You'll notice at the end of this email a tagline for certification. By trade my job is really in software development and process improvement, but before too long I will be fully certified as a DBA/MCSE and probably shortly after that an MCT from Microsoft.
While all of the arguments you heard not to certify are generally accurate and probably completely true, the arguments for were never really stated by you, of at least two peoples opinion why you should certify. At best you leave the reader with a sense that they should not really bother to certify.
Five or six years ago when Microsoft started their certification programs many people in the industry made those same types of arguments against their programs. I would say now what I said then. Do what you feel is right for you. Consider this though...
Whether you certify or not, will the next company you want to work for require it? Will it ever affect your pay? If you consider yourself a software tester, what is your degree in, and should an employer require/hire someone who does or does not have a degree? (AS, BS, MBA)
If you are software QA, and you do not test, should you have a degree in engineering simply because you will be reviewing 'engineering' of software?
Now consider again the Microsoft certs. They tie together the common pieces of the networking puzzle, and teach how to analyze for the custom pieces, and then tell how those products can deal with the options that are left.
OK, so what, what does that mean exactly. Well to start with it means, that every MCP you ever meet should be able to perform a minimum set of tasks using a standard piece of software (notice hardware is excluded-think of hardware variances). Does that mean the person is the best or the worse, good or bad, lazy or hardworking, a good employee or a bad employee?
None of the above.
Now you are a hiring manager, you are not certified, but you know that in the IT field MCP means something...
Candidate A is not certified Candidate B is certified
All other things being equal, you need a new person on your help desk, the position does not require, and these two people have almost identical resumes. Who get the position? Who gets more money? Why?
One of the keys to certification is the perception of how important it is. I know someone who has taken all the testing certs and never written a test plan. Couldn't begin to if he had to. Yet in almost every single circumstance, I am willing to bet, he gets in the door before the people you spoke with.
So what, still doesn't justify the certification process. Right? I agree.
So what do all these purported dead ends and unanswered questions tell you?
Well in the case of MS certifications, in case you didn't know, they survived, and by the way, they sparked a certification industry along the way. You know what else they did, they raised the bar. A lot of people won't admit that. Too proud or stubborn, a lot will even say, look I am still in the field and I am not certified. Ask them the last time they received a pay raise, advancement, or found a new job. Have you ever met a person with an MBA, who you would swear was dressed every morning by a competent adult in his/her life? I have, how did they get their MBA. Doesn't matter when I apply for a job I am more qualified to do, and get paid to do, when the qualifier is MUST have an MBA.
I believe what you set out to find was the holy grail, when you only needed a dixie cup.
Certification should talk to the commonalities of software testing or whatever, rather than the uniqueness. Unless your average tester is going to take a position as a Manager, they will not be deciding most of the policies and procedures of the testing for several reasons. But they may be asked to do Unit testing, is unit testing a standard? What about white box vs. black box? Come to think of it, what is regression testing? Isn't all testing really regression in nature?
Again, the ties that bond, we have a set of standards that government and industries have agreed to. Every day we agree to more and more standards for coding and development. These are the things that make us common to each other, and allow us to communicate to everyone on the same level. Seek the commonalities, understand the differences and why the two exist.
Travis Reed-MCP