Top Five IT Certifications to Land You the Job
It’s a good time to be an IT professional. You’re in higher demand than ever before, and you’ve got the salaries to prove it. But with so many great IT candidates competing for jobs, how can you set yourself apart from the crowd? One word: certifications.
Even if you’re a seasoned pro in your field, getting certified shows that your skills are up to date (essential in the ever-changing field of IT), and that you’re willing to learn new things.
Certification also dramatically ups your marketability. In the current job market, you’ve got to prove you’re at the top of your game. Certifications are an unbiased gauge of your skills that will impress both your IT recruiter and your potential employer.
There are dozens of valuable and highly-specific IT certifications you should look into, but we’ve distilled our list down to five essential certifications for the IT pro.
A+
A+, issued by CompTIA, is a basic but important certification that demonstrates competency in elemental device maintenance and networking. Duties include installation, maintainence, security and troubleshooting.
Unlike many other certifications, A+ is not specific to a particular product or brand. The A+ certification requires candidates to take two exams:
According to CompTIA, the CompTIA A+ 220-801 exam ensures you’ve got the fundamentals down. It measures your ability to network, troubleshoot and maintain desktop and laptop computers.
The CompTIA A+ 220-802 exam is similar in content to the CompTIA A+ 220-801 in that it measures your ability to work with operating systems and networks; but this certification extends to the ability to work with popular mobile operating systems as well.
PMP – Project Management Professional
The PMP certification, issued by the Project Management Institute, is reserved for experienced project management professionals, and is established as one of the most essential certifications for individuals in the IT project management field.
Because this is an advanced certification, you’ll need to demonstrate up to 7,500 hours directing a project and up to 35 hours of the required education in order to apply. The number of hours needed will depend on your prior education and work experience, so contact the institute if you have any questions.
ITIL – Information Technology Infrastructure Library
ITIL seeks to align IT with a businesses overall needs by implementing a set of practices (including defined processes, tasks, checklists and procedures) that unifies service management across the entire organization. According ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library is the world’s “most widely adopted approach for IT service management.”
With the growing attention to, and interest in, big data as a marketing tool, experience in ITIL is becoming more and more vital. ITIL best practices provide guidance to organizations on how IT can be used as a tool to facilitate business growth.
MCSE – Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert
The MCSE certification falls under several main branches, all of which are used to measure a candidates ability to build and maintain technology solutions using the Microsoft platform. Here, we’re highlighting two: MCSE Server Infrastructure and MCSE Data Platform.
The MCSE Server Infrastructure certification, important for information security administrators and more general support positions, focuses on the operation of data centers. To obtain certification, you’ll need to demonstrate knowledge in networking and data storage, as well as virtualization and identity management.
The certification for the MCSE Data Platform, important for database designers, demonstrates and validates your ability to build and monitor data solutions for larger-scale operations and includes knowledge in cloud administration.
CISSP
CISSP® is an advanced certification awarded by the (ISC)² ® (International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium).
CISSP certification demonstrates a deep understanding of critical security topics (as defined by the (ISC)²® CBK®) including: risk management, cloud computing, mobile security, cryptography, application development security and more.
To apply, you’ll need to demonstrate at least five years of experience in two of the ten ISC domains and demonstrate a clean criminal history.
To be honest, we could go on and on about all the great certifications available for IT pros to demonstrate their skills. But we hope our list of five essential IT certifications has given you a good place to start.
And if you don’t have the experience necessary to obtain some of the certifications listed above, don’t fret. There are many intermediate certifications you can pick up on your way to advancing your career.
If you’d like more information about the jobs available to IT professionals with the above certifications, or to learn more about our IT staffing services, please contact us today!
SOURCES:
10 Top In-Demand IT Certifications for 2013. 100ktraining. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Aug. 2013 http://100ktraining.com/10-most-in-demand-it-certifications-for-2013/
15 Top Paying Certifications for 2013. Global Knowledge. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Aug. 2013 http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/generic.asp?pageid=3430
Top 10 Certifications for Landing a New IT Job. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Aug. 2013 http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/show.aspx?c=94680&slide=6