Which one is more important in IT: Experience or Certification?

Over the last two decades, technology has grown exponentially and consequentially, the need for a specialised workforce to meet deadlines and complete projects. Hiring managers have a tough task at hand to choose the right person for the right job. While scrutinising qualifications are one way to go about this, there is also no replacement for on the job experience, right? So what exactly is more important- experience or certification?

Talking about experience most of the managers will choose it over certification. A person may have a file of certificates to his name but that does not guarantee that he/she may do the job properly. Experience of an individual guarantee that the person is accustomed to the work environment and business processes. He/she need not be trained about the process and can blend in easily. Moreover, experience also highlights the art of finding a solution to problems faced as the person has learnt about the kind of problems which can come in and how to get out of it which is not covered in the certification. Certifications are all about standard processes whereas experience talks about plethora of practical scenarios. This is in no way means that certification is of less value, they have their own importance which we will discuss.

Certifications are valid proof that an individual possesses the knowledge about a technology or product in depth. While screening resumes many hiring mangers place a great value to relevant certifications to proceed with the interview process. Certifications in current technology underline the personal commitment of an IT professional to learning new things and staying up-to-date in this dynamically changing world. Moreover it features that the person has dedicated time and money to learn about technologies required for a specific job position. It also stands as a proof that the individual is aware about the product and has valid credentials to prove the same. The only problem we see with the certification exams is the wide scale cheating which happens thus planting a doubt in the head of the hiring manager whether the person has proper knowledge or has just passed the exam somehow. This issue is getting addressed by the respective companies.

Looking at both sides of the story there is no clear winner of one over another. We can safely summarise this in the following way- a blend of both is important. Certification guarantees that the person is well aware of the technology or the product whereas relevant experience accents that person is well-aware about the business processes and work culture and has know-how of implementing his knowledge in wide variety of scenarios which we generally face in the production environment.

Getting experience over everything is difficult but a work around over here is to make sure that while preparing for certifications make sure the labs which are designed for practice are based on complex, industry-standard networks which gives you a better chance in the interview process and land you your dream job and a wonderful career thereafter. Head over to our website –  to learn about how we do this.