Computer Certifications at a Glance

[blud]

Lately, it appears that computer certifications are becoming one of the most important credentials that employers are looking for. It seems that while employers are looking for this key asset, corporations are starting to put out more certifications for people to get. Microsoft and Red Hat both have a 3 tier system for their certifications, MCP and RHCT, MCSA and RHCE, MCSE and RHCA, respectively for their own fields. Cisco also has a 3 tier track for Networking Professionals, CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE. Even Dell has a tiered course for IT Enthusiast that want to become certified in their equipment.

There are several companies out there that also have more ‘Generic’ exams. CompTIA with their Plus+ Certifications (Network+, Security+ etc.) are working on getting a recognized accredited certification process for many parts of the IT Industry. Personally, I don’t believe most of these certifications can’t really judge a person correctly due to their design. The Red Hat certifications are the closest that I’ve seen come to testing a person’s true ability to do what the certification claims the holder can do. For all of you die hard BSD fans out there, there is a group at bsdcertification.com that are currently working on a system administration test.

So I leave you with this, the top 10 IT Certifications for over all quality.
(Survey taken from certification magazine)

1. RHCE
2. CCIE
3. CCNP
4. MCSE
5. CNE
6. CCNA
7. CompTIA Security+
8. CompTIA A+
9. CompTIA Network+
10. MCP

[jwenting]

hmm, you're rather limiting yourself to a narrow type of certification.
You're only considering sysadmin certs, and even then only PC specific ones.

Why did you ignore Sun for example? They have some of the best education/certification programs in the business both for software developers and sysadmins.

[blud]

The Certifications listed above are taken from Certification Magazine, Sun was listed under the list for the 'best study resources' but it wasn't listed on the overall exam.

And I'm not just limiting it to sysadmin certifications (ie. security+, CCNA etc.)

[MartyMcFly]

I think the list is leaning more to sysadmins, but as a sysadmin myself, it's very useful.

Thanks

[alc6379]

Let me throw in my 2 cents on this one:

Certs are great. They're supposed to be a baseline for a person's IT knowledge. They should not be the defining factor in hiring someone. I've seen jobs where you needed a minimum ABCDSE+ cert, and it was just an entry level cable-monkey type of gig.

The certification that has gotten my attention is the MCDST. (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Certification). They've finally created something that shows you're qualified to work in a Help Desk phone-queue type of position. Though I wouldn't base my hiring on it, I think it's neat, because the questions and study material are clearly designed with supporting an end-user in mind. The other MCP/MCSA/MCSE tracks are great, but they aren't always geared towards the support end, but rather the deployment, configuration, and usage of the OS itself. Even though it's two tests, your MCDST cert can count as one elective towards MCSA or MCSE.

[chrisranjana]

can Brainbench be considered a certifying authority at all ?