Want a tech industry leading certificate: Consider AWS, Salesforce or Atlassian

Rapidly advancing technologies have changed job market rules dramatically. They also changed the way companies recruit nowadays. Receiving a degree no longer means being invited for an interview. The reason is simple - much of what is learned in college quickly becomes outdated, probably with the only exception of so-called "soft" skills, such as creative and critical thinking, communication and problem-solving skills, time management, etc. More and more companies no longer require that you should have a college degree for work. Instead, they emphasize that potential candidates should have skills and experience rather than educational qualifications. Such skills and experience can be obtained through community colleges, professional certifications, technical certification programs, and on-the-job training. So сertification with knowledge is a winning combination.

According to a CompTIA study, 91% of employers believe IT certifications play a key role in the hiring process and are a reliable predictor of a successful employee. So, IT Certifications help to demonstrate your skills to employers. Beyond the very first step of getting hired, сertifications will also provide you with additional benefits such as remaining relevant, receiving more promotion opportunities and demanding higher pay. 

If you want to get specialization, think about going for one or more certifications from the top market leaders such as AWS (cloud leader), Salesforce (CRM software leader), and Atlassian (Jira project management product leader). When opting for any certification, you should follow your interests and preferences relevant to your goals. Still, any certification will open new opportunities in your career, i.e., a better job, better career path, better salary, and certainly a more challenging job role. 

As companies increasingly shift workloads to the cloud, cloud computing has moved from a desired to a core competency in the enterprise. The apparent winner in cloud computing is Amazon Web Services (AWS), with 34% of the market share. It is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. It was officially launched in 2006 and has been the undisputed industry leader since then. AWS has completely changed the way companies are built. Netflix, BBC, Adobe, Pinterest, Capital One, and millions of other world-name companies use AWS.

AWS includes a mixture of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and packaged software as a service (SaaS) offerings. It has some services that help users deal with databases, analytics, management, deployment, and other computing tasks. AWS Certified cloud professionals have a range of career opportunities, such as cloud developer, security expert, solutions architect, networking engineer, DevOps, machine learning, data analytics, and many others.

AWS currently offers 12 certifications covering foundational and specialty cloud computing topics. Certifications are grouped into four different levels. They are Practitioner, Associate, Professional, and Specialty. The prices of the exams are different based on the level of the Certification and are $100 for a Practitioner, $150 for an Associate, and $300 for each Professional and Specialty levels.

The Practitioner level contains only one сertification. It is a Cloud Practitioner, an entry-level certification designed to validate a candidate's overall understanding of the AWS cloud. It is considered the foundation level and is recommended as an optional step before taking the Associate level certifications.

The Associate level certifications require more experience than the Practitioner. AWS recommends you have one year of experience designing, operating, and troubleshooting solutions using AWS cloud before attempting these certification exams. The group includes  Associate Solutions Architect, Associate Developer, and Associate SysOps Administrator certifications. 

Professional-level certifications require that you must have a comprehensive understanding of many different attributes of how to run, optimize, and troubleshoot solutions within AWS. AWS recommends you have two years of experience before attempting these certification exams. The group includes Professional Solutions Architect and Professional DevOps Engineer certifications. 

And Specialty-level certifications require deep technical knowledge and experience within that particular topic, for instance, 'Security' or 'Databases'. These are comparable to the Professional level certification concerning the difficulty. AWS recommends you have from two to five years of deep technical experience in the associated specialty domain as it relates to the AWS cloud before attempting these certification exams. The group includes Certified Data Analytics, Certified Advanced Networking, Certified Security, Certified Machine Learning, Certified Database, and SAP on AWS certifications.

AWS certifications are valid for three years. Then re-certification is required. The certifications are automatically renewed if you become certified with an upper certification level. For instance, if you are a certified Cloud Practitioner, your Certification will automatically be renewed if you pass an Associate level certification. Similarly, if you are a Certified Associate SysOps Administrator, it will be renewed if you pass the Certified Professional DevOps Engineer. Passing any Associate or Professional Certification will also renew your Cloud Practitioner exam if you currently hold it. This AWS approach aims to make certificate holders not wait until their certification expires but stay current and continue learning. 

Link to the detailed description of all 12 certifications   https://aws.amazon.com/certification/ 

Link to register for the certification program: https://www.aws.training/certification 

Using the validation number, a certificate can be verified here: https://aw.certmetrics.com/amazon/public/verification.aspx

Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud computing SaaS specializing in customer relationship management (CRM). It is ranked the number one CRM currently available in the world. As the Salesforce website mentions, over 150,000 companies across every industry are growing their business with Salesforce. Among the most prominent Salesforce customers are such companies as KLM, L'Oréal, P&G, KFC, Western Union, and many others. 

