Several people have asked me what certifications they should look for to strengthen their career or position, or which ones a company should look for in a hiring prospect. What draws my attention is that they assume the answer to a prior and conditioning question: Is it worth looking for certifications? This question got me thinking about who is asking for them (both from the point of view of the individual who is looking for them and the contractor who values them). Given the audience reached by this magazine, I think it may be interesting to focus the column on this topic.
For the purposes of this discussion, I focus on certifications as a document issued by a commercial Australia Mobile Database entity not primarily engaged in higher education, validating that the candidate has mastery of a specific set of tools or technologies (typically, but not necessarily, limited to those generated by the certifying organization).
Certifications differ from other methods of qualification in that they are typically awarded upon taking and passing an exam; they typically do not require the candidate to take a course.
In addition to the above, certifications often have –unlike virtually any academic program– a certain validity, either for a pre-established time, or by being tied to specific technologies, with a planned life cycle and obsolescence.