Do Coursera/MOOC certs or tech certifications reflect badly on your resume?
Okay I know people mostly say they work on side projects or contribute to open source, but I enjoy self-study & have always done a cert after using a certain technology extensively at work. For example, I was a Java engineer/consultant for years so it appeared only natural to do the OCP cert and keep it updated. In my current job I've used K8s a lot, so after a few training courses from my company, I took the CKAD. I also enjoy filling in the gaps at work (where there's no training or docs from the company) through Coursera courses/specializations, especially DeepLearning.Ai ones.
Does all this reflect badly on my resume? I plan to apply to more senior roles, would someone looking at the list of certs/courses tend to underlevel me or dismiss me? Can't contribute to open source because of my company, also can't publish any apps for now. I've also never seen Senior/Staff engineers with courses/specializations displayed on their LinkedIn profile... am I missing something ?
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Discussion
(2 comments)- 2
4 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroI don't think they hurt, but I also don't think they help. At the end of the day, you get deep experience and knowledge from building, so online courses can't show that.
Given that you're a mid-level engineer at FAANG (i.e. you have a very impressive background), your work experience will dwarf any online certificates you have. Prospective employers will also expect you to perform at high mid-level or senior, a mastery that online courses can't demonstrate.
I think senior/staff engineers don't have courses on their profile as they've realized the above and therefore aren't taking courses to boost their tactical skills. There's far better ways for them to spend their time (like side projects).
This is why Taro focuses on more fundamental and soft skills as that's far more evergreen than becoming a Java-certified engineer or something.
- 14 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
Agreed with Alex: they don't hurt but it's also not impressive. There may be some marginal benefit since courses show that you're an active learner, but you should not rely on courses to get your interviews on their own.
Enrolling in a course is not hard, so you should think about how to show achievement instead. A few ways of doing that:
- Complete the course and get some sort of certificate. Even better if you can mention some stat about how getting a certificate gets you in the top X% of students.
- If you got an impressive grade or award in the course, mention that.
- Use the course as a jumping off point to build a project or publish something in open source. If you do this, I'd actually just lead with the project and not even mention the course.
See also: Are certifications worth the time?
