*sees people on Facebook wanting to get Linux certificates*
Me: naah that's not how I'ma do it

*at le job interview*
Interviewer: "So you apply as a sysadmin.. what are your skills? Certificates?"
Me: "No certificates sir.. but I USE ARCH LINUX 😎"
Me (quietly): "and Ubuntu Server too but that's not as cool :v"

And of course an obligatory @Haxk20 tag :3

And my dad is quietly tells me that a linux engineer license or something like that is helpful .....

Or is it??

@CozyPlanes Personally I'd say it isn't.. just like schools, all it gives you is a massive waste of time, prechewed information that often lacks logic that only comes from years of experience and honing your skills, and finally a piece of paper to show. It's an easy way for recruiters to get to know your stack (hah, if only they did) and for interviewers to gauge your skillset.

Personally however I'd prefer an interviewer to test me in their real corporate test environment (which would also be able to show me the competence of the company itself, if they can test me and show me a test environment, good.. if they don't, I avoid it like the plague).

That's just personal preference though.. to me real skills are worth far more than a piece of paper. I don't have a diploma, certifications or anything because I think that they're a waste of time. I'd much rather have the employer directly gauge my skills instead.

Even if you know everything a cert will teach you, it's helpful for the employer to have a receipt that you do know these things.

It doesn't necessarily make you better. But it makes you less of a chance hire. I.e, the probability that you are really bad is less.

But it's still there, because stupid people can get certs too.

Of course, when doing a cert you should pay as much attention as possible though. Since you don't want to be one of the stupidly people holding a cert.

Cheers.

@BigBoo True, it'd help getting an interview in the first place I guess.. but honestly I doubt that it'd be worth the time offset, time that I could spend honing my skills further and proving myself to employers by e.g. sending the CV from my own domain. Besides, if I myself become a certified engineer, how much value would there still be in that "certified enganeer" term of mine? :P

@Condor Well sadly. You probably won't even be considered for the better jobs without any qualifications. No one cares about your skills unless you have the bare minimum of requirements for the job.

Mostly it's not technical people who are taking you further for interviews. It's recruiters, and they know little to nothing about being a sysadmin. So to them having a cert can be all or nothing.

So basically your skills doesn't mean shit until you are finally talking to a technical person. And why aren't these people in charge earlier in the process? Because they are fucking busy.

You can look at it like this. By refusing to take certs. You expect the company to put more time and money into evaluating candidates. When a perfectly fine (But not perfect method) is to just throw away the ones without qualifications.

Believe me. I don't like this system. But I do get it.

@BigBoo guess I'll have to shell out time and money for a cert then :(
I hate the corporate recruitment system ._.

@Condor Yeah. Same.

But you can look at like this. Which is the point I was trying to make but I suck at writing this early lmao.

My point is, and my numbers are just dragged out of the ass.

If 10% of uncertified people are good for the job.

And 70% of certified people are good for the job.

The probability of getting someone good is increased a lot by excluding uncertified people. And if the number of applicants with certs are a lot fewer. The process time is cut significantly, i.e. costs less money.

I can only think of one practical use for a certification, and that's getting your foot in the door when you have no professional experience.

But having participated in many interviews, I can say that it's also one of the most commonly made-up items on a candidate's resume. So much that I don't believe them at all when I see them listed.