Technical Certifications a Huge Mistake (Google, Meta, Udemy...)

Hey, I'm Yuusuf and 20 years old. I’m interested in becoming a self-taught web developer, and I would like to meet serious people who want to connect so we could make a study group and make a plan together. If you are interested, let me know.

This helped me a lot recently. I began by doing my resume site, then linking a few programs I built as well as a website for a family members business. It went well, they took a chance and hired me. Now to not mess it up!

Certifications and Certificates are different things, and it's easy for people to be confused with the terminologies.

Im currently on my journey to try to get a job as a programmer. I started with udemy for 2 months doing 2 hours a day and learned some basics but i feel like i still didnt have a good structure so i decided to enroll in back end bootcamp. I have 4 more weeks left. What i realized that i needed the bootcamp to know how to structure my learning. Now after the bootcamp i would know how to keep gaining skills and resources to complete the projects that i had in mind until i get a job in tech

Congrat me luck! Love from india. 🎉

It depends on the job you want ultimately. Software engineering probably not, I’m doing one in data analysis and the skills I am learning are worth it.

Thank you, that makes sense.

If you work a normal 8 to 10 h/day programing work and also do certification, that means that you work more. So I dont see in what way you could say that the guys with certification is less focused. Even if he did not build anything, I would be happy to hear the guy say that he was curious, did it and that’s it. Not everything has to be built up. Do I remember those network courses? Hell no! Those got deleted out of my brain the moment those credits got validated 😂

Regarding certifications we need to distinguish between IT and Developers. In IT, industry certification from organizations like CompTIA, Cisco, Microsoft, etc. hold a ton of weight / value and are often times a hard requirement to get a job regardless of your experience or weather you have a degree or not. For example if you wanted to work certain government jobs you have to hold and maintain certain certifications, there are no exceptions. Now this is totally different for Developers because as far as know there is no industry standard certifications for Developers. That said I don't think it is a complete waste of time to go through Udemy, Coursera "certifications" to learn the material and to help us as a guide to build your own project. Some of these courses are actually really good. Just understand what they are. Also for something like the Meta certifications and a lot of the other ones on Coursera you can "Audit" those courses for free which gives you access to all the learning material you just don't get the badge of completion at the end.

Get recognized certs + build a portfolio, even if the portfolio consists of side projects. Just, in some way, show the employer that although you are new to the industry and have no experience, you are attempting to go outside of the certification bubble and get into the real world.

You just like to be negative towards any journey that isn’t your own. Taking classes and getting certifications and learning things is fantastic. Don’t let this person let you think that just because you’re taking a different route it is a bad thing.

I think 1 good cert like the meta one is good to have but not multiple a lot ofyoung devs like me just want to do 4 or 5 certs when my projects and experience matter more I've realized having my own web dev agency has helped a lot

Currently certifications are just a benchmark thing for me. As I'm learning I'm also trying to build my own project but for someone who's never touched this until last year i have no idea how the things I use everyday even work but getting into it I love it. Growing up on Legos and building things was always fun. Working with code and the frustrations when something doesn't work it's so gratifying when I figure out why and how something works and to get it to work

People, definitely, shouldn't be looking at certifications as the endgame but rather a starting point. Nowadays, we are blessed with the accessibility for whatever information we need, but that can also be a disadvantage because One would not know where to start. I see the Meta/google/IBM Coursera certifications, for example, as a method for a beginner getting into a certain field to have an idea about the skills needed for the job and most importantly, learn them in the right order without skipping important details. If you view this kind of certifications in that way, in my personal opinion, they will be a great asset, a guide of some sort.
So, yea, other than that, I totally agree with you.

exactly on point, I've attended the Google Data Analytics course out of curiosity and earned the certificate of "completion" in a month, I'm a former backend developer and a current senior data analyst, wanted to know whether I can recommend it or not for junior analysts and my colleagues, TBH, it's good for those who need an introduction into this field, but you cannot guarantee a job with it alone, especially if you don't have knowledge in statistics, linear algebra even calculus if your job "most likely" is involved with data scientists and machine learning, Google is providing support in finding entry jobs within the U.S. only, the same goes for the other cert programs by Meta and IBM, it's good to start there, but don't take it as a final step before the job, in the interviews they will ask you to showcase studies and explain the approach which got you into insights and conclusion, they will test your skills in Excel, SQL, R and Python, also both Tableau and Power BI, AWS data lake and more, also if you're 40+ your chances will be close to nothing because at that age range employers expect seniors, this is the harsh reality, this has been said, I'm going back into programming the job I've always loved and I'm 45 now, I will quit working for people and go freelancing!

I have ideas for apps so I figure why not learn the skills thru one of these fang certs, hope one day they’ll offer me a job so I can tell them to kick rocks

I feel like this is a pretty bad take because it is so general. I'll take one specific example, the Meta iOS certificates. If you pursue a CS degree, will that introduce you to iOS development? It is a relatively new programming language that you will not learn in college or university. I myself had PHP and then JAVA, I got nothing out of those and I had to enroll into a bootcamp to get an entry level job.

Meta has the iOS developer certificates and I think those are pretty good and add massive value. Lets say you're looking to switch from web dev because you're paid peanuts, I think the iOS certs will add the credibility you're missing to get yourself an iOS job.

