[gabehabe]

Seeing that I never went to college/university, I'm always looking to boost my CV/portfolio.

I'm just curious, really, as to the value of online tests & certifications. I know nothing can really rival solid experience (which I have & am still getting, I'm one of the few fortunate ones to get a job in the industry without qualification) but it's always nice to pad out that CV a bit.

Has anyone gained online certifications? Are they of any use, have they ever helped you out along the way?

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 25 September 2009 - 07:48 AM

[KYA]

Link to what you're referring to? There's all sorts of certs out there.

[gabehabe]

It's more of a generalisation really. I also meant to ask if anyone knows of the best, most recognised sites, if said certs are really worth anything.

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 25 September 2009 - 07:50 AM

[kiwi_steve]

I have a couple of BrainBench certifications (did them years ago when they were free), but to be honest they are not worth the paper they are printed on. You would be better off going to your local polytechnic / technical college and getting some locally recognized and accepted quals and hand-skills. I would NOT employ someone based on web-quals... I'm more interested in what someone can do in real life.

Steve

[technet]

Ultimately I think certifications are important if your prospective employer, technical staffing team or segment of the industry typically requires them to get in the door. I got my first help desk job with the A+ certificate and my degrees. I have 1 year degree in computer forensics and a 2 year in networking. After a year of picking up some shifts working with the IT guys I got my Network+, server+ and moved over to IT work full time.

This post has been edited by technet: 13 December 2009 - 10:39 AM

[JamesConley]

I would think for you, gabehabe. That certifications wouldn't be as "powerful"; considering your in programming. Where I know the networkers/IT guys they rely on their certifications for work. I would also imagine that being a programmer a really good portfolio and examples of what you have coded would be suffice.

Just my opinion. (I'm not out in the field yet)

This post has been edited by jpconleyiv: 13 December 2009 - 01:07 PM

[0xFF]

The java ones out from Sun look pretty decent.

[macosxnerd101]

0xFF, on 13 Dec, 2009 - 08:22 PM, said:

The java ones out from Sun look pretty decent.

They are, but I think he's referring to the third party ones.

In all honesty, I think it depends on the name behind the certification. For example, if you are w3schools certified for PHP, it might look better than one you find off of Google.