8/8/2001 -- You've coughed up the bucks, you've crammed in the study time, you've sweated through the exam and now you're certified. It's a handsome certificate; not exactly sheepskin, but certainly a more respectable addition than the Dilbert cartoons and fortune-cookie prophesies cluttering your cubicle walls.

But what's it gonna get you? More money? A fancy title? A door? Maybe yes, maybe no. Sad to say, that certification is by no means a guaranteed ticket to ride aboard the IT gravy train.

We spoke to five human-resource leaders at Inc. 500 firms to get their take on IT certification. Bigger than start-ups and smaller than Fortune 500s, the Inc. 500 firms have historically been the ones most tuned to the virtues of certification. They gave us the skinny on true cert significance in their companies, telling us where and when and how much it matters…assuming it matters at all. (Hint: Don't assume that.)

The cast includes…

• Barry Cambell, Human Resources Manager for PayMaxx, a payroll processing firm in Tennessee
• Cal Shilling, Director of Recruiting for Vocus, an ASP in Maryland
• Eric Walker, Vice President of Thompson Technologies Inc. in Georgia, an Inc. 500 staffing firm in Georgia
• Tessa Matthews, Vice President of Human Resources at Powerquest, a software storage management firm in Orem, Utah
• Rod Braye, Vice President of Human Resources for central office services outsourcer Orius in Cleveland

Not surprisingly, we found varying degrees of enthusiasm, from lukewarm to red-hot. But even for those managers who weren't exactly bullish on certification, there does seem to be a place for these titles in their companies -- if not at the hiring stage, then after, when it comes to internal promotions or just to impress clients.

So here it is -- five hiring managers from five separate industries in five separate areas of the U.S. all on one topic: What IT certification means to them. While by no means representative of all companies, their comments should give you some insight on what might be going through that hiring manager's mind the next time they read your acronym-filled resume.

Barry Cambell
Human Resources Manager
PayMaxx, a Payroll Processing Firm
Franklin, Tenn.
"There are people who test well, who have a lot of book sense, and yet they can't apply that knowledge."

As HR manager for payroll outsourcing firm PayMaxx in Franklin, Tenn., Barry Cambell handles a staff of 137, including about 50 tech people. He hired 10 tech workers just last year, and did not require certifications from any of them.

"We do have people who are MCSE certified, we have people working toward the Cisco certification, we have people who are A+, Novell and UNIX certified," he said. "But we don't feel it is necessary to complete the position. Someone may have great qualifications and experience without a certification."

The firm nonetheless offers a certification bonus program through which it helps employees to pay for materials and testing on the road to certification. Then the bosses hand out bonus checks to those who get it done.

It's not that the certification means all that much, in practical terms, Cambell told us. Rather, the firm sees certs primarily as a corporate selling point. "We think it is great to be able tell our clients that we have people who are ‘certified' in their field," he explained.

Like Shilling, he rates experience above certification in most cases. "In software development, for example, we are going to be more interested in what they have accomplished than in what certifications they have," he said. When it comes down to it, Cambell said he might count certification as 20 percent or less of a candidate's overall profile. "Part of the reason I weigh them somewhat low is that there are people who test well, who have a lot of book sense, and yet they can't apply that knowledge. So we have to take a look at a lot of different things beyond just the certification," he said.

Cal Shilling
Director of Recruiting
Vocus, an ASP
Maryland
"There absolutely has to be a balance between experience and certification."

A Maryland-based ASP, Vocus employs some 115 people, about half of whom work on the technical side. In those positions, several factors combine to determine the value of certification.

"It really depends on the position," explained Director of Recruiting Cal Shilling. "When we look at the technical side we break it down into two primary areas, R&D and operations. It is in operations that certifications are most helpful. That is a process-oriented department, and certifications show that the person can go through a set of steps and achieve a particular goal."

On the R&D side, he sees a value for certification in certain job descriptions. "In research or in quality assurance, for example, certifications will give you a level of comfort as far as where they have progressed to. We are a Microsoft shop, so somebody who has a Microsoft quality assurance certification or maybe an MCSE probably understands the process," he said.

That being said, Shilling also has a red flag to wave (one that other hiring managers we talked with also mentioned): Experience. "There absolutely has to be a balance between experience and certification," he said. "We typically are looking for someone who had a couple years' working experience -- not someone who has seven certifications but no real work experience."

