A certification is one of the most valuable weapons in your job-hunting arsenal. A college degree and some experience ? and maybe a brother-in-law whos the hiring manager ? doesnt hurt either. But companies eager to hire specialists turn to certified candidates, in hopes that those candidates will be able to hit the ground running, and will require no training period. Although a bachelors degree in computer science is always a plus, it doesnt necessarily prove that you know how to run a Microsoft network. An MCSE does.
The most popular certifications, by far, are those from Microsoft and Cisco, but hundreds of designations are available for every conceivable specialty. For a comprehensive listing of certifications, consult Anne Martinezs book, Get Certified & Get Ahead (McGraw-Hill).
In IT certification, what youre going to get is some immediate bang for your buck in terms of salary increase, said Amit Yoran, CEO of information security provider Riptech and adjunct professor at George Washington University. However, Yoran still stresses the importance of having a college degree to accompany the certification.
Why certify? Doug Kendzierski, associate vice provost at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), said, Were in a market in which demand has never outpaced supply by such a tremendous disparity. Certification is a way to prove to a potential employer that you have a specific set of skills, thereby making their hiring decision a little bit easier.
Whats the hottest certification?
Two areas of focus I see as very attractive is any sort of networking-based technologies, and the other is software engineering disciplines, said Yoran. Beyond the most common certifications (Microsoft, Cisco, Novell), though, there are plenty of other designations that may be just as valuable. If you want a career in Linux, get the RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer) certification. If you want to cash in on the increasing concern over network security, the SANS GIAC (System Administration, Networking, and Security Global Incident Analysis Center) certificate will show potential employers that you can protect the corporate goodies. To gain even more leverage, combine this vendor-neutral security certification with a vendor-specific one. Almost every firewall-equipment vendor has its own certification program, and a generic security certification combined with a CCSE (Check Point Certified Security Engineer) or a Cisco Security Specialist certificate would make for a quick path to employment.
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