Many of you would be thinking that in these times of IT slump, acquiring IT certifications doesn’t make sense. You could not be more wrong! The IT slump is a transient phase, it will go away, but your certification will remain and will give you a vast edge throughout your technical career.
In fact, when the economy booms there is hardly any time to get into certifications; it is in lean phases such as this, with little to no work at hand, that you have the best opportunity to prepare for and equip yourself with an IT certification.
From the very basic Microsoft Office Specialist Certification to Microsoft certified IT Professional, Microsoft offers all types of certifications. Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) enables you to develop different technical programs used by Microsoft. Microsoft Certified Trainer helps you learn about troubleshooting and technical aspects related to Microsoft. Certified Database Administrator and Microsoft Certified Engineer are a few other good certifications.
Some corporations like Serebra have certification programs like Cisco Networking Certifications and Client/Server databases help you develop in-depth knowledge of Networking concepts.
Oracle offers certifications for various products from its suite – the Oracle database, middleware, Forms and Applications (EBiz, Siebel, Hyperion, PeopleSoft etc.) Certifications are available for various levels of competence – OCA (Associate), OCP (Professional), Master (OCM) and Specialization/Expert level.
Corporations like Accenture have internal certification programs like ASDA ( Accenture Solutions Delivery Academy), which have collaborations with MIT for certifications in JAVA, Testing and advanced C++. Other organizations also offer similar certifications for their employees.
SUN has many IT Certifications for programmers. Starting from the basic SCJA & SCJP for beginners, SUN offers specialized certifications such as SCJD, SCWCD, SCBCD, SCDJWS, SCMAD which are meant for a Java developer, Web component developer, Developer for Java web services and Mobile Application Developer respectively. Sun’s most advanced certification is the Enterprise Architect (SCEA).
Private Institutes provide certifications in the domain of testing, like CSTP & CTM which are meant for Test professionals and Test Managers. The next advancement comes in the form of Certifications for Quality Analyst and Test Engineer, (CSQA & CSTE). HP also offers certifications on its various automated testing tools like HP0-M47 for QuickTest Professional and HP0-M46 for QC certification.
So you have a whole gamut of certification choices. Make the most of them. Stay focused, go in for those certifications that help you excel in your technical domain.
Ankur Jain is a software engineer by profession who also runs a blog on QTP. In case you are planning to appear for HP QuickTest Professional 11.0 certification, you may want to check the details on HP0-M47 QTP certification.
