Are IT certifications replacing the college degree?

Ryan Williams Sr. applied for 51 jobs when was transitioning out of the US Air Force, landing an interview for the last of those open positions.

Williams remembers that the hiring manager, a former US Marine, was particularly interested in his certifications.

“He was very honest about what piqued his interest, which was my combination of the CISSP and PMP. For him, it was all about my experience and those certifications,” Williams says.

Williams, who retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant, got the job. His new boss shared with him that his college degrees, including a master’s, did not influence the company’s decision to offer him the position, which helped launch his post-military career. Williams is now an IT security analyst with BuddoBot.

Williams’ experience speaks to a longstanding debate within the IT profession: What weight should college degrees have when vetting candidates, and are certifications a better barometer for making a valuable hire?

The answer is to either question isn’t yes or no, according to multiple sources. Rather, the answer is: It depends.

IT executives, hiring managers, recruiters, researchers, and workers themselves say there are certainly jobs — such as the one Williams signed on for in 2022 — where certifications are preferred because they indicate that the candidate has the specific skills required to do that job.

“Many organizations are realizing it makes them more adaptable and agile than requiring degrees above all else,” says Thomas Vick, a technology hiring and consulting expert with Robert Half.

Job seekers use certifications to launch, advance careers

Jordan Harband, for one, has found certifications to be increasingly valuable in the job market.

“I don’t think a degree is needed for most things in tech,” he says.

Harband, principle open-source architect at HeroDevs, doesn’t discount a college degree’s value. Like others, he says having a degree shows a candidate has achieved certain knowledge and has certain traits, such as perseverance.

“But a degree is one of many possible signals that someone could be a good fit for the job,” he says.

Prior work experience, successful on-the-job training, certificate of completions from IT boot camps, and certifications signal much of the same, he says.

Moreover, Harband, 41, has seen the demand for degrees wane during his career. He found that organizations typically required degrees when he entered the workforce 20 years ago. Harband, who attended college but did not complete his degree, says that shut off some early-career opportunities for him.

He was able to overcome that barrier by gaining experience as co-founder of a company that evolved into making iPhone apps for musicians — an experience that helped him launch his career as a technologist.

Since then he has racked up certifications, many from the Linux Foundation. Now Harband does not feel his nondegree status holds him back.

Similarly, Benjamin Cramer says, “In my case having certifications balances out having no degree.”

Cramer trained in IT while a US Marine and entered the tech profession after leaving active duty five years ago. A CCNA certification from Cisco, among other certifications, helped him land a job as a network engineer.

He has added several more certifications, mostly around Kubernetes, in recent years.

Certifications help Cramer advance by demonstrating he has specific knowledge — just as a degree would, he says. He also thinks having certifications in lieu of a degree has helped with salary negotiations. Moreover, many jobs, particularly around cloud computing and cybersecurity, require certifications, not degrees, he adds.

But certifications, like degrees, can only carry him so far, says Cramer, who has since founded cloud consulting company KR8TOS. Networking, doing his job well, and continuously learning are more critical elements for career advancement and success, he says.

More required than credentials

David Foote, chief analyst and research officer with Foote Partners, a tech labor analysis and forecasting firm, speaks to the mix of candidate qualifications that employers consider.

“There are certifications that have become de facto standards in a bunch of jobs, particularly in info/cybersecurity, architecture, and project management,” he says.

But it’s more about employers trying to ascertain whether a candidate truly has what it takes to do the job, Foote says. As such, the question isn’t whether “college degrees or IT certifications are actually required or preferred for getting a tech job. Because they are not. For an increasing number of jobs, employers opt instead for clear signs that the candidate has demonstrated proven competency in performing what a job requires irrespective of degrees or certification,” he says.

Gary Flowers, CIO of transformation and technology services at nonprofit Year Up, agrees.

“What we’re really looking for, at all levels, is whether the candidate has the needed experience and skills. So it’s no longer that the person with the degree automatically has a leg up; I may go with the person who has the certification. Today it depends on the [candidate’s] certifications, degrees, and experience,” he says.

Likewise, Clyde Seepersad, senior vice president and general manager of the Linux Foundation Education, says the question isn’t one versus the other.

He points out that degrees and certifications confer different attributes to the holder: A degree shows a broad scope of knowledge, for example; a certification demonstrates knowledge in a specific area or skill.

Seepersad says employers should determine what knowledge, skills, and traits candidates must possess to succeed in a job, and use that information to shape how to evaluate them, something he sees happening. In such cases, where employers need a specific technical skill, demand for credentials now often outrank the desire for degrees.

Angel Ramirez notes this as well, crediting certifications for launching his career. Ramirez has some college credits but not a completed degree. Still, he says, would-be employers have brushed past that and instead focused on the credentials he has.

“They’ve asked me about my [lack of a] college degree, but no one really cared about it because I compensated with certifications. I can show that I have been working hard getting all these certifications and they prove I have this [set of knowledge],” he says.

Ramirez has racked up more certifications and has progressed through numerous positions, from freelancing as a web developer to software engineer to DevOps engineer to CEO of Cuemby, his own company offering cloud products and services.

He says clients ask about his credentials and are interested in the certifications he has, not the degree he doesn’t. And he feels the same way about the candidates he hires.

“As CEO, I’m 100% about show me you can do the work,” he says.