On October 17th, I was laid off from what was supposed to be a long term contract at IBM after having previously laid off at another job at a certain ailing mortgage company. Job hunting as been really tough and the only thing that has looked really good so far is sales job at Tiger Direct.
What’s holding me back, besides the terrible economy, is the fact that I may have 8 years of experience working at a help desk, but I don’t have a single technical certification to “prove” what I know. Sadly, too many hiring decisions are made by folks who can’t tell a cd-rom drive from a cup holder, and technical certifications are the only things they have to tell them if you know what you’re talking about. Personally, I find the dependence on technical certifications to be silly at best, but those are the rules that we have to live by.
For those of you who are also jobless and looking to improve your resume, here are some links with important information for those who are also looking to get their technical certs. This post is by no means complete or exhaustive. I’ll past more on the certifications page as I have time.
Certification Companies
Cisco Exams
Entry
Associate
- CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate
- CCDA Cisco Certified Design Associate
- CCNA Security Involves Implementing Cisco IOS Network Security
- CCNA Voice Involves Implementing Cisco IOS Unified Communications
- CCNA Wireless Implementing Cisco Unified Wireless Networking Essentials
Professional
- CCNP Cisco Certified Network Professional
- CCDP Cisco Certified Design Professional
- CCIP Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional
- CCSP Cisco Certified Security Professional
- CCVP Cisco Certified Voice Professional
Expert
Specialist
- Advanced Routing and Switching
- Data Center
- Foundation for Channel Partners
- IP Communications
- Security
- Wireless LAN
CompTIA Exams
- CompTIA A+ Certification
- A+ Study Guide for A+ Essentials and 220-602
- A+ Essentials 2006 Study Guide
- A+ Certification Resources (Network+ also! Lots of good links)
- CompTIA Network+ Certification
- CompTIA RFID+ Certification
- CompTIA Security+ Certification
- CompTIA Server+ Certification
- CompTIA CTT+ Certification
- CompTIA CDIA+ Certification
- CompTIA Linux+ Certification
- CompTIA Project+ Certification
- CompTIA Convergence+ Certification
- CEA-CompTIA DHTI+ Certification
- CompTIA PDI+ Certification
Redhat Exams
- Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT)
- Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
- Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist (RHCDS)
- Red Hat Certified Security Specialist (RHCSS)
- Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA)
LPI Exams
- LPI Linux Certification – Wikibooks
- LPI 101 Certification Practice Test
- Ubuntu Certified Professional (Part of the expanded LPI Certification)
- LPI Certification Self-Study Guide
- LPI – General Linux 1 – Testemulation
- Linux Professional Institute exam prep (From IBM, you must register to use)
General Training Resources
- How to Study for a Certification Exam
- Free Quiz & Practice Questions – Quiz School
- Certification-crazy.net (somewhat out of date)
- CertCities
- Certification Magazine
- Computer Certification Information (About.com)
- CramSession (You might find their study free study guides useful, but I didn’t think they were all that good compared to the amount of spam they send.
- Richard M. Roberts
- Wikiversity Computer Science Courses
“Other” Training Resources
Yet Another Tech Blog 
As a holder of many technical certifications, I couldn’t agree with you more. I have over 30 years of experience in the computer world. and worked hard to gain numerous certifications and was proud that I held them until one day I had a sales rep bring this young man who held an MCSE certification as I did into the server room and he goes “Ohhh so that’s what a switch looks like”. After that I only work for companies that can appreciate what I have done in the past. 73
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I went and got my A+ and my Network+ several years ago thinking the same thing you were. All it did was put me in debt. In the IT industry one never knows if the next job interview will be interested in someone that has all the certs in the world, or if you will run into an interviewer that could care less and wants real world experience. After a little over 3 years of starving in that industry I got out. None of the jobs payed worth a darn anyway. I sure do wish you luck, and hope you find what you are looking for!
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