| No one-thing will make or break your resume aside from the obvious egregious mistakes that I won't go into here. Get your certifications - they will certainly help. Just don't pin all your hopes and dreams on these certifications. The will add to your resume as a whole - so that when someone is reviewing your resume they can put an extra check mark in the pros column (experience, check; skill set, check; oh hey he has certs too, nice. check;) In my experience working in technology, most people aren't as vocal about certifications as you would think based on the chatter you see online. They are a nice to have, not a must have, to get started. Sometimes depending on your actual job, they become a job requirement and work will pay for them. Also in my experience, the people really against certs are people who for some reason don't like the idea of other people "invading their turf". As if you getting a cert in their field somehow trivializes their experience or effort. In other words, keep doing what you're doing. View your certifications as milestones along the way, not the be-all-end-all of what you will need in your career. Continue learning and getting valuable experience, and you should be alright. Update: One last note: certs are like a lot of other things you will encounter in any type of education. You get out of it what you put in. If you work just enough to be able to pass the tests, well, that's what you will get out of it; a way to pass the tests. If on the other hand, you try hard to learn and understand the concepts, then, that's what you will get out of it and it will certainly add to your learning. |