[ocdtrekkie]

Reputable in the field of doing IT in a Windows-dominated business world? Or just reputable as a company in general?

I think Coca-cola is a reputable company (probably, I'm sure someone knows some dark secret I haven't read about), but I wouldn't assume a Cisco networking certification from them is reputable.

[sincerely]

>I'm sure someone knows some dark secret I haven't read about

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/26/world/union-says-coca-cola...

=D

[Chris2048]

Both. And if Coca-cola funded a networking cert, I'd consider it reputable too. It be a Cisco cert wouldn't make sense though, then it would be banking on Cisco's reputation.

[jstarfish]

For better or for worse, there's a limited subset of certification vendors that are considered reputable by most hiring managers. Most of their certifications consist entirely of alphabet soup and are recognized nationwide if not globally. (Unfortunately this does lead to some unfortunate mishaps, like OSCP being overlooked in favor of garbage like CEH).

When someone comes along with an official "I can MongoDB certified architect" certificate issued by Mongo themselves, it's a good talking point during an interview, but we don't consider it a credential in itself.

There's no way to vet every arbitrary corporate certificate that comes through the door; we don't know if it's the result of a rigorous apprenticeship, 1000-question exam, a practical and 10 years of industry experience or a couple YouTube videos and a questionnaire. We don't know if the standards changed with management; what used to be impossible to attain is now printed like money. We don't know if the way Coca-cola teaches students to do things complies with best practices or industry standards, or just with Coca-cola's vision for how things should be done (which is absolutely what I'd expect from an entity like Google, who has demonstrated this in other avenues of influence).

Equifax could have printed certifications. Until recently, they were a reputable name. Would you trust an information security certificate issued by them now?

There is no accountability with corporate certifications. You're advocating faith-based hiring by trading on name alone.

[bitexploder]

Ultimately, hiring managers in aggregate decide which certificates are good. I can honestly say most of the time if someone has very many certificates listed on their resume their odds of making it through our hiring process are pretty low (information security consulting). There are only a couple of certificates that come to mind that are interesting. OSCP is one. The upper level Cisco certificates are well regarded. If I see a new certificate on someone's resume I look it up.

Everyone familiar with Cisco's certificates knows the CCIE is really hard to get because you have to actually demonstrate competence at fixing broken networking in a complex environment. Which leads to an interesting point. It is effectively a work product assessment. If someone can get a CCIE they can probably wrangle your network architecture too. It is similar to how we hire folks. OSCP is similar in that there is a practical part to their certifications. You have to demonstrate actual competence to get one of their various certs.

Contrast to CEH/CISSP you just multiple choice a bunch of facts. Literally, almost anyone, could sit down and cram for 4-6 weeks and get a CISSP. Even people that don't know much about how technology and computing works. Tests like the Bar exam also go far beyond multiple choice, having essay components and very complex questions in most cases.

I think it boils down to a simple thing: do enough people who know about the certificate and how difficult it is to acquire say it is actually difficult and or practical in a meaningful way. Equifax could have crafted such a certificate and it certainly would have been a blow to certificate holders if it was a good certificate with a convincing practical setup like OSCP or CCIE. The rough heuristic I always hear is what you said "Certs are garbage" -- someone else will pipe up, well I guess OSCP is alright, etc.