Early in my career, technical certifications were a big deal. Even now, as a technology leader, I often get asked about my philosophy regarding technical certifications. Employees ask if I am for them, against them, or neutral. Ultimately some of them are just wondering whether or not I will pay for their certification.

I thought I’d use this article to describe what I believe is a healthy approach toward technical certifications. I’ll use my own examples, not so you know how certified I am, but because personal stories make the best object lessons.

MCSE – Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

I earned my first technical certification, the MCSE, about 19 years ago. I was early in my career. I had a 2-year technical education, but almost no experience. I wanted to work on Active Directory replication topologies, but instead I was fixing issues with Microsoft Word on the help desk.

Back in that time, there was a perception that earning your MCSE would fling open the doors of opportunity wide. There was also such a flood of “paper MCSEs” that caused reality to be much less than promised. Regardless of the expectations, I wanted to prove to myself and others that I really knew my stuff.

I studied Exam Cram books and Transcender simulators all night, and worked all day. I paid for the exams and study materials myself, and after a few failed attempts, I got the certification.

It didn’t translate to on-the-spot promotions or opportunities. It did boost my confidence. I could speak the language. It also communicated my drive to prospective bosses. I ended up getting my MCSE twice over, once for NT, and once for Windows 2000. While indirect, I would absolutely credit my MCSE to my early career advancement.

ITIL Foundations – Information Technology Infrastructure Library Foundations

ITIL Foundations was the only certification that I earned, that I didn’t pursue on my own initiative. This was a part of an overall IT initiative to improve service management. I earned this certification 13 years ago, but I still remember and use the concepts daily.

This gave our entire IT team a common language to speak and a common understanding of best practice. As an individual this certification was somewhat meaningless, but with a critical mass, it’s powerful. Our entire IT team grew, and as a result, I personally grew through this transformative experience.

CCNA – Cisco Certified Network Associate

After I crossed over the barrier from individual contributor to manager, I lead functions that I knew well for a while. If necessary, I could step into the place of my employees and do their job for them, if I had to. I took comfort in that. I knew the work very well.

As a victim of my own success, my boss gave me additional span of control. This additional span of control included network engineering, which I knew absolutely nothing about. It really bothered me to lead a function and feel completely stupid about the subject matter. To make matters worse, I couldn’t understand half of the things my employees were talking about, nor could I accurately assess the value of purchases we needed to make.

There are plenty of ways to solve this problem. I chose to go get my CCNA. Of all the certifications I’ve ever pursued, the CCNA was the absolutely hardest to earn. After a week of boot camp, I read the entire 1000-page book cover to cover. I failed the test by a margin of one question. After that, I invested another 40+ hours of evening and weekend study, re-reading the monstrous book a second time. Then I managed to pass the exam, by a margin of one question. Crazy hard.

After this, I honestly did very little hands-on network engineering, but I knew the subject matter. I could better encourage my staff in the heat of major incidents, and speak the language in architecture discussions. Getting my CCNA made me a better boss. That was the goal and that’s what it delivered.

CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional

Throughout my technology career, I always relied on great Information Security Officers to help me navigate the world of policy, risk, compliance, and audit. Due to some departures and reorganizations at work, I found myself without that strong ally anymore, but I still had the organizational responsibility for information security. I needed to advocate for the security interests of my business, but I lacked the language to be effective.

The stakes were high and I couldn’t afford to mess it up. In order to give me credibility in the information security community and speak the language effectively, I pursued and passed my CISSP on the first try. People talk about how hard that exam is, so I over-prepared. Looking back, I can say that it wasn’t nearly as hard as that stinking CCNA.

With these stories told, here’s a summary of the excellent reasons to pursue professional certifications:

1. You lack experience, but want to establish competence.
2. You want to demonstrate your initiative to develop professionally.
3. You want to join a movement within your greater organization and speak a common language.
4. You want to serve your team as a leader by understanding the discipline.
5. You want to serve your business by earning a credential that allows you to stand in the gap.

That’s my list. What’s not on the list? Fame, fortune, technical superpowers, and the like. As the comic below so eloquently illustrates, certification doesn’t make you a super hero. In the end it’s a piece of paper. However, that paper might be the very thing you need to push yourself to serve your team better than ever before.