Are Google Certificates, CompTIA certs, etc. worth the money? (lemmy.cafe)

submitted 9 months ago by throwaway389430@lemmy.cafe to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I looked it up and Google is offering certifications in various fields through Coursera, and they claim it'll help one get a good paying IT job.

People have made videos on Youtube talking about them with varying answers and in the comments, people often discuss using them as a springboard to get CompTIA certs.

But are these certifications actually worth the money financially? Do people actually get hired if that's all an employee has? Don't employers want people with degrees too?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago

I've been in IT for a few decades now with no degree. Just got a raise, I'm officially pulling in 12K a month pre-tax.

Here's how I did it:

Work a series of crappy non-tech jobs where I became "the computer guy" because nobody else knew anything.
Tear a calf muscle and have to get a desk job.
Get a phone monkey job answering tech questions. That job had an opportunity to start training other people.
Took the training skills and got a job teaching at a for profit tech school. They wanted me to teach their A+, Microsoft and Linux classes so paid for my certs.
School folded after 9/11, so I took the certs and became a system administrator. Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix phone systems.
After about a decade of that, had a bad experience, burned out, went back to a phone monkey gig for a tiny start up company.
Got IPO shares. Paid for my kids college.
Got bought by a GIANT tech company. Not FAANG level, but a few steps below that.

Now...

My KID... went to college, got his Computer Science Degree. Interned at Intel, had his first paying job at Intel, jumped ship to Oracle, and is now out engineering those AI systems that have everyone creeped out.

After getting a 4 year degree, he went from making the same money I did more or less immediately to making 3x what I do in less than 5 years.

this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024

50 points (96.3% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26904 readers

624 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.