I just started coding and was wondering are online free certifications from Harvard, Stanford, IBM, etc. better looking in resume than from Udemy, etc. ones or vice-versa.
I know skill is important but while shortlisting companies don’t know if we are skilled or not. Please answer considering this.
Thanks in advance.
Certifications from prestigious institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and IBM generally look better on a resume than those from platforms like Udemy.
Generally, online certificates aren’t that helpful. The skills you get from them are the helpful part
Note - please don’t post AI generated content
It’s not AI generated it’s my own opinion and experience what i have seen in the job market.
Skills are important but how can anyone know your strength in skills that you have mentioned in your resume so if you have a better certificate from freecodecamp, kaggle etc it will show them your strength and they can place trust in your strength.
Finally it’s my own opinion and experience not AI’s.
Thanks.
The wording looks like it was written by AI. Please don’t use AI to write your opinions.
The certificate doesn’t really prove that you have the skills because there aren’t as strict of testing controls as you see at a university, which is why a certificate isn’t really as compelling for an employer. It’s too easy to get many certificates without actually having the skills.
Instead of getting so many certificates why not focus on getting important certificates that will be useful in job like Microsoft’s certification. What’s your take on that?
That’s still a certificate.
Instead of focusing on certificates I would focus on getting the foundational skills and eventually working on complex projects that take 6+ months to complete while using professional development best practices like maintainable code, tests, CI, documentation, etc. The projects don’t need to be earth shatteringly original or the next Facebook, but they should be something you write that’s not from a tutorial.
I agree with your point of view that skills are much more important but as the other guy said doesn’t certificates look better.
The employer will have several resumes to select from but with decent projects it can still act as a +1 can’t it?
The certificates don’t actually look that much better though because there are very weak controls on what effort it actually takes to claim a certificate in most cases so the employer can’t tell what skill level someone actually has from the mere fact that they have a certificate.
That’s a huge part of why degrees are so important to employers - degrees have rigorous validation processes for determining that the people who complete the program gained some baseline skills through the process.
That’s a valid point but let’s say that the employer ask me what am I good at and I reply that I am good at python and have done some courses from Microsoft, wouldn’t it be better than someone saying that he is self-taught since it proves that I used better resources and am better guided.
That is assuming the skill level is same.
Then again I am new to this field and am still quite young and I don’t know how world works.
Thanks for the earlier advice though it sounds reasonable enough
The certificate doesn’t really prove anything though other than that you have a certificate. It doesn’t really show what you did to get the certificate.
Going the self taught route is hard for sure.
That doesn’t answer my question though.
What I am saying is that it sounds better when I am saying that I have a certificate because it is in a way proof that the particular company has acknowledged me.
And I don’t actually mind if self-taught is tough or easy, I just want to know which is better.
And so in the end should I go for:
It does answer your question. Certificates aren’t really good proof of anything. They don’t really help you here in programming like they do for other fields with rigorous certification programs.
Focus on whatever free content helps you best get the skills.
Well, I was hoping you would mention why the point I made is incorrect.
Anyways what would you recommend out of the 3 options I have in mind and please add on if you have something better
I’ve repeatedly explained why certificates aren’t good proof of anything.
Which exact free resources you use isn’t really as important as actually getting started. Try a few. Use whatever you like best. There’s lots of valid paths and no ‘best’ path to gaining these skills. All three options you listed are equally fine.
How do you think I should start then.
Are the content and resources in paid course in sites like Udemy worth the money or should I go for free courses in sites like FCC.
There’s so much good free content out there that I would stick with free content.
Could you suggest some sites for that or are the courses from FCC sufficient.
No single resource has absolutely everything you need. freeCodeCamp is a fine starting point, but eventually you’ll end up branching into other content and you’ll need to make your own projects that aren’t from any website or course.