Do I need a certification?

For a while, there have been a huge focus on certifications from different vendors, but are they really needed?

For me personally, it’s questionable.

I didn’t get certified in Linux in 1987. Instead I bought a thick book about how to design an operating system, and read it several times. Inter-process communication and dead-locks are still tricky subjects.

I didn’t get a certificate for world wide web in 1989 when I was implementing hypertext at work for system documentation in a production plant.

Neither any certification when I created my first CGI-scripts i C for httpd before Apache was released.

I missed to take ”Datakörkortet” in Sweden, as I was to busy with architecture for a digital music platform in 2000.

For me, when there are certifications in a topic, it’s already mainstream and I’m at the next wave.

One exception to the rule. I was TOGAF certified in 2011, but I’ve been working as an Enterprise Architect since last millennium.