From the article: What Comes First: Certification or Experience?
Did you use certification as a springboard to get an IT job, or did you get experience first, and then get certified to beef up your career or promotion prospects?
Experience!
- You can only learn so much from a book or a class, experience is the best way to develop your skills as it is a dynamic, interactive learning experience. However reading and experience are complementary to each other and you shouldn't just rely on one. Having experience better prepares you for certification as often times it is easier to remember something you have done rather something you have read.
- —Guest Eric Siebert
System Admin
- It is a chicken and egg situation. My stance is that you get a certification to round out the self. My experience has been to get the certification later on for particular technology. For example, I just recently got the VMware VCP on VI3 - days before vSphere was released. Also, I make it a priority to maintain certifications on multiple disciplines. Namely Windows and VMware, so I can't be too cutting edge.
- —Guest Rick Vanover
Cert First
- In my case, I got a certification first, and that helped me get my first IT job. I then got additional certs.
- —Guest Kyle