Let's talk IT certifications! 🧠💻

[♥ lint ♥]

Hey all! I'm looking to get advice/insight on the efficacy of getting IT certs. Basically, is it worth it?

Context: I've been working as a systems administrator (entry-ish level) for about a year and mostly do general tasks like remote updates to software, running the occasional command prompt script to transfer files to a remote computer, building computers and getting them set up on our domains, etc. I want to get my skills up in other areas that I don't yet touch on my job and I'm looking into getting certs because my manager said he can sponsor me to take the exams. I work at a university and we have our own SOC who manages most of the exciting stuff and people like me, who support academic departments/units, doing general computer/network support.

I'm looking at CompTIA+ exams mostly since it seems entry level-y for certs and looking at classes my community colleges offer to prep for these types of exams. I'm enrolled, for example, in a prep class for the EC council certified ethical hacker exam, but the cost of the exam scares me. Like, it being so expensive makes me even more worried about not passing. My manager also wants me to take an ITIL training/exam combo at some point too. I'd like to get way more into the security side of things and less on networks with IP stuff, but my job currently doesn't really cover that except for the occasional phishing email that faculty or staff member alerts us to (we assess and then send it to our SOC). I'd still like to work in the public sector and preferably move up in my class as a Sys Adm, or take an infosec job in state gov't or in my university of possible.

Idk how worthy of an investment of time and money this may be for my career. I hear certs help to move on up, but I don't know if that's true for the public sector or not. Like, should I just try to shadow on the job and do more on the job or going through this education/training route will help? I'd appreciate any insight with your experiences on IT certifications! Do you have any? If so, how were those experiences (in taking exams)? Did it help you on the job or to promote? etc.

Thanks!!

[♥ Shinx ♥]

Personal experience not in the IT field but construction, on the job experience is most of the learning, however I found since I got my qualifications (trade certificate kind of thing) it opens more doors I didn't think were there.
I'd now tell anyone if there's an opportunity to be officially qualified with certification, do it.

[DarkSkies]

I'm also very interested in looking into this. I've seen vacancies asking for this kind of stuff but I'm not sure on public sector.

I'd say that if you have sponsorship make use of it, it's a great support and a good thing that your teamwork want you to get better prepared! Hopefully others could gave better info

[I_royalty_I]

I work in IT and think certifications are worth their weight in gold. They can help you get your foot in the door to that next career move up. I started out of college with my degree and got a job in a SOC. It was kind of boring but I learned a lot while I was there. A lot of hands on experience with different tools and techniques. Got sponsored to get a clearance and got Security+ cert to go along with that. That will get you pretty much any govt job you want. The ITIL cert isn’t anything special, I know I passed that after maybe 20mins of looking over some materials. Maybe there are multiple levels too it, I’m not sure there. I also have my CEH cert and CISSP as they were my goals over this past year. I place more stake in certs than a masters in this field, 1000%. Certs show practical knowledge and allow hiring managers to see you know what you’re talking about!

It really depends what direction you want to take later on too. Do you want to focus on more security aspects? Do you want to focus more on networking, or systems admin kind of stuff? Different certs will be better for different paths you want to take.

Willing to answer any specific questions you might have on the topic too.

[Cinnamoroll]

I feel like @(you need an account to see links) would have some insight on this perhaps?

[teslagirl]

I worked in IT for over 30 years and I now teach at a University. I_royalty_I is correct.

Some certifications are worth the time, effort, and cost to acquire. CompTIA, EC-Council, Linux Foundation, and Cisco are a couple of the best. The ones that are worth getting are very practical - no rote memorization. You must demonstrate understanding and mastery. That is why the industry trusts hiring people who have them.

If you live in the US, there are many community colleges that offer certification courses to prepare you for your chosen exam. Our local CC has the certification courses fully online and has scholarships/grants available to provide students who earn an A in the course the money needed to take their Professional Exam - most exams are several hundreds of dollars. Many companies will also reimburse employees for earning a professional certificate.

So much focus is on Big Tech companies and their layoffs, but in smaller cities and in places other than New York and San Francisco, there are great employment opportunities at Regional Medical Systems, State Government, and Public Utilities for people with qualified certifications and/or experience.

[♥ lint ♥]

I work in IT and think certifications are worth their weight in gold. They can help you get your foot in the door to that next career move up. I started out of college with my degree and got a job in a SOC. It was kind of boring but I learned a lot while I was there. A lot of hands on experience with different tools and techniques. Got sponsored to get a clearance and got Security+ cert to go along with that. That will get you pretty much any govt job you want. The ITIL cert isn’t anything special, I know I passed that after maybe 20mins of looking over some materials. Maybe there are multiple levels too it, I’m not sure there. I also have my CEH cert and CISSP as they were my goals over this past year. I place more stake in certs than a masters in this field, 1000%. Certs show practical knowledge and allow hiring managers to see you know what you’re talking about!

It really depends what direction you want to take later on too. Do you want to focus on more security aspects? Do you want to focus more on networking, or systems admin kind of stuff? Different certs will be better for different paths you want to take.

Willing to answer any specific questions you might have on the topic too.

