Thursday, January 25, 2018

Google's IT support Certificate



It's understood that to be an IT professional you will never stop learning. Technology and processes change on what seems like a daily basis and the only way to keep up is to...well...keep up!

I've always been a proponent of lifelong learning no matter what you spend your days on.  What I'm not a proponent of is wasting time not to mention hard earned money especially when the only beneficiary is somebody else's bank account.

Which brings me to the newly announced Google IT Support Certificate.

I'll cut to the chase, I don't like it.  For reasons even more egregious than my general disdain for the entire certification industry money mill, my premise is simple.

While most professional IT certifications are of dubious value these days existing primarily for the ancillary revenue stream they provide to their brand at least they aren't treading the same path as so many of those now defunct diploma mills.

Google claims its new certification is literally the magic bullet.  They make outlandish claims about job placement, salaries and the supposed prestige of the Google name on the certification.

It's the 90's all over again where the business of education was more about "business" than "education."  Admission reps sold overpriced degrees that nobody respected ultimately leaving bewildered students holding the bag for 5, sometimes 6 figure debt.

And it's happening again.  Certifications are a tool not a measure of value and a new generation seems poised to fall for it.

Which is why I produced the video below where I detail every lie, misdirection and utter absurdity of this new certification program.

Training is important, where you get that training even more so.