I strongly believe that the I.T. industry is struggling to get professional recognition because unlike other professions, the I.T. industry does not go through rigorous screening of practitioners. Take the medical profession as an example. Two very important screening methods are used before a practitioner can claim to be a doctor. First he (or she) must pass medical school, in other words must have a degree of higher learning. Second, he must pass a license exam.

In the I.T. world, anyone can claim to be a programmer. In fact you don’t need a degree to become a programmer. I personally started programming when still in high-school and was offering advice to anyone asking about computers. Mind you I have met people who would fail university but will do well as a software developer, solving complex business issues and writing physics code for games.

About a decade ago, computer certifications started to manifest itself in the computer industry. I shared similar thoughts with so called higher learning and strongly believed that surely a university degree would be sufficient to prove that I’m technically competent. Well, up until recently I’ve never bothered getting certified. I always thought that it was a waste of time and employers wouldn’t know what initials stand for.

Now, ten years later, the workforce is different. We are now more computer literate, Internet is in our pockets and the funny initials are now well known. What brought about these changes? Immediately I can name three.

Big Push from Vendors
Certification is mainly pushed by vendors like Microsoft, Oracle and Tibco. I guess this is fair enough as they want to ensure the highest rate of success for their products and you’d get that by ensuring a good knowledge base to start from.

Employers and Standards
The lack of licensure for I.T. professionals has driven employers to look or prefer someone who has passed a certain standard. I guess it is better than having no baseline to work from. Certification can give you this.

Being Different
I guess being certified can give your job application the extra recognition, especially in a though job market environment. It also shows your potential employer that you are serious about your career and the technology path you want to take.

These are main market forces driving the demand for certification. In closing, consider this scenario; if there are 20 applicants for a Windows developer but only one has a Microsoft certification in Windows development, who do you think will be short listed at the very least?