It is also a complex product where users will need expert help. So businesses relying on this CRM are now explicitly requesting Salesforce experience in their job descriptions. If you don't have experience, obtaining a certification is your only option for having at least a chance to be invited for the interview. According to a Salesforce survey disclosed at the end of 2021, about 76% of all applicants have certification, and another 9% are in the process of obtaining it. A Salesforce certification validates your skill and expertise and demonstrates your dedication to being a part of the Salesforce ecosystem. Without certification, you simply have no chance against almost 85% of other candidates.  

And even if it happens that you already work with Salesforce CRM without certification, undergoing the certification process will give you an in-depth understanding of the platform and also increase your insight into sales and customer relations in general, despite your existing expertise and years of practice. And obviously, it will also increase the possibility for you to get a promotion and demand higher pay. So, in other words, if your career involves Salesforce and if you are working without a certification, you are certainly hurting your potential to earn more money than you do now. 

Salesforce offers different certifications, some related to IT and software development and others related to marketing and sales. In total, there are 40+ Salesforce certifications out there. Which certification you should get largely depends on your career intentions.  

If you are not good at programming, then it is better to go for the Salesforce Administrator. Salesforce Administrator is the base level and is a prerequisite for the advanced administrator certification, sales, and service cloud certifications. It is a starting point. This certification focuses on managing users, data, sales, and service cloud applications, creating business-related workflows, and ensuring data security. A Salesforce Administrator certification demonstrates your advanced ability with Salesforce CRM. Considering the significant advantages of becoming a Salesforce Certified Administrator, obtaining the certification is not that hard. On average, it takes six weeks to get Salesforce Certified. But the time to prepare for a Salesforce certification depends on the individual's experience. If you are entirely new to Salesforce, you must spend a minimum of 60 hours getting ready for the Salesforce Administrator certification exam. Most of the aspirants managed to pass the exam with more than 70% points with just 60 hours of dedicated preparation. 

Other non-programming certification categories include Salesforce Consultants and Salesforce Marketing options. Salesforce Consultant certifications will provide you with in-depth knowledge of the Salesforce platform so that you can help businesses find technical solutions to solve their problems. A Salesforce consultant works with customers and clients from the point of view of project management and business analysis and helps companies develop critical solutions. Main certification under the category is Cloud Consultant with further upgrades up to Experience Cloud Consultant, Service Cloud Consultant, and Field Service Consultant. Salesforce Marketing refers to certification confirming that you can create targeted marketing strategies on the Salesforce platform. There are several main certifications under the category, namely Marketing Cloud Administrator, Marketing Cloud Consultant, and Marketing Cloud Developer. 

If you are good at programming, then a good suggestion would be Salesforce Developer certifications and more advanced Salesforce Architects certifications. With any of the several Salesforce Developer certifications available, you will be able to confirm your ability to build and implement applications on the Lightning platform. The categories' main certifications include Platform Developer 1, Platform Developer 2, Javascript Developer 1, and Marketing Cloud Developer. There is also Platform App Builder certification. It stays slightly aside from the developer category, as this certification is about being able to develop a force.com application with clicks, not code. It requires the knowledge of code when necessary, but you don't need to know how to code yourself. Salesforce Architects certifications confirm knowledge, skills, and capabilities to design and build high-performance technical solutions on the Salesforce platform across all domains. Application Architect, System Architect, Technical Architect, Data Architecture and Management Designer, Salesforce Sharing and Visibility Designer, and Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer are the most popular certifications in the Architects category.

There are also some certifications related to specific Salesforce tools and platforms, for instance, CPQ Specialist and CPQ Developer, Pardot Specialist and Pardot Consultant, OmniStudio Developer, B2B Solution Architect, B2C Solution Architect, and B2C Commerce Architect, as well as Heroku Architect.

The cost of passing the exam for all the mentioned certifications ranges from $200 (for non-programming certifications) to $400 (for developers' certifications). If you fail an exam, you can pay 50% of the initial certification cost to retake the exam. The only exception is the Salesforce Technical Architect certification which costs $6000. Technical Architect certification is so costly that it is a top certification on the whole list, and it also involves the participation of a review board. The review board is a panel of experts who judge your solutionizing. 

