Are Technical Certifications worth it for your career development?

Each time, I open my LinkedIn, someone publishes a celebration message for a new certification. Of course, this is followed by likes and congratulations comments from everyone. So, Are these certifications really worth it for better jobs and careers? This question was in my mind for a few months, and I will try to give it an answer in this article.

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I have 15 years of experience, during which I worked for three multinational companies and jumped from and to many fields and domains. I worked in digital and web applications, e-commerce, in mobile development, and recently I switched to data science. I worked as a software developer, technical expert, project manager, and also Skill Center manager for a while. I had three degrees: a software engineer diplomat, a Ph.D. in Machine Learning, and MicroMaster on DataScience. However, I have very few technical certifications. ( Yes, it’s very surprising ;) )

Personally, I have never felt that the lack of certification was a handicap in my career. But, could it be easier for me with more certifications?

Before answering this, let’s look at today’s available certifications.

Two kinds of certifications:

• Participation Certification: This certification is given to any participant that finishes the courses, without any validation of his learning. Some platforms propose exams, but it’s often no timing and easy ones that everyone succeeds in it.
• Certification with the exam: This certification is more complicated to get. It is necessary to follow a certain number of lectures (two to three weeks in generals), and succeed in a 2 to 3 hours exam. The exam is usually monitored either in examination centers or via a remote camera and PC control to prevent cheating. In both situations, it also requires to present an ID card to ensure that it’s the correct person who took the exam.

Just from this explanation, it is now clear that the participation certification is useless. So, let’s stop please publishing this kind of certification on your profile and CV. It has no…