When to NOT pursue certifications …
By: Pranay Nanda
Tags: Certification, Kubernetes, Google Cloud Platform

Last week, over the Diwali weekend, I passed both Certified Kubernetes Administrator and Certified Kubernetes Application Developer certification exams. Both the exams are considered difficult since 1) They are and 2) They’re hands-on which means that one cannot rote sample questions off the internet and go. It’s the difficulty level of these examinations that make them valuable. While I should be happy about passing them in my first attempt(which many don’t), I rather feel heavy with negative emotions about these exams in general. This is my narrative around the experience.

The Google Cloud Experience

For starters, and to be honest, I was simply looking to learn Kubernetes because Anthos was going to be something in GCP. Well, that’s what my previous experience has been with Google Cloud certifications. I learnt working with the platform first and then once I was confident and ready, I went on to take the certifications for validity. Although even with Google Cloud, certifications were a pre-decided goal, the idea always stemmed from my early career crisis where I wanted to gain valuable skills to be able to switch my job and career from what it was back then. Certifications only helped me land my resume on top of a stack. I think that’s what mostly certifications do. They help you switch jobs.

The Crash Story and The Regrets

The Reason

With these Kubernetes certifications, the experience was rather the reverse. I bought the exams and training content simply because it was available at a 60% discount in a Cyber Monday sale by The Linux Foundation. JUST IMAGINE! Purchasing something like that just because it was on SALE! I don’t even buy apparel that ways. I regret that.

The Process

The process of preparation was excrutiating. It lasted for about a year. In fact, I gave the exams just because I had paid approximately INR 25000 for them. That was my only incentive. Because I believed that the exam would be hard, I over-prepared for it by going through every course/resource I could find. I went through content on LinuxAcademy, KodeKloud, the official course material, other sample questions I could find on GitHub, guides, webinars, simulators and many other blogs that cited ‘Tips on how to take CKA/CKAD’. I literally sacrificed time that I could have spent reading books that in all likelihood would have educated me more. There I think is a problem prevalent in the tech industry. One weekend you don’t study your stuff and the next one you’re suffering through imposter syndrome. While that’s a topic for a different day, we were in a pandemic and I would have rather spent time with my family that on these courses. Even binging on some TV series wouldn’t have hurt in such times and I would have relished that. Instead, I spent all this year and its weekends studying for an exam. I regret that.

The Exam

I usually do this with my certifications. I eat my frogs first. I prepare for the harder one such that the easier one feels like a cakewalk(when it actually isn’t). That’s how I did it with my Cloud Architect and Cloud Engineer certifications and I wanted to replicate the same pattern here. Therefore, I went for the CKA first. When I finally sat for my CKA exam, much contrastingly to the popular belief, I was done in an hour and a half. I still had 30 mins to revise. Mind you, this was the new CKA exam after the September 2020 revision. I went through all of my stuff again. Twice! It doesn’t happen that ways. For all the blogs and resources I had gone through had suggested that since the exam is a race against time, it’s almost impossible to complete it in the stipulated time. For a couple of initial questions, I almost started to wonder if I was doing the correct thing because I found them such easy. Towards the end, I even calculated how much score I would get based on the questions I was confident about. When the score came out, it wasn’t far from what I had predicted since I exactly knew which questions I had messed up. CKAD on the other hand was different. Remember, how I said that the second exam isn’t exactly a cakewalk? Well, that’s because I didn’t push in enough effort in it. In my defence, it was festive weekend but in all honesty, I didn’t want to study more for it. I felt confident about the exam but I should’ve practiced well for that one as well. And one shall reap what one shall sow. I found the questions easy here with CKAD as well but because I didn’t practice enough for this one, the fingers were losing touch and I rather spent time on fixing issues that I should’ve postponed for later until I had attempted all the other questions. I was slow and lost significant amount of time there. When the exam ended, I was neither as sure of the result, nor I had the time to revise. In fact, I was luckily able to execute my last set of commands but couldn’t verify if they had worked properly or not. CKAD definitely was a race against time but I was happy by the end that these were done though. And oh, by the way, when I sat for CKAD, I had already received my results for CKA which did give me some impression that the job was 50% done. In entirety, I had over-prepared and yet under-delivered for a pair of exams that I didn’t commit to in the first place. I regret that.

The Payoff

The Linux Foundation certification and trainings website suggests that the results would be out in 36 hours after the exam. And so they were. If you sat for the exam at 11 AM in the day, you’d get your results at 11 PM the following day. I got my results at precisely that time. Of the passing score for 66% for the exams, I scored 74% and 91% respectively. See, the payoff wasn’t as much. I wasn’t looking to switch jobs that this certification would have helped me with. I didn’t learn much and still have a long way to go in navigating the Kubernetes ecosystem. I scored meagre. Average by all means. I dread working with Kubernetes if I really have to. All’s not lost though. I did gain some knowledge though. I at least understand the components and how they work with all the storage and scheduling mechanisms that I would shy away from. But honestly, if you want to hand me over a Kubernetes cluster to administrate right now, I’m probably not the right person. I will be able to pull strings but not be as effective. Ultimately, the gains don’t seem to outweigh the losses. I regret that.

The Real Lesson Learnt

I have a strange feeling about Google Cloud certifications. I pursued them because it felt right and I almost had a calling for learning Google Cloud. Similarly, I was simply testing myself on the official GCP exams when I found that I’m pretty much aware of all that’s needed to clear the Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Developer exam. I felt nothing of such sort for CKA and CKAD. I had absolutely no goal with these certifications, I didn’t learn much, I didn’t score much, the certifications didn’t add much value to my profile. Cumulatively, it feels as if I was better off without them or would’ve been in a better position if I had pursued other interests. While I understand, these certifications are a testament of my knowledge on Kubernetes, they don’t justify the program. I feel the same for people mindlessly pursuing cloud certifications, since I believe that the learning is lost and one is not exactly in touch with the on-ground realities of cloud platforms if the only credentials they have to justify their experience is the certificate. I also feel that the real value of a certification can only be derived when it’s new and before it’s picked up hype which in Google Cloud’s case would either be the Machine Learning certification or the DevOps certification. When I pursued CKA and CKAD, that boat had already sailed and I had barely any differentiation to add for my current or future employers.

Therefore, hereon, I shall only pursue certifications that 1) Not many have pursued yet and 2) I have genuine interest in the subject to commit to it and actually learn something rather than to add ‘another feather in my cap’ as it’s popularly called.