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This blog has been rather quiet as it has been A+ exam week at the IT Academy where I work and it definitely has been a rollercoaster of emotions. So I felt it was appropriate to write something that I had planned for some time…

Last month I participated in a focus group with the Microsoft IT Advisory Council and a very controversial topic reared its ugly head: which is more important – certification or experience?

I don’t like to make a choice between them as I always believe that to become successful in IT, you require three components:

1. Education – A solid education (degree/diploma) means that you can adapt to most situations
2. Experience – Any kind of IT experience is useful – even if it is managing your own home network or volunteering to manage systems for a charity; it’s all equally valid. Of course, proving your skills in a corporate environment makes it even more so.
3. Certification – This means that you have gone beyond the norm of job to a career.  Gaining and keeping up with certifications demonstrates that you have the ability to keep up with an ever-changing technology landscape.

Since my comments in the focus group are confidential, I opened up the conversation to my social network, and the response that I got was interesting (names have been left out):

“I would rate certification over experience in the very early stages of a career, but never past two years.”

I agree it helps to kick-start a career. However, I think certification should be sustained in order to keep up with market needs.

The next two comments from two different people mirror each other:

“Depends if the experience was relevant. In some cases a person can be over-qualified but you can never have too much experience.”

“I’ve been running two data centres for 2 years, as well as 3 years previously being an installation and facilities man, and I can’t find a job that takes experience over qualification for toffee. I’m far more skilled than those who’ve taken a measly exam but end up being the one left behind”

This proves that certification is required to move up the ladder. Masses of experience helps, but needs to be validated by exams – so it’s not a case of being over-qualified – just have the right certification for your job role/experience.

“Certification to get the job (pass the recruitment agents, CV crunchers etc.)…experience to do the job!”

This comment pretty much sums it up. Recruitment agencies and spiders on job sites are looking for a myriad of acronyms on CVs:  MCSE/MCSA/MCDST/MCTS/MCITP/MCT/CCNA/CISSP/ETC.

If you’ve got an eye chart on your CV, the chances of it being looked at by a real human are increased.  Then it’s a simple case of passing the interview (where there may also be a technical test) and then doing the job (where experience will make life easier).

I wish all the best to anyone taking any certification exams. It’s never easy going into an exam room, but the long term benefits are worthwhile.

This post has got a bit too serious, time for some cheesey videos…

The wrong way:

The right way: