IT/Business Certifications - What Makes You Invaluable?

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  Malarkey on 16/02/2015 - 16:55

  +1

  I'll throw in my 2c:

  What is your role: Technically I'm a "Pricing process officer" which equates to being a sas developer for one of the largest insurance companies in the country.

  What certifications do you have: Similar to you, just my Bachelor of IT, and a few RedHat certs.

  Do you use your certifications or do they just make your CV stand out: They never hinder your CV :) However I never use any of my RedHat skills that I picked up/

  What makes you invaluable in your role? I'm terrible at commenting my code ;) If its broken its hard for someone else to fix haha, jokes aside though its bad practice and you really should comment your work.

  If you were in my shoes, what would you study: Sit down and think about what you really want to do, no point becoming a developer and realising you actually wanted to be a sysadmin. Your in a good position that you know a bit of everything, choose what your passionate about and start building up those skills.

  I hope that helps :)

  • 

    airzone on 16/02/2015 - 19:25

    +2

    Lol @ not commenting your code.. That works until you forget what it does also ;)

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 16/02/2015 - 19:28

      Keep a personal diary?

  • 

    caidstech on 16/02/2015 - 22:53

    Yeah I'm pretty diligent about commenting in my code, I'm a bit anal when it comes to things like that. I can see how that's a sneaky job security factor though haha.

    Yeah that's kind of the reason I'm asking, I've thought about it a lot and honestly don't have a preferred direction. I enjoy it all so I was just trying to see what others would think may be valued over others.

    Thanks heaps for taking the time to get back to me!

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  airzone on 16/02/2015 - 19:21

  +1

  What is your role? IT Manager - have done a few gigs (last one was over 4k+ users in Asia Pac), this one is a fairly small aerospace startup with a few sites around the place (and I enjoy the different challenges that the startup aspect brings). I started doing first level support and application development.

  What certifications do you have? IT bachelors, general business training (CI & lean, that sort of thing). No ccna, no mcse, etc. I've dealt with enough PMP's who didn't know what a project plan was to understand that certs don't always correspond with ability.

  Do you use your certifications or do they just make your CV stand out? CI is good for lots of things and allows you to talk easily to production people. It's hard to get an IT manager job without a degree.

  What makes you invaluable in your role? Nobody is invaluable, just hard to replace. What makes me hard to replace is industry (aerospace & defence) experience, understanding the business (quickly), and the rapport that I have developed with the management team.

  If you were in my shoes, what would you study? two things - if you can get a vendor cert, then great. Pick your poison, but I might be tempted to look into Azure / Amazon cloud services (and I have little cloud experience due to my industry, but I try and learn it as a personal hobby). Many people believe that "cloud" will solve all their problems, but realistically it will take one set away, and present another set. So it's good to be one of the people with the skills to deal with that other set, lol!
  The other thing to learn is not IT stuff… Things like managing customer expectations, building rapport, being able to build and present a business case, some basic financials, dealing with people inside and outside of IT, etc.

  That said, being a jack-of-all-trades gives you the benefit of being tightly integrated with a (small) business and being able to deliver solutions that span multiple disciplines of IT. It's a different approach, but that is how I started my career as an IT manager. It doesn't work well with large businesses as people get pigeon-holed (and your ccna will mean squat if you are in an apps development team).

  Something different to think about.

  • 

    caidstech on 17/02/2015 - 22:46

    Yeah I've actually been looking into Amazon Cloud/Azure actually, but only on a pretty shallow level. Its definitely something that twigs my interest and would definitely require some learning. And yep, completely agree, new system = new problems. Just the way it works unfortunately haha.

    I think I carry some of the traits you listed, such as quickly understanding the business and building rapport. Would definitely agree that these are skills required to keep learning and moving within a business, but the current job I'm in doesn't really have that many opportunities for me.

    Regardless, you've given me a lot to think about. I really appreciate the feedback! :)

• 

  daalinz on 17/02/2015 - 08:40

  Role: Senior Systems Analyst Programmer Enterprise Java (& C++/.NET/Python/Perl/PHP/etc)

  Uni: Undergrad IT

  Invaluable: Whatever is your best strength. Mine is flexibility and quick learning. I'm good at setting up new projects/frameworks for development. I do get bored at repetition.

  Advice: Do what you are best at. Or go with where the money is if that is your motivation. Best earners would be project management and management thereafter OR if you are a good developer you can quote your rate. Get into consulting firms. You'll get a wider range of experiences.

  • 

    caidstech on 17/02/2015 - 23:01

    I think being a jack-of-all trades like airzone said is my strength, which makes it tough haha. I am pretty focused on some project management certs, but a lot of those require having worked on projects in the past, which I can't say I've done much of.

    Again, its awesome to get another perspective. Thanks for the feedback!

    • 

      daalinz on 18/02/2015 - 10:26

      You'll need to specialise at one point or another. Jack of all trades works at small business (I used to be one - still am), but jobs for bigger companies want you to be skilled at skill A for B amount of years.

      If you are a social people kind of person, stick with BA, PM kind of work. If you are a technical person and don't want to deal with people become a SysAdmin or Developer.

      You'll find once you work for a few years you will need to make the career path choice of specialist or manager. Where one needs more people skills than the other.

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  MasterScythe on 18/02/2015 - 15:12

  What is your role?
  Mixed IT support. Server Admin, On site break\fix, network rollout\engineer.

  What certifications do you have?
  Cert 4 in Network Engineering. Cert 2 IT traineeship. 13 years experience.

  Do you use your certifications or do they just make your CV stand out?
  Neither IMO. Nothing makes your CV stand out other than previous jobs and time in the trade.

  What makes you invaluable in your role?
  Nothing, I'm a dime a dozen in terms of skills; but people with my skills normally can't interact with 'humans' so that sets me apart.

  If you were in my shoes, what would you study?
  I'd change field. IT in this country uses people, the pay is (normally) worse than the cleaners get in the same company (including public sector).

  But if I had to stay, I'd learn HTML5. It makes iphone apps, and FirefoxPhone apps; it runs webpages and lets you make basically anything you'd ever need.
  Then, work from home.