[ale] certifications and job hunting.

[scott]

All,

This is my 2 cents worth on the subject of certifications and job hunting.

A little about where I come from on this perspective.  I used to be a
senior national consultant and manager (yeah 2 full time jobs) for a
consultancy company.  I worked with 2 major vendors at the time Sun
(they were still big then) and EMC.  I reviewed 125-200 resumes a week
to determine if the consultancy company want to interview them.  And
this was AFTER the HR weenies would review the resumes.  HR weenies
look for buzzwords.  One of the sets of buzzwords were certifications.
 I personally noticed that when it got past the HR weenies to someone
technical (technical interviewer) the certs really didnt matter at
all.  The technical interviewer was worried about one key thing.  Can
this person do the job or not?  The point haired bosses would
interview with the big question of "can we bill and keep billed this
person? (otherwise they are a leech on the company) and "will this
person be able to mingle with the various clients or will they cause
some sh*t storm?"

Now the sales team loves certs.  Since they could go to new customer
and say we have this senior consultant that has 6 certs and 3 in that
product line.  They walk on water.  They will fix the problem. They
will make you happy.  But to the sales guys in this case only use it
as a sales leverage point to show how smart the people are to people
that dont have a clue about what you do.  And probably dont know
anything about IT.

So should you get certs?  yes.  what?  that sounds different that what
I stated above... the certs (as long as it doesnt break the piggy bank
on you) will give you another positive checkmark on the buzzword bingo
for the HR people.  It will allow you to get past them (hopefully) and
to a person.  I have a few certs myself and considering getting new
ones.

good luck with the job hunt... It is never a fun time.