An IT professional who does not continue his or her education faces obsolescence and career limitations. With the emergence of technical certification as a quantifiable standard of excellence, corporations now have the opportunity to reap the rewards of having a skilled workforce ready and able to tackle any problem. Those rewards from recruitment flexibility to reduced turnover are helping position businesses for success. Evaluating employment candidates can be a tedious process. It is often difficult to determine which candidates are the most qualified.
Certification often serves as a quantifiable, objective measure of skills.
And, because certification is an assurance that an individual has met a level of knowledge and competency deemed necessary by a vendor or certification body, it is a useful tool to screen job candidates. Certification is easy to verify. A company can ask prospects for a transcript documenting which test they ve passed or simply call the vendor directly to verify they are certified and that they are current. Certifications are not more important than experience, nor do they replace experience. However, certification is another useful indicator of an individual s expertise.