I published this article on LinkedIn on May 3rd 2017. Here it is in its entirety for you.
The age old question of whether certification is important or not reared its head again recently. I was talking to two prospective clients, and they held opposing views.
One wanted their staff to be well trained, but didn’t want them to complete any certifications. They were concerned that once the member of staff was trained they’d look elsewhere for [and get] a better paid job.
The other wanted their staff to be well trained, and saw the certification process as a way of validating that the learning on the course had stuck. They thought they would be able to market themselves better with certified staff, and make more money that way.
I can see both side of the arguments, as I’m sure you can. Perhaps the main differentiator is that in the first case, they may not be able to charge their clients as much, and will therefore have lower income / profit margins, which would mean they couldn’t pay their staff as well. In the second case, their ability to charge higher rates could be reflected in higher income and therefore they may be able to meet the wage demands of their teams.
To be honest though, neither of these scenarios floats my boat. I’d much rather employ someone with appropriate experience than just take someone who has passed a course and may have a piece of paper telling you that.
Many years ago – you’ll realise how long ago shortly – I received a salutary lesson in this very topic. I had a member of staff come to me to say that they had done a lot of self study and had not only passed their Microsoft CSE but their Novell CNE (I told you it was a long time ago). As a result, they wanted a massive pay rise – something like 35% as I recall. Naturally I said I would have to think about it and, if appropriate, ask approval from my manager.
Fast forward to the following week. I was disinclined to award the rise as I had concerns about the person’s ability, but had yet to tell them that. They came to me (because at the time I was still relatively hands on technically) and asked how to bind an IP address to a network card. (Again a sign of how long ago this was, TCP/IP was only just starting to appear on Windows-based networks.) Naturally, my first question was whether this had been covered in either the Microsoft or Novell courses – it was – and I then suggested that the staff member in question focus on getting experience before thinking about pushing for a pay rise.
I recently had cause to consider the benefits of certification for, shall we say, more senior people (myself included). Some clients seem to not worry too much about the letters after your name and prefer to see the experience you can bring to bear on their needs.
It is very helpful being able to speak from first hand knowledge about the process for obtaining various certificates and accreditation, but I find that I don’t get to talk to prospective clients because I’ve done a few exams. They are more interested in what experience I’ve had, where, and whether any of it has relevance to their requirements / situation.
My advice is therefore this: make sure you gain experience in several sectors including SME, government, public sector, etc, and make sure you know how to apply that experience in a range of scenarios. Being flexible and adaptable in your approach to client requirements is what you should be aiming for. Having some experience of the certification process and perhaps even a degree is helpful, but it’s not what is really needed by the clients out there.
Easy Cyber 