I think certifications are valuable to demonstrate that you have the willingness to learn new things however in order to apply this knowledge you should create small projects using those skills, and be able to explain them in your own words. I'm currently working for a company as a Web Developer and I enrolled in the Meta Frontend Certification I think that is a good introduction to Web Development and is not just watching videos you must type code to complete it. Obviously, experience always is the most valuable aspect, certifications are a plus though. Experienced developers are able to go to the best place to learn which is the official Documentation of any technology, and rapidly understand by diving into the details and applying them to real-life problems. After only 2 years of experience, I'm being able to jump into the documentation of any framework and understand it without tutorials thanks to real experience so it all depends on which stage of your career you are in. Personally, I prefer to watch Udemy courses to NetFlix but I have stopped to publish completion certification in my LinkedIn profile for Example the Meta Certification gives access to the Meta Job Board so if you are looking for a job it could help to be in multiple places

I think this subject is pretty simple in a way.

Most industries, specially software development are results oriented. Which means that many employers even though they may put a lot of value on a Uni degree, many of them would be happy to hire whoever is capable of adding value to their companies. Certifications are good. You just have to make sure that you’re actually learning because the goal shouldn’t be collecting certs but actually learning.

It all comes down to: “Can you prove in an interview that you actually know what you claim you know.”

Is it a "huge mistake", really? I hate hyperbolic clickbait titles. Obviously a portfolio and proof of skills is super important, but certs aren't a "huge waste of time" particularly when someone is going for a particular position. The road is different for everyone. I like that you focus on learning>certs but it's unreasonable to say that they are a "huge mistake".

Would you recommend getting a computer science degree in your thirties or is that just simply too late? I keep hearing about ageism in the industry.

Please what's your twitter handle let's follow you

I'm lost man.. I have a college degree in Multimedia (little bit of IT, Photography/Video production, Graphic design) and I can't decide which route to take cause most of them require job experience.. I decided to go IT route and with that fund my Video making business. Is Meta course on Front end valuable to get me started?
Cheers all the way from poor ass Croatian dude 😄

Hey devsmark, can you tell me what'll be the source to learn javascript after html & css for the sake of learning (not for completion), free might be appreciated.

Do you think Code Academy is a good resource for learning code?

College Senior here, I just wanted to: 1. Thank you so much for the phenomenal, informational/inspiring videos. They have really been helping me figure out some of the potential paths that are out there while keeping me from overwhelming myself. 2. I've recently joined the ctf club at my university and gained a new interest in pen testing. In your opinion, do you think it would be more beneficial to improve my skills in front-end development that I've been doing over the past few months or to hold off for now and really learn the ins and outs of penetration testing?

What do you think about AWS certs? I think those are worth getting along with having actual hands-on experience ( like building your own architectures, deploying apps and websites and writing cloudformation templates )

I want to reach out to apple users in Web dev. I want to buy the base model macbook air m2 chipped. I plan on learning full stack web dev HTML, CSS, JS, React, Node, SQL. Although I'm aware that web dev isn't demanding as others that I wouldnt need a expensive device, I want to get a macbook for the ecosystem. I feel like base model should be fine, but I'm also hoping I don't have any annoying hiccups. I plan on reselling it in a under a year as that's how long I plan to learn and start applying. 8gb of ram and 256gb of storage for reference.

I’m at the point where I’ve gone through a bit of JavaScript but have a hard time coming up with a solution to something like changing numbers to Roman numerals 😕

Currently I'm taking the PHP course on Udemy to help me build my information management systems on my work. Certs is great but it really depends on what type of role you'll be applying to.

Well it’s been 4 months since I graduated from a bootcamp called ironhack and still no job, it’s not easy as these bootcamp like to put it. You need to continue to study even after the bootcamp and actually build apps.

I’m taking classes on UDEMY not because of certs, I know I need to get a basic understanding in the beginning of the journey. Ultimately, my plan is to apply the knowledge that I am gaining in order to build something that will shine on my future portfolio. One thing that is very hard for beginning self learners is finding the right path. It’s not as easy as a being a college student and choosing a degree where the path is already pretty much laid out.

I complete certificates to get a good picture of what I might miss otherwise.

It’s not particularly for the job application neither do I spend too much time on it. Its just a bonus for me being self-taught to have something (with projects).

It’s merely there to help me know what I need to know and what I can do with the tech.

Though I must I agree, it’s easy to get hung up on it while there is little effect to someone who’ll hire you

It's different in different countries

I think certifications are valuable if you want to get into IT. If you want to become a developer, then you should probably build business class applications, basically the ones that you will be hired to build, and put them on your portfolio site.

Thanks a lot uncle devsmak.

certifications in IT is very valuable, i'll give an example, to get a Network engineering job, you could get to college or do Cisco certifications which are Really valuable and incredibly cheap compared to college and the route to becoming a network engineer is pretty simple, get the CCNA (Cisco certified networking associate), then CCNP (professional level), then the expert level which is the CCIE, anither field i can give an example is cybersec, get the Sec+, linux+, EJPT cert and then finally OSCP, college is valuable, but these certs will accelerate your career soo fast its mad. and some colleges require their students to pass these certs anyway and these certs are very reputable. thanks for taking your time to read this