Best IT certifications

From what I have heard the BSC degree will be done with focus on "BSc (with specialisation in Information
Technology and Computer Science)"

If anyone wants the PDF let me know
 
You do know Unisa can be done anywhere in the world - thats why it is called distance learning.
I am not doing it for a job - for my own reasons.
I am waiting on my papers from OZ, do you want the username and password for the immigration website to check?

Edit: as of yesterday my papers are in process :rolleyes:
 
About to finish my degree through UNISA (granted that I pass my final exams :rolleyes:)

I agree that the degree/cert arguements are pointless... To be honest, the degree is used to get the theory and background knowledge, and then next year I'll start with a cert or two, just to get the in depth specific knowledge relating to the specific subject...

At the end of the day, no matter what you study, you going to end up having to supplement and constantly update your know-how - since the world and technologies are ever changing, you not going to be employable in a couple year's without keeping up with the pace of things...
 
Experience is everything..!

I did a BProc (law) and hated it. After I finished, I did my BSC computer science and also completed my Masters. I also lectured to final year BSC students. I can tell you that not even those final year students had a clue about the real world.

My point is simply - none of these degrees helps me much in my day to day work and they are all outdated. Experience accounts for about 99% of what I do. How did I get my experience? Simple: Opened up my own company with R10. Made a success, sold it. Started the next one, failed, started the next and so on...(I started my first company whilst still a 1st year law student - installed networks, server farms security etc.. for the then very new ISP's).

I also worked for blue chip IT and international Telco companies and even in these companies any degree was worth less than the paper it was written on.

My advise then? Certainly - get the degree / diploma / certification but only as a the foundation - don't only rely on that. Get out there are get the experience and if no one wants to give you a chance like in my case - start your own thing - even if it fails as you will learn more in that one failure than in 20 years sitting in some cubicle...
 
marine1 said:
If anyone is doing the BSC computer science at Unisa next year please let me know.
Click to expand...

I'm doing it part time this year... should have 7 / 30 subjects done if pass them all.

Only thing to check is that UNISA is re-doing all their Bsc Degrees. If you look on their website they only have the general one there. Non of the specialized streams. I have no idea when these will be out, but I'm hoping I can convert my degree to one of the new ones.
 
Jweb_@@ said:
Why was CTI a big mistake? What would be a better alternative?
Click to expand...

In my case, I didn't learn all to much and it cost a small fortune (ok, their price has more than doubled since). 3 years at uni would have been around the same and you get a way better study experience / social life. You are way better off just doing the degree. And top it off afterwards with a couple of cert's.

IMO every little thing you have behind your name counts. But i can also add the only thing that counts in the end, is work experience.
 
I still believe certifications are a waste of time. I have 11 years commercial coding experience (started working as a junior programmer the year after high school) across a wide variety of languages, but have never completed a tertiary qualification. Compare that to someone whose spent the last 4+ years of his life filling his head with other people's ideas, and has all the theoretical knowledge in the world, but absolutely no clue how the real world works.... I wouldn't trade my experience for anything.
 
Nocturne said:
I still believe certifications are a waste of time. I have 11 years commercial coding experience (started working as a junior programmer the year after high school) across a wide variety of languages, but have never completed a tertiary qualification. Compare that to someone whose spent the last 4+ years of his life filling his head with other people's ideas, and has all the theoretical knowledge in the world, but absolutely no clue how the real world works.... I wouldn't trade my experience for anything.
Click to expand...

Yes, but remember, that at least the graduate has an idea of what the field is about. I agree 100% that experience counts more than anything else, in any field, but remember that some people go to varsity/get cert's to get into the field.

To put it differently, imagine a fireman who doesn't have the basic training, but was brought on as a cleaner and worked himself to become a top fireman (without going through official training). That fireman has more experience and will obviously do a better job than a new recruit just out of training. But from that recruit's perspective, he had no idea about what being a fireman involved (and didn't get the cleaner job either :)) until he completed training, and only then it opened up the real world of being a fireman to him/her...

The official training is merely an entry into the real world of that field for most people - someone with plenty of experience( with or without official training) will obviously know more than the newbie... so if you looking to compare, do it with similar individuals - one with a degree/cert and one without, and both have the exact same experience in the same area. If they both apply for the same job, who is more likely to get it?

The paper you get from studying is merely a declaration to a company that you at least have and know the basics and should be able to learn while performing a specific function. If you are incompetent and cannot adapt and grow and learn, then whether you have a cert/deg or not, you not going to last very long in any job....
 
wishblade said:
Yes, but remember, that at least the graduate has an idea of what the field is about. I agree 100% that experience counts more than anything else, in any field, but remember that some people go to varsity/get cert's to get into the field.

