What exam or certification did you find least useful?

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by JK2447, Sep 14, 2022.

  1. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    Bit controversial but I've never asked it before, in all of these years. What cert or exam did you sit that you found of no or limited use to you? Was there one that you look back now and think yeah, I didn't use that at all?! OR you found wasn't useful in work, didn't cover good topics etc

    That's not to say the cert or exam was rubbish, just asking for your experience. There may be none in your experience.

    For me it has to be the Microsoft ISA exam 70-350. Not that it wasn't great technology at the time, but it was one of the times I sat an exam for the sake of it. I didn't work with ISA, I just had it installed in my modest home lab and understandably I crashed and burned, failing the exam, never to be sat again. Closely followed by my Citrix CCA 6.5 certification purely because we were due to support Citrix for a customer, and it never panned out, so you don't use it you lose it. I can barely tell you anything about Citrix today
     
    Certifications: VCP4, 5, 6, 6.5, 6.7, 7, 8, VCAP DCV Design, VMConAWS Skill, Google Cloud Digital Leader, BSc (Hons), HND IT, HND Computing, ITIL-F, MBCS CITP, MCP (270,290,291,293,294,298,299,410,411,412) MCTS (401,620,624,652) MCSA:Security, MCSE: Security, Security+, CPTS, CCA (XenApp6.5), MCSA 2012, VSP, VTSP
    WIP: Google Cloud Certs
  2. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Pretty much gone off all forms of exams at this point. The stuff about remote access banks of modems in MCSA 2003 seemed pretty pointless. Lot exams had pointless elements to them but few were 100% waste of time.

    Citrix sux balls. Last place I worked made me do all my work in a VDI, which wouldn't of been so bad if the VDI wasn't in USA, waiting seconds for your mouse to move kinda sucks. Eventually they gave me a VDI in Netherlands which was at least an improvement.


    25 years in IT, one day IT folks might start listening to me...
     
  3. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    Appreciate your input as always my friend. You touch upon something that has crossed my mind many times. I started in IT in 1999 so 23 years here, where have the years gone! Certs in my case, definitely helped me to get where I am today, no shadow of a doubt as an infrastructure support/engineer/architect/pre sales person. I still sit these exams today and will sit a few more (Google Cloud next certainly as I'd like to end my career at Google). I'm sitting a Multi Cloud VMware VCP in 2 weeks.

    I have reduced the number of exams and certs that I sit as I've been there and done that on so many things just like you. It gets repetitive and experience will always be king, but I do think they still have a place, massively for people new into the industry or wanting to move into another role. I am pretty sure that's not the case in your developer world but in my cloud data center infra world, they're still highly regarded I think. That might be to make recruitment's life easier, filtering people out who haven't got XYZ cert, I don't know, but if you're on a help desk and you want a shot at being a server or network admin, they definitely help I think. I'm not saying that because we're on Certforums. I honestly believe it.

    Wow I waffle on but my point was, I think we who've been in the industry for ages have a different view to the new hungry IT next generation. I think that's all it is, not that they're worth less today. A bit like our GCSE's and A Levels (if they're still called that!), they're essential early on but now, you'd not dream of even mentioning them. What do you think mate? #Citrixsux
     
    Certifications: VCP4, 5, 6, 6.5, 6.7, 7, 8, VCAP DCV Design, VMConAWS Skill, Google Cloud Digital Leader, BSc (Hons), HND IT, HND Computing, ITIL-F, MBCS CITP, MCP (270,290,291,293,294,298,299,410,411,412) MCTS (401,620,624,652) MCSA:Security, MCSE: Security, Security+, CPTS, CCA (XenApp6.5), MCSA 2012, VSP, VTSP
    WIP: Google Cloud Certs
  4. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    I don't think they really help in a developer career, not for hiring, and late in career nobody really cares about it.
     
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  5. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    Is there anything that makes you standout as a developer? Like CV and experience obv. Cracking GitHub collection type stuff would help I’d imagine
     
    Certifications: VCP4, 5, 6, 6.5, 6.7, 7, 8, VCAP DCV Design, VMConAWS Skill, Google Cloud Digital Leader, BSc (Hons), HND IT, HND Computing, ITIL-F, MBCS CITP, MCP (270,290,291,293,294,298,299,410,411,412) MCTS (401,620,624,652) MCSA:Security, MCSE: Security, Security+, CPTS, CCA (XenApp6.5), MCSA 2012, VSP, VTSP
    WIP: Google Cloud Certs
  6. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Interesting topic :)

    Has the to be the Windows Vista exam for me (cant remember the exact exam code)– thought I would do this as I had been using some of the early Vista builds through the company Technet subscription – remember Technet?

    The exam was way too easy and I remember some of the answers being in bold letters if it mentioned a feature in Windows Vista – almost impossible to go wrong.

    As we all know Vista wasn’t that good so every customer network I was supporting decided to stick with Windows XP and I think I must have deployed around 20 machines running Vista when I was supporting 2000+ Windows XP clients.

    So the exam was too easy and nobody wanted Vista – oh well! :)
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
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  7. dmarsh
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    dmarsh Petabyte Poster

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    Write as much code as possible, learn as much practical stuff as possible, plus a little theory.
    Github and impressing in interviews, generally there are various technical tests, passing these can be a bit of a black art depening on the place as they all have different bias.
     
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  8. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    Ah yes, that's a great point. When the technology is doomed, like Vista and Windows 8, there's nothing you can do if you've spent time and money to master it. Just one aspect of the industry we all fall foul of at some point I think. Not to pick on Microsoft, I know every vendor will release something and if it's not well received, cut their losses
     
    Certifications: VCP4, 5, 6, 6.5, 6.7, 7, 8, VCAP DCV Design, VMConAWS Skill, Google Cloud Digital Leader, BSc (Hons), HND IT, HND Computing, ITIL-F, MBCS CITP, MCP (270,290,291,293,294,298,299,410,411,412) MCTS (401,620,624,652) MCSA:Security, MCSE: Security, Security+, CPTS, CCA (XenApp6.5), MCSA 2012, VSP, VTSP
    WIP: Google Cloud Certs
  9. JK2447
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    JK2447 Petabyte Poster Administrator Premium Member

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    I don't know how you cope as a developer, it seems much harder than the infrastructure world but then that might be because I'm from the tin world. The certs make it a bit easier on my side, like even if you're going for an Architect role, having a CISSP or TOGAF can be a big plus.

    I don't know what you make of this but I think it's easier on our side, because we train and certify on things that have all the documentation. Architecture docs, deployment guides, admin guides. To my mind a developer is much more creative and might be creating things from scratch. Zero docs just an ask. Make me an app that does this
     
    Certifications: VCP4, 5, 6, 6.5, 6.7, 7, 8, VCAP DCV Design, VMConAWS Skill, Google Cloud Digital Leader, BSc (Hons), HND IT, HND Computing, ITIL-F, MBCS CITP, MCP (270,290,291,293,294,298,299,410,411,412) MCTS (401,620,624,652) MCSA:Security, MCSE: Security, Security+, CPTS, CCA (XenApp6.5), MCSA 2012, VSP, VTSP
    WIP: Google Cloud Certs

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