Certification – Poor Picks – Vendor-specific certifications

Of course, there are some bets that I wouldn’t make. I’m not necessarily down on specific certifications, but I am down on specific types of certifications.

Any certification that locks you into a specific vendor has, at its core, an interest other than the certification alone. If a vendor is pushing a certification, they want to make you expert in their technology over similar technologies. This raises the demand for that technology and increases their sales. Pretty much all of the large technology vendors have a certification program. These, of course, as the most popular certifications, as they are promoted by the sales department of each vendor.

The big problem for you, is that these certifications will lock you in and links your career to the future of that company. This can be even more dangerous than specializing in a specific programming language. That said, there is an out. In some places, there is no vendor-neutral certification in a specific technology (at a high enough tier). In those cases, you are best off going after two certifications! That way, if one company stumbles, you have the other one to fall back on. You can also brand yourself as an expert in the technology without being a sales person for a specific company.

(Disclaimer: I am Linux certified by both Red Hat and Novell.)