Study: Proliferation, Lack of Experience Req. May Be Hurting Certs
3/19/2003 -- According to Thomson-Prometric's third annual "Global IT Training and Certification Study," while managers overall support IT certification, the sheer number of certifications available combined with a lack of experience prerequisites "has led some managers to discontinue using certification as a way to judge the skills of job candidates."
This could be an indication of larger backlash in relation to an "everyone is doing it" trend, the study states.
In a section called "Challenges and Opportunities for the IT Certification Industry," the study's authors write:
"Following its debut as a measure of skills assessment and technological competency, IT certification has grown to take on a life of its own, with many candidates pursuing certification as a means of standing out from the crowd in a tough employment market. The impact of this trend is that...certification may be in danger of being viewed as a commodity."
"While managers appreciate that a candidate has invested time and effort in becoming certified, [managers] want more assurance or proof that a certification translates into the skills and abilities necessary to function in day-to-day IT life."
According to the study, certification does appear to be losing some power in terms of bringing monetary benefits to IT professionals. Those rewarded for their certifications with salary increases dropped 4 percent in 2002 to 18 percent. Those rewarded with a promotion stayed flat at 9 percent.
The study also says that there's a "gap" in what certified professionals see as value of certification and how managers perceive it, "specifically what certification delivers in terms of performance and competence on the job."
To combat this, the study's authors recommend that certification vendors structure exams so that they measure "both the theory behind the technology and its practical, hands-on" application as well as focus more on tying experience to specific credentials.
The study also found that managers who have less experience in the IT field (15 years or fewer) are "significantly" more likely to see the value in having a technically certified staff member as compared to more experienced managers who have been in the field for 16 years or more. The study attributes this gap to an "age of certification" -- e.g., younger managers are more accepting of certification "because it was part of their career development experience."
Other interesting findings in the study, which examines a wide variety of behaviors and attitudes toward certifications by both candidates and managers, include:
- Top reasons for IT professionals to achieve certifications in 2002 were increased credibility, assessing skills and increased compensation.
- For those already certified, there was a 4 percent point drop in those seeking certification to increase salary, and a more than 50 percent drop overall in those seeking certification in order to get a new job.
- The top benefits of certification as seen by IT managers are higher level of service (22 percent), increased productivity (20 percent) and increased credibility with clients (19 percent).
- The perceived value of certification varies by region. In China, the top reason cited by IT pros to become certified is to increase productivity (33 percent). The top reason in India and the United States is to help find a job (22 percent and 19 percent, respectively). The top reason in Latin America is to increase credibility (36 percent).
- Overall, candidates in India are the most positive toward certification, and those in Europe are least likely to reap financial benefits from certification.
- Younger candidates (under 30) are more likely to see certification as a "stepping stone" than older candidates, but less likely to take an exam due to financial considerations.
- Use of all training methods is up across the board. The use of self study products rose to 87 percent, up from 61 percent in 2001. Seventy seven percent of candidates used a self-assessment test in 2002, up from 46 percent in 2001. The use of instructor-based remained fairly stable at 47 percent, up one percentage point from the previous study.
- Instructor led training is much bigger in China (88 percent) than in other regional areas.
The 2002 study uses results obtained from more than 8,000 IT professionals, including surveys of 3,036 test-takers at worldwide Prometric centers, 5,207 survey respondents who had previously taken exams at Prometric centers, and in-depth interviews with 23 IT professionals in Chicago, London and Singapore.
A PDF of the results can be downloaded from Prometric's Web site here.  -B.N. with Mike Domingo, MCPMag.com.
|
There are 63  user Comments for “Study: Proliferation, Lack of Experience Req. May Be Hurting Certs”
|
|
Page 3 of 7
|
| 3/20/03: Anonymous says: |
Jump on the Certification bandwagon, come on down. Everyone company is doing it these days. Hell why not have a certification on how to open a car door for your lady, or maybe how to hold the fork at a dinner table, why not have a cert for cleaning behind the ears.. ya that would be cool and while were at it.... get the idea? Its never going to end the genie is out of the bottle. Value or not, certs are here to stay. |
| 3/20/03: Steve from PA says: |
I started out as a Welder for 13 years and pc's we're just a hobby. In the late 90's the money was the kicker that me back into the classroom to get my MCSE in NT. One month after passing my final test and getting my MCSE and MCP+I, I was hired by an Insurance firm who needed someone cheap. It paid about 10k more then my Welding job, do I took it and I'm still there and now have my MCSE in 2000 and my MCSA and best of all 3 years of experience. The point is that I needed the certs to get the job and have proved myself to them by trying to stay current with my training,which they don't pay for. I still look for jobs that pay better but there's not much out there right now around my area. |
| 3/21/03: Paul from UK says: |
Hey, PDP11 haven't you heard of Salvage?, Only joking. You are right, get down to the nuts and bolts, break systems and then fix them, your experience soon racks up. Certs are a excellent way of learning more but with out real hands on, they are little more than an indication of a persons willingness to learn. |
| 3/21/03: Anonymous says: |
I admit some certs are worthless, but when I study for a cert I always end up learning something I did not know before. I have been in IT for about six years and every time I open a book, even if it is for a worthless CompTIA cert I come away a little smarter than I was before. Certs may not get you a dream job, but unless you have a void between your ears, you will pick up stuff that will help you in your career in one way or another. |
| 3/21/03: Kerry M. from Summit NJ says: |
I have been trying to break into the industry for sometime and I find what Mike B. said to be true. Most Managers I have talked to have said basically the same thing. I've taken the instructor-led course with 80% of the class being hands on and working towards my CCNA and Security certs,as well as some OTJ training but not in the area I would like to get into but I have found that it is just not enough. I fall into that old Catch 22 scenario. Does anyone have suggestions that may be helpful? I would really appreciate any feed back you might have. |