Thanks so much for this insight! I had the same suspicions on ITIL since it seems more entry level for IT desktop support vs more specialized areas (security, networks, etc.). I was definitely looking to get the Security+ exam, but I think for me, my concern is not getting to "use" those skills right away unless I find a job elsewhere. As in, do IT certs seem like academic degrees where you go through all the training and education, but if you don't use it, you lose it (so to speak)? Since this is something my employer would sponsor me for, I want to make sure it's worth their investment, ya know? I'd hate to fail the exam on their dime lol.

Regarding job interests, I'd much rather go into a security role than systems administration. Networks are most confusing to me (at least with how we have them set up in a large university setting) and my tasks as a sys adm are very static in that it's pretty routine maintenance kind of stuff. I'd rather be in a more dynamic setting if that makes sense. Thinking about the different "teams" in cybersec, I would likely be leaning more towards blue/purple/green teams. Anything more on the defensive side or like digital forensics stuff.
I can move up more "easily" in the sys adm track since I'm already a sys adm, but it's not where my interests are. I'm keeping my options open in the state gov't since I live in the capitol of my state and close to lots of agencies and what nots.

So I'm looking at getting the Security+ and the EC Ethical Hacker certification since I've taken prep classes for these exams at my community college. I'm curious to hear more about the exam experience itself. I wonder if I should still take a few more prep classes before registering and taking the exams. Since I work as a sys adm, I'm not really seeing these things in "practice" (for the Security+ exam) enough that I would feel confident in taking the exam and passing it. If you have any recommendations for prep classes or supplemental materials like practice exams, I'd really appreciate it!

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:05 PM ----------

I worked in IT for over 30 years and I now teach at a University. I_royalty_I is correct.

Some certifications are worth the time, effort, and cost to acquire. CompTIA, EC-Council, Linux Foundation, and Cisco are a couple of the best. The ones that are worth getting are very practical - no rote memorization. You must demonstrate understanding and mastery. That is why the industry trusts hiring people who have them.

If you live in the US, there are many community colleges that offer certification courses to prepare you for your chosen exam. Our local CC has the certification courses fully online and has scholarships/grants available to provide students who earn an A in the course the money needed to take their Professional Exam - most exams are several hundreds of dollars. Many companies will also reimburse employees for earning a professional certificate.

So much focus is on Big Tech companies and their layoffs, but in smaller cities and in places other than New York and San Francisco, there are great employment opportunities at Regional Medical Systems, State Government, and Public Utilities for people with qualified certifications and/or experience.

I appreciate this insight! This definitely reassures me in taking the time and investment into trying to get these certs. I know work experience helps too, but I just want to be the best equipped as a candidate. I have an Associates Degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance, but I don't think that's enough for the jobs I'd be looking for. I myself am a career changer who came from tech education admin type of work and made the shift into a systems administrator and been in that role for about 1.5 years so I think I'm still needing to learn more on the job, but I want to take more training or education that can help boost me in this career role. My coworker is a level higher than me and has worked as a sys adm for about 7 years, but has no certs. She doesn't really care because she's really locked in her job. That's fine, but I personally don't want to work in the same role for 5 years without doing anything else to advance my career through training or education. I'd love to get into a masters or phd of some sort because my employer, a large public university, offers huge staff discounts on getting degrees offered at the university, but the closest thing for cybersecurity would be a computer science masters/phd that is impacted anyway since staff have to apply for the degree the way anyone else would trying to attend the university. I'd have to be more strategic to go down that route I guess once I have a more solid plan on my career track in the next 5 ish years or so.

[Rebel_Minx]

So I have a Master's Degree in computer science, where I learned IT, Security, Networking, etc. But they offered no vouchers for certs which was sad to find out. My hubby went to college for Computer Science as well, but undergrad and they gave him vouchers for exams. He was also in a different college than me.

So, if you ever want to move out of the company, certs look great on paper, but in this field, certs aren't required. If you can show the company looking to hire you what you know and how to do it, then you are likely to be hired without the certs. But certs usually translates in to higher pay because you have paper proof you are knowledgeable in each area you have a cert in. So certs give you salary negotiation power.

I plan on taking my Security+, Network+, A+, CISSP, and CCFP certs so I can use them to negotiate what I deserve to be paid.

[Minerva]

I work in IT and think certifications are worth their weight in gold. They can help you get your foot in the door to that next career move up. I started out of college with my degree and got a job in a SOC. It was kind of boring but I learned a lot while I was there. A lot of hands on experience with different tools and techniques. Got sponsored to get a clearance and got Security+ cert to go along with that. That will get you pretty much any govt job you want. The ITIL cert isn’t anything special, I know I passed that after maybe 20mins of looking over some materials. Maybe there are multiple levels too it, I’m not sure there. I also have my CEH cert and CISSP as they were my goals over this past year. I place more stake in certs than a masters in this field, 1000%. Certs show practical knowledge and allow hiring managers to see you know what you’re talking about!

It really depends what direction you want to take later on too. Do you want to focus on more security aspects? Do you want to focus more on networking, or systems admin kind of stuff? Different certs will be better for different paths you want to take.

Willing to answer any specific questions you might have on the topic too.

Showed this to my partner, he's looking to get into cyber security so I think this will point him in the right direction. This thread was super helpful!

[♥ Hydrapple ♥]

I don't have any new information to add, but I'm glad to see this post + others giving their own insight into the field, since it's something I've had high up on my list to get certification in, but feeling pretty muddy about where I should focus on to get from Point A to Point B as straightforward as possible. Thank you