To put it differently, imagine a fireman who doesn't have the basic training, but was brought on as a cleaner and worked himself to become a top fireman (without going through official training). That fireman has more experience and will obviously do a better job than a new recruit just out of training. But from that recruit's perspective, he had no idea about what being a fireman involved (and didn't get the cleaner job either :)) until he completed training, and only then it opened up the real world of being a fireman to him/her...

The official training is merely an entry into the real world of that field for most people - someone with plenty of experience( with or without official training) will obviously know more than the newbie... so if you looking to compare, do it with similar individuals - one with a degree/cert and one without, and both have the exact same experience in the same area. If they both apply for the same job, who is more likely to get it?

The paper you get from studying is merely a declaration to a company that you at least have and know the basics and should be able to learn while performing a specific function. If you are incompetent and cannot adapt and grow and learn, then whether you have a cert/deg or not, you not going to last very long in any job....
Click to expand...

The problem is that I've seen so many people with the certificate or degree who are incompetent, and cannot adapt and grow and learn. Or they go through the whole certification process, have lots of fun, are convinced this is what they want to do with their lives... until they start working and realise the "real world" is nothing like what they saw in the classroom. What a waste of time and money on their parts! :(

As to two people with the same experience, one has a degree and the other not.... Well, I fear that because of the mentality of today's companies (particularly corporates), the one with the degree will get the job. IMO, though, whether's he's actually better has nothing to do with his degree. Besides (I know I'm making wild assumptions here), in order to have the same level of experience, the one with the degree would have to be much older--the one without the degree started working when the one with the degree started studying. If he's older, he's in a different place in his life, maybe a wife and kids, a bond to pay off, which the younger guy may not yet have. The older guy needs more security, more stability, and a better salary than the younger guy--but just because he has a degree doesn't mean he's better at his job! Why take that risk? Employ the younger guy on a lower salary, let him prove himself (which he will if he's any good), then increase his salary. Even from a company's perspective, it just makes more sense.
 
Last edited:
Nocturne said:
The problem is that I've seen so many people with the certificate or degree who are incompetent, and cannot adapt and grow and learn. Or they go through the whole certification process, have lots of fun, are convinced this is what they want to do with their lives... until they start working and realise the "real world" is nothing like what they saw in the classroom. What a waste of time and money on their parts! :(

As to two people with the same experience, one has a degree and the other not.... Well, I fear that because of the mentality of today's companies (particularly corporates), the one with the degree will get the job. IMO, though, whether's he's actually better has nothing to do with his degree. Besides (I know I'm making wild assumptions here), in order to have the same level of experience, the one with the degree would have to be much older--the one without the degree started working when the one with the degree started studying. If he's older, he's in a different place in his life, maybe a wife and kids, a bond to pay off, which the younger guy may not yet have. The older guy needs more security, more stability, and a better salary than the younger guy--but just because he has a degree doesn't mean he's better at his job! Why take that risk? Employ the younger guy on a lower salary, let him prove himself (which he will if he's any good), then increase his salary. Even from a company's perspective, it just makes more sense.
Click to expand...

This mentallity simply does not exists in the corporate world.
 
ponder said:
This mentallity simply does not exists in the corporate world.
Click to expand...

+1

Most corporates want to know that the candidate made the effort and sacrifice to get the degree. The corporate world is also unfortunately not purely focused on skills, but image too. Companies like Accenture/KPMG/PWC/etc won't even look at you for an junior analyst position if you don't have a degree as they want that status symbol when marketing their consultants to clients and if you look at their track record, the strategy has worked quite well so far.
 
I have MCITP Enterprise Admin, Comptia A+ and Comptia N+.
 
quik said:
The corporate world is also unfortunately not purely focused on skills, but image too.
Click to expand...

Now that's a good point. There's a problem somewhere when a degree/diploma/certification becomes a status symbol, but I guess it's not the corporate's fault - they just want to keep up their image.

There are loads of people out there who are really good at what they do for a living, who simply aren't "study" kind of people. Maybe they choke under the pressure of writing an exam (and would probably pass an oral one, if it existed). Maybe they're auditory people, who battle to remember things they've read, but will readily remember things they've heard. Maybe they're dyslexic, colour blind, partially sighted (like myself). I guess they're just not cut out to work for corporates.

Their loss, I guess (the corporates) - those candidates can go work for smaller, more innovative and far-sighted companies who will appreciate their skills over a worthless (but very expensive) piece of paper that says nothing about a person's skills.

Cheers
Nocturne
 
I think certifications of any type never hurt your job chances. Many organizations and technical staffing services have found certified technicians to be more productive than their noncertified counterparts. Around here, they value MS and Cisco certifications more than anything else. I got an A+ and MCSE before breaking into the industry, and I can say that they certainly helped me get my first job. But if you want a job, you have to network. A friend recommending you is vastly more helpful than any certification ever will.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X