| 3/21/03: Anonymous says: |
As someone who is approaching 21 years in I.T., lets step back a minute here. When I started my first job in this field, I was making a whopping $6.00 an hour (did I complain, no - this was back in 1982, mind you). Nowadays, I make 9000x that much, but this is after many years of hard work, study, classes, etc. The real problem is a complete lack of internships (or in my day, we called it on-the-job training), which groomed you for positions higher up in the food chain. A lot of college grads from 2001-2002 (and soon to be 2003 grads) either haven't found employment in field, or are going to graduate school to see if the economy will turn around. At the moment, businesses are looking for experienced people to work (degree plus 2-3 years, equiv. study-work exp., etc). A newly minted graduate doesn't stand a chance in hell of getting employed if they have to compete against someone with 10-12 years of work experience (or more). I think people have used certifications for the wrong thing (due to clueless morons in Human Resources who don't have a clue as to how stuff really operates in the real world). |
| 3/21/03: AR from CA, USA says: |
C'mon guys! Education is gold. It is never a mistake to get degrees and certs. It could never hurt you and will always help in your job search. But sittin on your ass and doin nothing is getting just that. I see so many guys with 10 years or more experience and no certs bringing down all the guys with no experience who have just recently got certs. The truth is, these 10 plus year veterans started out entry level in a time where a degree in the computer industry was an open frontier with few much needed cowboys. They got the experience because they weren't competing with many. And now, they tacked on some certs to make them even more invincible, which is great to fight off the competition! But now we have the new cowboys who are facing an industry with some serious competition and mean veterans who want to keep their jobs. So what to these veterans do to secure invincibility, mock the new grads, mock the new certs, discourage them from belonging, discourage them from entering the arena, tell them to get lucky with gaining experience, tell them to stay away from their job market. So here is the reality old timers...technology is advancing and newbies are the ones with the energy mastering it all. .NET, extreme programming, NetBeans, Flash, Web Services, BAM, WSDL, wireless networking - there is a new wave that is sweeping all those legacy systems. I say lets work together. There are newbies who can do the job well and there are veterans who can replace 10 newbies. But until a newsgroup can clearly distinguish between the two, don't give discouraging advice to those who need support. Can a degree help? duh! Can certs help? duh! Can experience help? duh! Fact: Shoot for all 3 and support anyone who is missing some. Use the energy of these young folks to expand the arms of the veteran. Let's mutually agree that there is a place for everyone. Consider this - A new CCIE and an old CCIE, is a deadly partnership of experience, energy, and creativity. The second your company realizes this, the more innovative and successful it will become. Good Luck! |
| 3/21/03: Warren says: |
Folks no one test can make you a master of anything. People stop having bloated expectations of MSCE's,CCIE's,CNE's. Cool,they will have a basic understanding and can be trained to do any thing you need, but you can not expect people to know everthing off of one test. I feel for people who want to down certification and degrees, because they will go only so far without them, then they will hit the glass ceiling or become unemployed. This industry is changing get a job and study, study, study. For all of those with no cert or degrees realize this there was time you are just as incompentant as those who have certs or degrees and no experience. Plus guess who will be your boss once they get the experience. Now add the fact most company bill on tangible things like certs and degrees. So now who do you go with then the cert and or degree plus experience or the exprience alone. Think about it. |
| 3/21/03: Roger from Nebraska says: |
Here's to the people who denigrate bachelor's degrees as well as certs: I can smell your insecurity through the monitor screen. The idea that someone who has had the motivation to press themselves through to a bachelor's degree, particularly in computer science or equivalent, should have to lick people's boots forever just to have a prayer of getting a job in any part of the IT field is ridiculous. Let's face, all of these silly "veterans with 20+ years experience" who say that a degree and certs are worthless without experience should be kissing the ground that they landed that $70,000.00 job with their Windows NT MCP and no college. The fact that actually finishing a college degree (and to a lesser degree, earning some certifications) is becoming imperative to be able to even get a lot of these jobs can only be a good thing if this industry ever is going to be seen as a serious profession. If you've got all these years of experience and presumably got a job when there was considerably less competition, as well as having to know less than people currently do to get a job, then you, by your good fortune, should do everything you can to help smart, motivated young people breathe some fresh air into the profession. Let's face it, IT work generally is kind of an art, but it is not rocket science. Fixing router problems isn't even in the same league as designing jet planes or working with quantum physics, etc., and that is the secret that people who lucked out in the late 90s job market don't want people hungry to get into the field to know! To all of you recent graduates or anyone who has worked hard to get certs or a college degree with no help or support from anyone in the industry, I commend you, and I would ignore some of the insecure jerks who want to keep you out of the IT job market. |
| 3/21/03: Thaboy says: |
Lets just see one thing: why does a doctor needs a degree ? would you like to be treated by someone who says he has many years of experience in the area , but its not acctually a doctor ? Take care!!! Society needs to ensure a way of measuring peoples knowledge, it doesnt have to be perfect, and its not always efficient(as it happens with laws), but its a step foward. I know people who are in the IT are for more then 10 years, and dont even know that an Ip has 32 bits, thats just an example.... The problem i see, is that many people think that certified people are Gurus, or they like to compare certified VS experienced, which is not a good measure too. There are many factors like: Under which circumstances did he get his experince ? is he social ? can he work under pressure, etc,etc. So its not just about Technical knowledge!!! There are many idiots out there , thinking they can get anything with they knowledge/experience. Lastly, just one question: For the people who said: "they never done any Certs, and they will not do, and certs are worthless... How did they come to this homepage ? |
First Page Previous Page Next Page Last Page
|
|
|
|
