Although it is true that at some point certifications on a resume are no longer relevant, (for example, you have 20 years experience, 4 MCSEs and you are the CIO of a big company and do almost no hands on technical work). For most of us, there are good reasons to keep certifying on a semi-regular basis even when we have the job we want.
These reasons are as follows:
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Preparation for sudden change in circumstances. Job security these days is a bit of a joke. Outsourcing, off-shoring or just sacking a few employees to “temporarily enhance stockholder value” means that even people with the most critical infrastructure jobs can find themselves without employment very quickly. Someone involuntarily thrown back into the job market with a current set of certifications and experience is going to do better than someone with only the experience.
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Tech is always changing. Systems Administration can be a bit of a treadmill as new technologies are always coming in to replace the old ones. Certification can give you a reason to delve more deeply into new technology that you’d otherwise skim over if you were only investigating it out of interest.
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Meeting vague HR targets. Some people have to list goals for their yearly evaluations. I’ve found one way of meeting this odd criteria is to list getting a particular certification in the next 12 months. As far as HR is concerned, it is a concrete achievement and it certainly beats trying to figure out some goal like “enhance team leadership dynamics through paradigm reconfirmation.”
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