Salesforce certifications have to be maintained to remain valid. It helps Salesforce keep certification holders up-to-date on new product releases. Since Spring 2020, Salesforce has required one maintenance module per year for most certifications. For advanced types of certifications, maintenance has to be completed even more often - three times a year. Salesforce maintenance exams are free.

Link to register for the certification program: https://www.webassessor.com/salesforce 

Link to the detailed description of all 40 certifications  

https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/credentials/administratoroverview/ 

Certification credentials can be verified online here

https://trailhead.salesforce.com/credentials/verification. Atlassian

Atlassian is famous for its Jira and Confluence tools. Jira is intended for issue tracking and project management, while Confluence is a collaboration platform. Jira Software was launched in 2002, and since then more than 65,000 companies have adopted it to manage their projects. Datanyze statistics put it as a leading project management tool, with the market share reaching 44%. NASA, Unicef, Blumberg, and Twitter are just a few world-name companies utilizing Atlassian tools. So, it is no surprise that the number of organizations that need IT professionals experienced with the platforms is growing every day. The demand for Atlassian certifications is also increasing accordingly. 

Atlassian certification programs currently include only five certifications, all focusing on Jira. It used to have Atlassian Certified Confluence Administrator for Data Center and Server; however, this certification has gone away as Confluence is rarely anyone's primary job and is usually thought of as part of the Jira Admin's tasks. Since November 2020, Atlassian has been offering an alternative to the Jira Server certification path - Jira Cloud certifications. Their content only partially overlaps. So currently, there are the following certifications: Managing Jira Projects for Data Centers and Managing Jira Projects for Cloud, Managing Jira Service Projects, Jira Administration for Cloud, and Jira Administration for Data Center and Server. 

Managing Jira Projects certification (ACP 610 for Data Center and ACP 620 for Cloud) confirms skills in configuring projects and boards, customizing workflows, and managing project permissions. It is intended for Jira project administrators, scrum masters, project leads, and board administrators. Atlassian recommends you have at least six months of experience working on a Jira Server and Jira Data Center or Jira software cloud, depending on the type of certification, before attempting this certification exam. Managing Jira Service Projects (ACP 420) certification confirms your skills in configuring and troubleshooting request types, SLAs, and notifications, managing access for customers and team members, and configuring knowledge bases and is intended for experienced Jira service project administrators. Atlassian recommends you have at least one year of experience in administering Jira service projects before attempting this certification exam. Jira Administration for Cloud Certification (ACP 120) confirms your ability to create and manage a Jira Cloud instance, manage workflows, automation, security, permissions, field, screen customization, and system settings, and is intended for experienced Jira administrators. Atlassian recommends at least 1-2 years of experience administering Jira Cloud before taking this exam. It is highly recommended to take ACP-620 before taking ACP-120 since ACP-120 is much more complex. Jira Administration for Data Center and Server (ACP 100) certification confirms your ability to create and maintain a Jira Data Center or Server instance, manage permissions, and customize schemes and workflows. It is also intended for experienced Jira administrators. Atlassian recommends you have two to three years of experience administering Jira data center or server before attempting this certification exam. The certification exam cost for ACP 610 and 620 certifications is $100, for the remaining - is $250. 

Atlassian certification has to be extended every two years to remain valid. Certifications are extended by earning related Skills badges or Pro-skill badges. Both the Skill badge and Pro-skill badge demonstrate your expertise in specific Atlassian features and use cases. Still, the exam itself doesn't have as many questions as the certification exam. The difference between Skills badges and Pro-skill badges is that Pro-Badge is also a proctored exam, the same as the certification exams, while Skills Badges are a non-proctored exam. Badges can be earned either before or after getting Certified. If you earn a badge before you are Certified, you will not be able to use that badge to maintain your certification later. One pro-skill badge may extend several certifications. If you do not extend a certification, it becomes suspended for three months. You can extend it and make it active again during that time, but within this term, it will not be displayed on the certification portal. If you fail to extend your Certification within the three months grace period, the certification lapses, and to earn it again, you will have to undergo the whole certification process from the very beginning. Skills badges or Pro-skill badges exam costs range from $20 for non-proctored to $35 for proctored exams. 

Link to the detailed description of available certifications: https://university.atlassian.com/student/activity/836769-get-certified#how-to-earn-an-atlassian-certification-7 

Link to the detailed description of available pro-skill badges: https://university.atlassian.com/student/catalog/list?category_ids=21580-pro-skill-badges 

To register for the examination and verify a certification, using the following link: https://id.atlassian.com/login

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