And speaking of seven certifications, that's another thing Shilling warns against: While more is often better, mere quantity in the end won't cut it at this firm. "You have to have focus," he said. "The biggest landmine I see in technical resumes is what we call the grocery list. When I see a list of 50 different technical languages that someone says they have worked with, that tells me that they don't have a focus or concentration on any one of them, and then you get very leery. It's the same with certifications."

Rule of thumb? For an entry-level job, Shilling wants two years' experience with a certificate or three to four years without. For a more senior employee, "they absolutely have to have certification," he said. If you've been in the field for six years and never secured the cert, "it would mean that there was something missing."

Overall, Shilling likes to see a certification or two. It shows him that a candidate is serious about career goals and can see a process through to its conclusion. But he won't make certification mandatory. "If you say it is a requirement you can really lose stellar candidates, especially in our development area," he said. "Some of the things our director of development looks for include a love for development, the creative aspect, the desire to make something new. In that respect, you would sell yourself short as a firm if you did not open up your search to people who don't have certification."

Eric Walker
Vice President
Thompson Technologies, an Inc. 500 Staffing Firm
Kennesaw, Ga.
"One year experience plus certification, from a salary standpoint, might get you 10 to 20 percent more than one year without certification."

As vice president of technical staffing firm Thompson Technologies Inc. in Kennesaw, Ga., Eric Walker helps place several hundred technology workers each year. He's seen the significance of certification plummet steadily downward in the past decade.
Ten years ago, a certificate in Novell network administration "was the highest thing in the world, the end all and the be all," he said. "But today there is just a plethora of certifications out there."

Nonetheless, some certs still are important to Walker. "For us, the software development certificates are the most significant, as opposed to the network and infrastructure certificates, because we are mostly placing people in development positions," he said. "So having an MCSE come to us for a BroadVision or Oracle position is of no value. It is nice to know they have had some training, but when a client wants an Oracle certified DBA, they want an Oracle certified DBA."

Have the right paper, and Walker can get you more money -- at least in starter positions. "One year experience plus certification, from a salary standpoint, might get you 10 to 20 percent more than one year without certification," he said. But the equation changes over time. At 10 years, "they are neck and neck from a salary standpoint. At that level certification is a ‘nice to have,' but not a ‘need to have.' You reach the point of diminishing returns."

Moreover, Walker looks hard at the timeliness of your training. In his eyes, 12 certifications in outdated technologies will lose out every time to three years' experience on the cutting edge.

Most of the time, Walker does not require certifications -- just because his clients don't care all that much. "They want to make sure that people have actual experience. They want to see full lifecycle implementation of a particular technology. They want people with that level of practical experience," he said.

Tessa Matthews
Vice President of Human Resources
Powerquest, Software Storage Management Firm
Orem, Utah
"Some of our career paths and pay scales are impacted by how many certifications a person has."

Welcome to Orem, Utah, home of software storage management firm Powerquest. From her office here, VP of HR Tessa Matthews watches over a staff of some 400 employees, about 80 percent of whom work on the technical side.

She is bullish on certifications. Got an MCSE, an Oracle DBA certification? She wants to know. Among systems engineers, "We ask them to have as many certifications as they can get their hands on. The more they understand about different platforms, the better they can help customers integrate our product under their own systems. The bigger their tool bag, the easier the implementation for the customer is going to be."

She will pay accordingly. "Some of our career paths and pay scales are impacted by how many certifications a person has," she explained. Tech support people, for example, will draw a higher salary if they come to her with certifications in hand. Salespeople, on the other hand, don't see the value of certifications reflected directly in their salaries, "but they will make more if they sell more, and we do think they will sell more if they have proven technical expertise. So technical certification generally means a more successful salesperson."

Why is she so hot on certs? "It tells me they have a certain base level of knowledge, since they can't get certified without passing the test. It is not a guarantee that they are going to successfully apply their skills, but it does mean that they know enough to make us comfortable with putting them in front of a customer. It gives us a reasonable level of confidence."

Moreover, she is willing to assume that a person with reasonably current certifications is staying abreast of timely trends and issues. "It's an indication that somebody is current with the industry, whether they are a senior person or an entry-level person," said Matthews. "Being current in an ever-changing world is really important. I can have a software developer who has been coding for 10 years, but if they don't know C++ or Java, they are no use for me."

