…they can’t replace hands-on experience.
Last week we spoke about the value of courses and certifications and what they add to your resume.
One thing that job searchers often seem to overestimate in my opinion is the issue of certifications, certificates and other achievements that they list on their resume. It’s not that certifications and certificates are unnecessary or irrelevant but in my experience, hiring managers tend to value actual hands-on experience over scholastic achievements more often than not.
In a perfect situation, I suspect most hiring managers would like to hire a skilled, experienced person who might also have a relevant certification or two but too often I see candidates who keep stressing their certifications without realizing that they seem to be more impressed with them than anyone else.
In my experience – I’m using IT as a specific example – certifications rarely make up for actual hands-on experience. I can’t recall when a hiring manager picked an inexperienced person with a certification over an experienced person with no certification.
This is especially true when the economy is like it is today with numerous people laid off (ie. available to start a new job) and employers can often have the pick of the crop.
Having a certification or some other designation can certainly help to distinguish you from your competitors for a job and in some cases might actually be a prerequisite for applying but they tend to only take you so far. At the end of the day, people want qualified, skilled people that can communicate – among other things.
Plus with the rise of fake diplomas, degrees and other useless designations that can essentially be bought, hiring managers are becoming more aware of what scholastic achievements are real and which ones aren’t.
We discussed this issue a few months back when we talked about background checks.
