Are certifications necessary for a Kubernetes job? If so, which ones are popular?
Tags: kubernetes, career, devops, webdev
Published: 2022-12-14 09:57:45

***Only 9% of the jobs we listed in Q3 of 2022 mentioned a requirement for a Certification!***

Was this the case for all quarters? Of the jobs that mentioned a certification requirement, which ones were popular?

Let's try to answer some of the above questions (and perhaps more) with [Kube Careers](https://kube.careers) job listings data for Q3 2022 (July to September).

Before you read further, know that:

- At Kube Careers, we only include job listings with a clear salary range and which have Kubernetes as a requirement and not a nice to have/plus.
- Our dataset is small, with 86 job listings from July to September 2022.

## How many Job descriptions mentioned a need for a certification in Q3 2022?


**Not many.**


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/jxvnuwjzak3pcb1ugd34.png)

In Q3 2022, only a handful of 8 job descriptions (9% of the total jobs listed) mentioned a requirement for certification. 

If this seems less, in Q3 2021, more than 94% of the jobs didn't convey a requirement for certification.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/c5u3ooted6kxa5ocvomh.png)

For better context, let's look at the stats for certification requirements over the last four quarters. Mind you; these numbers are normalised.

![Certification mentions in Kubernetes job descriptions in last 4 quarters](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/9aoqra0s6wqeembeqeas.png)


It can be seen that certifications aren't mentioned in most of the job descriptions.

## Of the job descriptions that mention certifications, which ones are popular?

What's interesting to see is that **50%** of the jobs that mention certifications didn't mention specifics but just the word certification.

*These were primarily mentioned in the Nice to have / Plus category.*

And when it comes to the specifics, **AWS Certifications** were mentioned in almost 38% (of the jobs that mention certification requirements) of the times, CKA at 25%, Linux foundation certifications at 25%, and CCNA at 12.5 % share.


![Popular certifications](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/yjgs8s3vcl991m8ai49c.png)


In Q3 2021, AWS certifications were at the top of the certifications list with a 60% representation and were followed by GCP and Azure certifications, which weren't mentioned in this quarter.

## What's the trend for Kubernetes certifications for Q3 2022?

*Kubernetes certifications are still seen as a plus to have and not a requirement.*

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dgetvqffnjy5ovj0m1ot.png)

Only **4%** of the jobs that we published this quarter mentioned a need for a Kubernetes certification.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/d2wwp8zby4ij9sga080z.png)

Although this is too low to be meaningful, the number has grown almost twice, as it was at a measly 2% in Q3 of 2021.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5ofqd29ptcz21ma13e5y.png)

Of the jobs that require Kubernetes certifications, half mentioned the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), while the other half mentioned the generic Linux Foundation certification (that could either be the KCNA, CKAD, CKA or CKS).


**Note:** Do remember that only 2 job listings each, published in the entire quarter, mentioned the CKA and Linux foundation certifications.

Since the sample size is small, we shouldn't derive any conclusions about the popularity of the Kubernetes certifications.

## What about the Cloud provider certifications?

Of the 86 job listings published this quarter, there were only 3 mentions of a cloud provider certification.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7a33qugza10golt1i2as.png)

All of these 3 mentions were for AWS certifications!

AWS certifications also lead the mentions in Q3 of 2021.

Did you like what you read?

Click [here](https://kube.careers/kubernetes-trend-report-2022-q3) if you'd like to read our detailed job trends report for Q3 2022, which includes salary ranges, popular technologies, popular skills listed in job descriptions, and much more.