So, fun fact about me: I started my career within the fitness industry. Yeah. Smoking, drinking, lazy & fat, me. Working. In the fitness industry *sips beer*... While there though, I learned a really important lesson about accreditation; their value is predicated on cumulative credibility. Basically, it only matters to whomever requires it. You can have all the accreditations and certifications you want but if nobody recognizes the certificate then there is no value. Simple.
I worked with AFAA waaaaay back in 2001 through to 2004. Just a wee lad, starting out on my adventures, desperate to not be found out for my ineptitude. Barely an intern, I was more a glorified gopher, barely able get the lunch order right, but Linda Pfeffer (the founder and, at the time, CEO) took a chance on my dumb ass. And, oh boy, am I glad she did.
It was at AFAA that I learned an interesting truth (and the reason for this essay): certifications are only as good as the people whom accept them value them. See... there was a bit of a dramatic with a newly minted AFAA accredited trainer: the gym they were trying to get a job with didn't accept AFAA as a certification. And. They. Were. Bummed. But, while this was a surprise to me, it wasn't at all a surprise to anyone else. Hell, it wasn't even escalated beyond the little cubicle farm the sales representatives worked in. Just a canned response of (paraphrasing), "We can't control the requirements of gyms". Which is, in hindsight, a pretty fair response. Business is gonna business, after all.
This lead me to my other realization: there are only self proclaimed authorities when it comes to nearly all certifications. Like. 99% of them are unregulated and this is across all industries. Anyone can just make up a certification on any topic and offer it to others. There's nothing stopping anyone from just deciding to offering a Widget Integration with Random Thing certification.
In regards to technology this gets weird. We have a LOT of certifications to choose from and they're ever changing and ever evolving (more on this later). Historically, there have been some known and reliable options like the SC-300 and the (now retired) MCSA, but there are a lot of niche ones as well. A sea of companies absolutely willing to take your money so you can tell others you have their piece of paper.
So, with the above in mind, I've generally avoided pursuing them for myself and actively disregarded them when it came to hiring developers in the past. Which recently led me to an awkward social moment where I put my foot in my mouth (again) when someone mentioned they're receiving a certification. I wasn't as supportive as one would hope one would be when someone achieved something that mattered to them. So, I've been thinking about this (passively) the last few days and, while the above is concise, it's also pretty abstract and rambling (it's a style) so let's get precise.
They're (Mostly) Optional
Ya just don't need one. Need, being the key word. Once upon a time, throughout my career, there was a wonderful abbreviation of YAGNI. Ya Ain't Gonna Need It. Normally, this would be applied to program design, as in, "don't concern yourself with bells and whistles nobody asked for" but I think it applies nicely here too.
We have GitHub now. Resumes. Portfolios. And, yeah, you do reach a certain point where reputation becomes a thing. Why spend your hard earned money on something that adds so little? Of course, this is a completely null and void argument IF A JOB DEMANDS A SPECIFIC CERTIFICATION but those are so far and few between it's kinda silly for me to lay it out. Though, it absolutely does happen where a specific certification is required for a given gig.
They Get Outdated (Fast)
Technology evolves. so too must certifications, but that's not always the case. Imagine spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours pursuing a Windows Vista Certification. Sucks, right? Absurd even.
Putting this point into the context for my favorite programming language (PHP) it gets weird pretty fast. I started with PHP 3 (yeah, I'm old); we're at 8.4 at the time of this writing, with PHP 8.5 coming next month in November of 2025. Every one of those has/had a certification available which, in some cases, directly conflicts with the others. For example, before PHP 5 we only had rudimentary object handling and definitions. PHP 5 completely rewrote the entire paradigm to improve on the shoddy object model.
Now, imagine this made up scenario where a developer has a PHP Certification from JoBlow Certification company which covered PHP 3 in a PHP 8 world? Yeah. Not great.
They're Expensive
Technical certifications, being unregulated and with zero oversight, can get quite pricey. A Zend Certification costs $200. An (unoficial) Laravel Certification runs at least $250 with a TON of upgrade options. The Linux Foundation Certifications run from $250 to $500 each with an expectation of taking multiples. That's just for the tests themselves; there are a TON of options for study aids and supplies as well and those raise the costs by orders of magnitude. All for very little return.
And, yeah, for me that's the clincher. Everything boils down to return on investment (ROI) for me. When it comes down to technical certifications, especially for skills I already possess, I just don't see them having any "real" ROI. Without external need, like a gig I want (for example), there's just no benefit to jumping through hoops. Ain't nobody got time for that type of nonsense.
Final Thoughts
Look. I'm not saying tech certifications provide no value. I'm just saying they ONLY have value if someone finds them to have value and there are cherries on top. And that's not at all a compelling argument for me to pursue them. Considering the costs, time investment, capricious acceptance, there's no real need.
For me. Only. For. Me.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.