I am now out of work for one year and am concentrating on getting more certifications to improve my marketability. What are your views on what employers would perfer? LPIC or Linux+ ?

Bluemax

I have not done any recruiting and hiring for ~20 years, and never in IT---so take this for what it's worth.

I'd be asking you things like: Why you are in this field? and: How would you approach solving this problem? If I got good answers to these questions, then I **might** look at your certificates.

Flip side: You could have every cert. in the book but--if it seemed that you didn't know how to actually do anything--it would not matter.

The best thing to do is to talk to prospective employers and find out what they are looking for.

Employers don't care about certs as much as they care about:

a) problem solving skills
b) strong work ethic
c) honesty, intelligence, positive attitude, etc
... and ...
d) experience

Experience trumps certifications every time.

The good news: "experience" does NOT have to be "paid experience". Volunteer work or internships are just a good (or better - because they show initiative!)

Better news: "experience" doesn't have to match the exact job. If you can show that you've successfully completed projects LIKE the job description ... that's very often good enough. Getting a passing grade on some stupid certification test - doesn't count for much. Showing that you've done something similar, and showing that you can and will learn new technologies as needed - counts for an awful lot!

Certifications are just not that important.

IMHO .. PSM

Here's an interesting read on certifications vs experience: http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine...-vs-experience

It may not answer which certification is the best, but it tells what employers are looking for.

3 members found this post helpful.

Wagaboy - great article. Thanx for citing it:
IMHO .. PSM

A very nice article for all the readers. Though I got RHCT, but I still accept the fact that experience is more important.

In getting applications, particularly for junior roles, you often get quite a pile of 'bland' generic applications. If you've got nothing better to go on, I'd be more likely to get the ones in who have a relevant cert, if only because they've shown the application to get themselves a cert.

Note that in this scenario, it only gets you to the interview (but, if you don't get to the interview, you don't get the chance to go further) and it only does this because the competing applicants haven't taken their CV and fine-tuned it for the job for which they are applying. Part of this is because they take a 'scattergun' approach to job application, part is because they may have applied to an agency and they didn't know what the job was, when they sent in their CV.

But with a big pile of bland and non-committal paper in front if you, you'll go for anything relevant above nothing relevant.

Now we're talking about getting the interview---AKA how to write a resume. There was a time that I was reading ~10 a day, and maybe doing 3 or 4 interviews per week. At the time, my son was floundering around looking for his career path. I told him that--if I could not get a picture of someone (from their resume)-- in less than a minute, they might never get interviewed. (He was surprised, but it was true.)

I did take note of the basic degree requirements, but I still looked for the evidence that the candidate had the skills, experience, and motivation required. If the person rambled on about all their titles and professional certificates, it was generally a turn-off.

Hey,

Just out of curiosity, are you really out of job for 1 year? I mean, people who work have plan things accordingly and they see to it that they are not out of job for a max of more than 3 months. Then, did you have any reserves /backup already available with you for so long?

We guys think, going to US/UK would make our career & life, but looking at your situation, I think I made a right choice not going to these countries.

Experience trumps certs anytime and day. But if you really insist, the norm for companies are using Red Hat or equivalent, I'd say the RH Certs are more recognizable by most employers or at least the people giving the interviews.

Whether or not it's justified, RHCE seems by far to be the most desirable cert in my neck of the woods (central Texas).

But I'll agree with many of the other comments: If you have demonstrable skills and experience, the cert is not very important. If you don't have skills or experience, a cert might help you land a job, but you will not be keeping it for long.

Yup, complete agree. I worked at an employer where we were interviewing candidates. I was one of the older sysadmins as I worked with a bunch of out of college wannabe newbies. They chose some monkey that had RHCE certificate over a guy that had 20 years experience partly due to his certification and he was younger (they thought he would mesh with them over the older guy). I had the last laugh when they didn't take my advice, hired this guy and ended up teaching him some very basic stuff that any experienced user would have known. He didn't last long, they learned their lesson.

I guess I should have made my situation more clear. I have been in the field for over 28 years and have worked as a PC repair, Lab Tech, Programmer, Network Analyst, Network Admin and a Systems Engineer for Dell, but know one will interview me. I have had professionals rewrite my resume and still nothing in my field, in my area. Few jobs and too many good canidates. What I need is to find something to pump up my resume to get interviewed. I just finished my MCDST and still working on my MCSE. I also have A+, Network+ and a CCNA but still cannot get a call for a interview. I was just wanting to expand my scope to include Linux and wanted to not waist time chasing the wrong cert. Or at least I want to chase the best certs to improve my chances of getting interviewed.

I have also been told by HR people that resumes are scanned by People Soft HR software for key words to filter out the best qualified canidates and the rest are discarded without reading. So if you believe certs dont count you are fooling your self. Cannot get interviewed if your resume is no longer on the stack of resumes.



Thanks
Bluemax

Hi -

Strong, strong suggestion: get this book:

"What Color is Your Parachute", Richard N. Bolles

IMHO .. PSM

PS:
Your goal shouldn't be to get "accepted" by the HR screening process. Your primary goal should be to do an end run *AROUND* the HR screening process.

Your primary goal should be to:

1. Find the person who can hire you
2. Convince them that YOU'RE the person they need
3. If you succeed, HR is just a formality

Trust me - floating resumes is just a numbers game. And the odds are very much against you - with or without the right "buzzwords".

"What Color is your Parachute" tells you exactly how to proceed. If you don't get the 2010 edition, get an earlier (e.g. used) edition. I honestly believe it can help.

Good luck .. PSM

PPS:
I've got a number of certifications myself. Personally, I find studying for many certification programs quite helpful: I often learn a lot of useful "background" that I might not otherwise have been exposed to. NOTHING you learn is ever a "waste". I just wouldn't count on certifications to help you land a job

1 members found this post helpful.

Ummm.. you really think adding RHCE on your resume to be scanned by People Soft will pump it up just to get more interviews? Either you're getting rejected due to your age (28 years experience tells me you're not that young) or the job market area you are looking just sucks that bad.

Not to rub it in, I have a current job and I get contacted by recruiters all the damn time with potential jobs. I have zero certifications, well except that crappy A+ that was required for the Department of Defense that I don't even put on my resume. I'm almost ashamed of admitting I have it because it was such a joke of a test.

Trust me, it's not the lack of certs on your resume that isn't getting you job interviews. My advice, don't let others write your resume, keep it simple, don't overload it. Too much info on a resume from my experience can backfire on you possibly getting job interviews, etc. If we're hiring at any place I work, I reject those that list every damn software they've ever touched.

Good luck.