I've got a few certifications and quite a few more that have expired or aren't relevant. Does anyone think Windows NT 4.0 or SQL Server 6.5 matter? If you need help in those areas, ask someone else. Unless you have a crazy budget with a willingness to pay a ridiculous hourly rate.

Kamil Nowinski had a recent video discussing why IT certifications are still relevant. He had ten reasons, and if you want to watch the entire show, you'll hear his reasons and some rationale why he thinks they matter. It's a good set of reasons: keeping up with tech, practicing learning, demonstrating a commitment to some technology, finding a community of certified colleagues, and more.

In some sense, many of these are tightly coupled, but still worth pointing out. I think for smart, driven, ambitious people, certification is something that you can take advantage of to add to the learning you're likely already doing: sharpening your saw. That's an analogy to the craftsman that keeps his/her/their tools ready to go. For us in technology, this is usually our mental acuity with software (or perhaps typing).

For those who aren't motivated, getting a certification just to add letters after your name devalues the certification for sure. We saw a lot of paper-CNEs (Novell), paper-MCSEs (Microsoft), and paper-CNAs (Cisco) in the 90s. Poor interviewing techniques combined with a glut of certified-but-not capable staffers soured many people on certifications. For good reasons.

However, when you interview someone with a certification, or if you want to get one, pursuing a certification using Kamil's list means you are driving your knowledge forward in a focused, organized fashion. The certification isn't the goal, but a step on the way to becoming a more capable technical professional.

I got a couple of certifications in the last few years, and I felt they helped me grow and learn. I didn't always use all the skills directly, but I learned things that have helped me in my job and I didn't regret the time spent. I might work on another one in 2024, but time is always in short supply, and I've got other things to learn.

Even if I'm not trying to get certified, I continue to learn for many of Kamil's reasons, just without an examination during my journey.