Is it worth getting a verified certificate for the Harvard CS50 course on edX?

I’ve decided to do the Harvard CS50 course on edX. They offer a verified certificate of completion for $90. Considering that most employers in this field are typically more concerned with your skills and what you can actually do over education, I’m wondering if having the (verified) cert on my portfolio and LinkedIn will do anything at all to help get a job faster or a better job? Worth getting or not?

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Worth getting IMHO shows that your an autodidact and take your education seriously.

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I enrolled for a course (with cert) two days ago, just because I always had a dream to have a college education in computer science. But I haven’t paid certificate yet. Also want to know is it worth to get formal certificate?

Except that I can still put that I did it on my resume and profile if I want to. I just won’t have the actual certificate to prove it – but I’ve never been asked to show my university degree to anyone either. :wink:

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learning is the value there. the cert isnt worth anything.

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Short answer: not worth the cash. Long answer: Companies aren’t looking for certificates. What sets FCC apart isn’t their certificates, it’s what you have to complete in order to earn the certificate, the PORTFOLIO. That is the only thing that matters for employment, it really is that simple!

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I wouldn’t, but take the course, by all means.

This is one place where coders have it all over other types of IT workers. In my own field of network engineering, I’m required to take and maintain a variety of certifications. These are time-consuming to study for (just working in the field 8 hours a day doesn’t prepare you for them, strangely enough) and they are expensive. In my experience they have very little to do with the job.

On the other hand, no one in software seems to care what certs you have, if any. They look at your resume, your portfolio, and maybe give you a coding test, though even those are falling out of favor.

It’s all about what you know, which is exactly how it should be.

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Me too @slocodemonkey, I’m a network engineer also. It’s so annoying that they expire too. Cost a fortune. Last 3 years.

It seems so refreshing to me in this field not to have to have a cert to prove one can do a good job

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I recently started working for an IT company, that works for another big enterprise developing their web.
I only have 2 certificates by Coursera, for basic HTML 5 and CSS3 . Although I had no experience in the field, I was contacted by the project’s account manager and he offered me a position as css mark-up “manager” he called it “content manager”.
Anyway, the point is that since I had these two certificates on the LinkedIn account he contacted me to offer that position. At the moment of signing the contract he asked me to re-send the certifications so the company store them, which made me think that at the end was useful, also considering I don’t even have a portfolio done yet.

Hope it helps, sorry for the extension and poor writing of the text heh

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