So if you want to work at Powerquest, just hand Matthews a catalog of your certifications and wait for her to make an offer -- right? Well, not exactly.

"When somebody just lists their certifications at the top of their resume, that does not tell me a lot about them," she said. "We are looking for context. If I see certain skill sets, show me the context. How big was the company and how did you use these skills in that setting? If they can give the certifications some context as to how they used them, that is far more helpful than just lumping them all together."

Rod Braye
Vice President of Human Resources
Orius, Central Office Services Outsourcer
Cleveland, Ohio
"I see certification as important and critical, even among those with more experience."

The 1,500 people in the Cleveland-based Central Office Services Group of Orius Corp. by and large work on installing central office computer systems. As vice president of human resources, Rod Braye likes certifications not because they tell him what you know, but because they tell him who you are. To him, certs mean sticking power.

"Certification is always good because the discipline and dedication of the professional who seeks and attains that is part of what we look for in any employee," he said. "Certifications will change as the marketplace and environment change, but the commitment to lifelong learning, as represented by a series of certifications, is an important factor that helps us know that a potential employee has the ability and the desire to stay current."

Orius gets dual pressures in regard to certification. As an official representative of various technology manufacturers, the firm is required by those manufacturers to put forward certified people. "We have a number of vendors who say our folks have to go to training and be certified with that vendor before they can do installation work on that vendor's equipment," said Braye.

At the same time, his firms effectively takes on the IT responsibility for its clients. As such, paper credentials matter a lot. "Clearly as an outsourcer you and your employees have to meet the highest industry standard in terms of certifications in order to be welcomed in any environment," he said.

Still, Braye does not require that job candidates be certified.

"In our industry, in a lot of instances these are not certifications that you can get off the street," he explained. Many of the certifications required by his clients and vendors are highly specialized, "so that makes it hard to find a workforce that has this training when they come through the front door. We have to train specifically to the vendor or client requirements, and it is best to do that once somebody has been hired."

Unlike many HR managers who say experience vastly outweighs certification, Braye says both are vital to an IT worker's career success. "Experience is a great teacher, but with the nature of the industry changing as quickly and dramatically as it does, experience alone is not enough, unless you are going to stay in fairly low-complexity applications," he said. "Without the certification you will find yourself in a place where you are not doing the most currents apps in the industry. So I see certification as important and critical, even among those with more experience."

Making It Pay
So what can you do to get the biggest bang for your certification buck? First of all, present yourself properly.

Rather than attach a vellum scroll listing all your certifications in alphabetical order, "I would much rather see the certification process be part of an overall candidate marketing campaign, particularly as it is structured in the cover letter," said Campbell. "I like a letter that says: ‘I am so and so, I have eight years of experience in a highly technical environment, and I have maintained my focus by getting the following certifications in the past few years."

"On the resume, I would clearly put it in the body of the resume, showing it to be as important as your other educational achievements," he continued. "But I don't want to see it be the most important thing. What you have done and who you are as a candidate is most important. At the end of the day, employees produce work and profits – not certifications."

Along these lines, Matthews of Powerquest offers the following tips for presenting your certifications in the best light:

• Certifications don't mean you can walk on water. "List them, but don't be pompous about it."
• Be specific. Sure you are Cisco certified, but there are a dozen or more levels of Cisco certification. Details, please.
• Don't submit a mere list. Use the cover letter to explain why your certification is more than just a decorative wall-hanging. How have you used these skills?
• Edit your bio. If you have 15 unrelated certifications, leave some off the list. You'll look more like a student than a worker if you name them all.
• If you have multiple, related certifications, present them as part of a sequence: COBOL to networking to e-commerce.
• Be clear about which certifications you have completed versus which are "in progress." "Don't hide that detail deep in your resume. It makes our fib detector buzz angrily and could cause your resume to slip inadvertently into our shredder…"

Cambell sums it up well: "As a potential job prospect you are selling your skills and your abilities. Certifications are only a part of that package. Don't be so focused on the certification...that you forget to tell me why I should hire you."

More articles by Adam Stone:

• So You've Just Been Laid Off: 10 Tips for Landing Your Next IT Job
  
• The Battle of the Linux Certifications