IT Certifications; are they worth the cost of training....

I have been the network admin. for my company for over 3
years. Now my peers think that I need to grab some certs
for job security and better pay. I don't have any certs at
this time and never really gave it much thought til now.
Is it that important?

 

In microsoft.public.cert.exam.mcse, Daniel climbed on a soapbox & opined:

I dunno, ask your boss. If they will pay for the process, then yes. Will
they raise your pay if you get certified? If not, why bother?

JaR

 

A friend works at a major national health club chain. A new IT director
came in and gave everyone 6 months to reach a certain certification level in
MS or Cisco.

Some new guys were hired and some current employees were let let go after 6
months.

Some companies have planned salary increases for specific certs.

The exams are a lot of work . . . your work experience will get you about
1/4 to 1/2 the way there. The rest of it is stuff that most admins have
never used. I teach the stuff and it takes me about 40 hours to prep for an
exam even after a year of work with systems being covered by the exam.

Steveb
mcsa, mcse, mct, ciw

 

I have never been that cold with my staff but I do tell them that you should
be promoting yourself not just for your present job but also future ones.
You never know when you may be back looking for a job for whatever reason
and one of my obligations I feel is to make sure my staff is prepared for
that whether it be due to lay-offs or them needing to make a change. It is
certainly much easier to get certs when you are employed and have to work
with the technology rather than relying on a home network. A home network
is good but nothing beats the real thing.