT and talk to other people that use these tech in forums and you'll learn.

[Hostile]

No certs require and I can voucher that since I'm a hiring manager and every guy I've hired never needed a cert. You gotta walk the talk. If you can't walk it, start learning at home and go to free tech seminars to learn the latest trends in IT and talk to other people that use these tech in forums and you'll learn.

Because the hiring policies at your company are obviously the same for all companies out there, right?

[Papa Dras]

vision33 owns IT

[1stRabbit]

vision33 owns IT

lol.

If you are looking to get into some place new doing a job that you have experience in, get a cert in whatever it is that you are working in. Certifications are a good plus for trying to get in the door. Once you're in you utilize them to get salary bumps and that's about it. Like a college degree it will be your credential that could possibly push you over the top of another guy in the pile applying for a job.

I am a network engineer for my job and back in 2000/2001 I got a bunch of Cisco certifications as I was starting my career (still in high school). I think my last certification was in 2004 (CCIE written exam I believe) and since then I haven't bothered getting any other certifications because at a point I needed to let my experience catch up a bit. None of the two places I have worked since then had any certifications listed (because they expired) and I got both jobs with what seemed like no problems.

In my experience, certifications are good for two things...

1) Learning something you don't have a lot of knowledge about that's usually vendor specific.
2) Something to put on your resume to help get you the job you want to apply for.

Just to add since you are coming out of college... It won't hurt you, but I don't know that it will gain you much credibility as you are a fresh graduate with no experience anyway. It will show like your college degree does that you have some initiative and an ability to learn.

[Jettin2pointSlow]

I'm currently in my last year of school for my Bachelor's in Applied Computing (Networking/Distributed Processing concentration).

After browsing around at a variety of IT jobs, I noticed most prefer some certifications...

For those of you working in the IT field...I'm curious which certs you have and how it helped in landing the job? Did the employer question you about them or question you about any that you did not have?

Thanks

Anyone on the cutting edge of this industry will tell you that certs are useless accept that they show you have done your time, and arent insulting the community by just walking in and saying "look at all this **** I know, without paying anything to the man"... Dont get me wrong, some hiring managers or companies, dont care, if their cool enough. But with staffing companies like TEKSystems etc. staffing alot of these jobs out, your gona need some certs to show you have put in the time..

That said, this industry is moving very, very fast... and within the next ten years close to, ide say 65% of the information learned in these certs will be outdated, however if it gets you the gig, then it is worth it... And if your going to learn any programming language, go check out apachies forums and start figuring out what hadoop is, what it does for the industry, and what kind of gigs you'll be able to obtain with it as a staple on your resume (hint, government work, clearance level work, yada yada, way higher salary).

start with:

MCP
CCNA
CCIP
MCSE

And start learning how to ACTUALLY troubleshoot HARDWARE effectively, this isnt something they look for in the hiring process but you will make yourself very, very valuable if you can do this fast when the situation arises, and believe me it will.

[adoniram7]

If you want to work in and around the federal government in IT security,
CISSP is a must. It is often a requirement written into contracts for key
personnel.

PMP as well, but that's a management cert, really.

In general, certs open doors and help get you more interviews. Beyond that, it's
dicey. Many many companies receive so many resumes that they have unintelligent,
unqualified staff sort through resumes looking for keywords.

As far as the correlation between certs and ability, it's quite weak indeed!
I've seen astonishing resumes from people who don't really know of what
they speak.

If I were you, I'd consider the military. If you are forceful enough with the
recruiter to get exactly what you want, the experience is invaluable, and with
your degree you could get a TS-SCI clearance.

That kind of clearance and experience is GOLD when it comes to jobs.

[Gus Polinski]

If you do get a cert, don't just stop at the "entry level" one, those are a dime a dozen. In other words, if for example you go the Networking route, don't stop at CCNA. Work hard at CCIE, CCSP, etc. to help separate you from the pack. It may not land you a job, but it will get your resume on top of the pile. My $0.02.

[cryption]

I'm on my 3rd IT job, and every job has been a step up. I hold no certifications, but I have 4 years experience in technology in the classroom (I work for a school district, and have also worked for a University), and am in my 5th year.

I get calls CONSTANTLY from people who picked my resume up off Monster, Dice etc. I keep them up there to see what comes along I may like better, but Schools are where I belong unless the money is crazy good.

Like I said, I have no certs, and my degree is in Criminal Justice. I've just worked in IT long enough to have something to put on a resume.

Once you get the interview (really all that certs get you) it's up to you to prove you know what you are actually talking about.

[cryption]

Also, certs don't mean everything, or anything for that matter.

I had to teach a guy with MCSE and CCNA how to create a mandatory profile, and I'm showing them how roaming profiles are really what we need to move to district wide

Where I am at now the "My Documents" folder where all my teachers save points to the hard drive. I'm slowly convincing them to have to automatically point to each user's SAN folder. I think they just didn't know how to set it up. I'm just waiting now for them to ask me to show them.

Certs ... psh.

[Vision33r]

Imo, certs are essential if you are in a design or engineering role that will provide tech documentation. If you are just a field tech you may need a general cert to get your foot in the door but I wouldn't go out and accumulate many.

To most IT employers, holding too much cert shows somebody that lacks expertise or experience.