My SO and I were discussing the *ahem* "future" of my attempts at getting IT work. We discussed the possibility of setting myself up as a small business within the next 4-9 months. (This would bring a lot of advantages, but I'm still sussing out the disadvantages, which include tax issues and whatnot.)
One of the surprising things that fell out of her mouth was "...and we can look at getting Greg certified for some stuff..."
Now, I'm Greg, and I haven't been thinking seriously about getting certified for anything, frankly. I asked her what she thought I should get certified for, and she rattled off a couple of things -- Java (whatever that's called), A+ possibly, a couple MS operating systems, etc.
Now, while I'm not really opposed to the idea, I am curious. Anybody have any definitive statement on whether or not certification convinces anybody but the people who give the certifications that you're any good?
Realistically, is it financially worth it, or would I be better off taking the money it costs to get certified on X and throwing that into paying myself to learn about X (once, of course, there's money to pay myself with)?
She also talked about getting certified for some stuff herself, but it would all be financial stuff -- tax preparer, etc. -- so it makes sense. The financial world is rife with certification this and qualified that, and it would make a lot of sense. (It would also help me learn how to write financial packages. Someday, I'd like to be able to write a drop-in replacement for, say, Quickbooks. That would make me really, really happy for reasons that -- if they aren't obvious to you -- would probably make no sense.)