There are a few camps of thoughts on certifications. But first I want to talk about the types of certified people. First is the certification nut who has half a dozen or more after his or her name. These are typically instructors, or people with a job that is relatively un-demanding enough to provide them the time and opportunity to pursue all these certifications. They may or may not be qualified, but it doesn’t matter much because most people will see all of those and immediately classify them in the “they know a lot” category. Also included in this category are people who feel personally validated by their certifications and will spend personal time, money, and effort to get certifications that really are mostly common sense.

The second is the “required certification” individual. These individuals have one, maybe two certifications, but typically don’t show them off. Typically these are people who perform a job that requires them to go get a certification to prove what they already perform, however it may also be someone who is attempting to further his or her career and managed to take vacation from their real job to get certified.

The third type is the person who has no certifications, but has more qualifications than any of the above. These are people who managed to land in a career, or make a name for themselves without the certifications. Their position and knowledge precludes the need for certifications. These people may find themselves in the second category because of a government or industry regulation that suddenly requires them to prove what they already know. This type typically disdains the first two categories.

The fourth type is the (typically younger) person who is trying to make their way in the business but doesn’t have a job that will fund their certifications or doesn’t have the job they want because they don’t have the required certifications. These type are envious of all of the above, but lack traction to get moving. Occasionally these people are self-taught starters that businesses could snap up for really cheap by dangling the certification carrot in front of them, although any time a business invests in the education of its employees it must be willing to follow through on the investment with increased compensation or improved work conditions, otherwise it sets itself up to lose its best employees.

Those are all general camps and some people won’t fall into any of them, or more than one. The craziest thing about it is that the people in-the-know understand that a certification is less about what you know but more about what you are willing to spend to get yourself to where you want to go. The certifications themselves mean little. Know any A+ people? I know a few who couldn’t tie their shoes let alone plug an IDE cable in the right way. There’s nothing worse than someone who brags about having their A+ certification because it immediately tells you two things: First, the person is proud of a certification that sets the bar so low that most people in the industry could walk into the test without studying and pass the test. Second, because the person hasn’t been in the industry long enough to realize this. Double whammy: go home, or go work at Best Buy and tell grandmothers that they need a $300 discrete video card so the pictures from their grandkids will look better.

It is similar with other certifications, but to lesser degrees. For example the CCNA cert is one that requires a decent amount of Cisco knowledge to pass, but not necessarily real-world experience. They have made the test more challenging by requiring a troubleshooting lab piece to it, but this increases the cost of the exam and throws CCNAs into situations they may rarely face in their jobs, depending on their jobs. For example, a WAN guy for a large company might be asked to configure a switch – something he never does on the job, or a LAN guy for a multi-site enterprise who, because of policy, can’t touch anything past his LAN. There is little doubt these people know their stuff, but either one would have trouble walking into the test and passing it based on their real-world practical experience alone. Yet there are IT managers with this certification who never touch a switch or router except when they are in training for certifications. They learn what they need to know for the exam, pass it, and then move on.

The more this happens, the more diluted (the less valuable) the certification becomes. Eventually it becomes like a Microsoft cert or A+ where no one really cares, and the people who hold those certs are scorned by their peers for being so naieve to think the cert is still valuable.