IT Certifications Declining in Value

Though not all were created equally, IT certifications once had an almost-guaranteed value.

In the years after the dot-com bust, many IT pros stocked up certifications name in an effort to improve their job security. Their managers, in turn, used these accreditations to assure their value to the organization's penny-pinchers.

But when speaking to CIOs, IT managers and analysts about what counts and what doesn't on an IT professionals resume nowadays, one thing that stands out an almost universal agreement that IT certifications don't matter the way they used to.

David Foote, whose management consultancy Foote Partners has been tracking the value of IT certifications for years, argues that a shift away from certifications has to do with a shift away from purely technical roles in the IT department.

"Certifications were created by vendors to sell products. Once people were trained, these companies ended up with all of these specialists out there that didn’t work for them but advocated for them," said Foote.