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R/L Question - Career


Canjucks

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Hey all, just wondering if anyone has any certifications they hold that have helped them with your R/L careers? I'm about to go into getting some myself and trying to do some planning. I know we have some diverse people around just interested what peeps have gone with. Also, if you study at College/University what courses and etc. Just after some ideas to help me hone in on where I want to go in the next phase of my life.

Just to extend my original post does anyone have CompTIA? Microsoft? certification

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7 hours ago, Canjucks said:

Hey all, just wondering if anyone has any certifications they hold that have helped them with your R/L careers? I'm about to go into getting some myself and trying to do some planning. I know we have some diverse people around just interested what peeps have gone with. Also, if you study at College/University what courses and etc. Just after some ideas to help me hone in on where I want to go in the next phase of my life.

Just to extend my original post does anyone have CompTIA? Microsoft? certification

You don't generally need qualifications, I think it's a misconception and I have fallen victim to it myself.

 

I recently graduated with a degree in Software Engineering. I'll list some takeaways and preface them with the fact that everyone works/learns differently and the points I raise might not apply to you directly.

 

  • My degree was relatively high level in the first 1-2 years but it provided an opportunity to gain exposure to programming languages/tools and frameworks that I wouldn't have otherwise worked with. Understanding the benefits of specific tools/etc has helped me with my approach to challenges.
  • As someone involved in programming from the age of 14, I picked up a lot of bad practices which were brought to light when I started studying. However, there's a myriad of resources that help promote best practices nowadays.
  • In my younger years I would approach a problem but it was only when I started studying that I understood why I was approaching problems in a specific way and how I could optimise that process.
  • University as an experience helped me improve my soft skills.
  • Day to day, I find myself leveraging my soft skills more often than my programming ability and I think that's the reality of working in a corporate environment.

 

I can honestly go on forever and if you have any specific questions don't hesitate to drop me a message.

 

The best advice I can myself with the benefit of hindsight would have been to continue practising/building on the languages that I was good at before enrolling.

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43 minutes ago, vlad said:

You don't generally need qualifications, I think it's a misconception and I have fallen victim to it myself.

 

I recently graduated with a degree in Software Engineering. I'll list some takeaways and preface them with the fact that everyone works/learns differently and the points I raise might not apply to you directly.

 

  • My degree was relatively high level in the first 1-2 years but it provided an opportunity to gain exposure to programming languages/tools and frameworks that I wouldn't have otherwise worked with. Understanding the benefits of specific tools/etc has helped me with my approach to challenges.
  • As someone involved in programming from the age of 14, I picked up a lot of bad practices which were brought to light when I started studying. However, there's a myriad of resources that help promote best practices nowadays.
  • In my younger years I would approach a problem but it was only when I started studying that I understood why I was approaching problems in a specific way and how I could optimise that process.
  • University as an experience helped me improve my soft skills.
  • Day to day, I find myself leveraging my soft skills more often than my programming ability and I think that's the reality of working in a corporate environment.

 

I can honestly go on forever and if you have any specific questions don't hesitate to drop me a message.

 

The best advice I can myself with the benefit of hindsight would have been to continue practising/building on the languages that I was good at before enrolling.

I've gone down that same road of having a degree but now find myself at the cross roads of needing to increase my ability to earn more. I have a nice carrot in front of me if I choose wisely...

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3 minutes ago, Canjucks said:

I've gone down that same road of having a degree but now find myself at the cross roads of needing to increase my ability to earn more. I have a nice carrot in front of me if I choose wisely...

Ah I understand - what's your current stack?

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1 hour ago, vlad said:

Ah I understand - what's your current stack?

My degree is in Information Management and Systems. I have some other certs that are a bit out of date. I'm looking at skilling up in Microsoft around Azure. I'm in a support role atm so wanting work to help me to do something a bit more than that.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I would say that some careers would encourage certs, but even then it kinda depends on the companies. Some places may value AWS certs while others only care about the Google stuff.

Personally, my degree is in Marketing (lol) and I'm self-taught with 0 certs. I've been able to go from Junior to Senior developer and almost double my pay in the last 3 years. Your real-world experience and solved problems are way more valuable than a piece of paper in my limited experience.

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  • 1 month later...
On 6/28/2022 at 2:05 AM, Canjucks said:

Hey all, just wondering if anyone has any certifications they hold that have helped them with your R/L careers? I'm about to go into getting some myself and trying to do some planning. I know we have some diverse people around just interested what peeps have gone with. Also, if you study at College/University what courses and etc. Just after some ideas to help me hone in on where I want to go in the next phase of my life.

Just to extend my original post does anyone have CompTIA? Microsoft? certification

Am I safe to assume you mean around software/web development? 

I think it's likely down to personal experience, drive etc but also potentially location, job market, what division you're going into and really what you want to do as a career. 
I would probably say formal qualifications are getting less significant as we move forward and a lot of the initial getting your foot in the door is what you can show you can do ( ala: contributions to projects, your own projects, portfolio ) once you get your foot in the door then it's your own determination that'll lead to future promotions. 

Personally I hold a business management qualification and a bachelors in computer science, ironically my job (rather than career, but long time job) has nothing to do with either business management or computer science ( workforce deployment and management for a NHS teaching hospital ) so I am probably not the most qualified to answer.

Arguably though the experience you'll gain at college or university ( if its a brick and mortar one ) is probably one you'll enjoy and look back on fondly providing it's something of interest to you and will help you in future employment in some shape or another but it wouldn't be strictly necessary. 

I would look at career options what interests you in software production and go from there look at jobs and what they require, look at the requirements of the role - if you can demonstrate you've done what the role requires and are proficient, then formal education would likely take a back seat. 

Regardless of what you decide or where you go, I wish you best of luck and hope you manage to settle into something you enjoy!  

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2 hours ago, Djkanna said:

Am I safe to assume you mean around software/web development? 

I think it's likely down to personal experience, drive etc but also potentially location, job market, what division you're going into and really what you want to do as a career. 
I would probably say formal qualifications are getting less significant as we move forward and a lot of the initial getting your foot in the door is what you can show you can do ( ala: contributions to projects, your own projects, portfolio ) once you get your foot in the door then it's your own determination that'll lead to future promotions. 

Personally I hold a business management qualification and a bachelors in computer science, ironically my job (rather than career, but long time job) has nothing to do with either business management or computer science ( workforce deployment and management for a NHS teaching hospital ) so I am probably not the most qualified to answer.

Arguably though the experience you'll gain at college or university ( if its a brick and mortar one ) is probably one you'll enjoy and look back on fondly providing it's something of interest to you and will help you in future employment in some shape or another but it wouldn't be strictly necessary. 

I would look at career options what interests you in software production and go from there look at jobs and what they require, look at the requirements of the role - if you can demonstrate you've done what the role requires and are proficient, then formal education would likely take a back seat. 

Regardless of what you decide or where you go, I wish you best of luck and hope you manage to settle into something you enjoy!  

Thanks @Djkanna I'm in an area where my degree should have taken me although my other degree (I completed 2 at the same time) never got past the interview sadly for me I would have gone ok at it but that's life I enjoy technology more. I'm actually about to do some skilling up with Azure and been given a few promises which I'm happy about. I've picked out about 6 certs that I'm trying to get done which will be fun should I pass the exams to show off the I'm certified badges you get with them. 

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