As the Information Technology sector has grown remarkably since the last decade and a half, number of Globally Certified IT professionals has increased at the same rate as the technology. Let us first know what global certifications are and what is their significance in shaping one’s career in the software industry.

What are Global Certifications?

Global certifications are awarded to the candidates who have undergone a training course on leading technologies of a particular company and successfully completed the tests undertaken after training by the same company.

As the name suggests these certifications are given by a few international companies on their technologies which are recognized globally.

Here are some of the vendor-specific –certifications available in the industry.

• Apple Inc. sponsors the Apple certification program
• Cisco Systems sponsors the Cisco Career Certifications program
• Citrix Systems sponsors the Citrix Certified Administrator program
• Hewlett-Packard sponsor the HP-CP certifications related to HP Technologies
• Dell sponsors the Dell Certified Systems Expert program with Associate and Master levels
• IBM sponsors certifications
• Juniper Networks sponsors the Juniper Networks Technical Certification Program
• LANDesk sponsors the Certified LANDesk Administrator and Certified LANDesk Engineer program
• Microsoft Corporation sponsors the Microsoft Certified Professional program
• My SQL (as part of Sun Microsystems now) sponsors a certification program
• Nortel sponsors the Nortel Certifications program
• Novel sponsors a certification program
• Object Management Group sponsors the Certified Professional program for the Unified Modeling Language
• Oracle Corporation sponsors the Oracle Certification Program
• Red Hat sponsors the Red Hat Certification Program
• SAP sponsors individual training and certifications
• SolarWinds sponsors the SolarWinds Certified Professional Program for network management
• Sun Microsystems sponsors the Sun Certified Professional program
• Sybase sponsors the Certified Sybase Professional program
• Ubuntu provides an Ubuntu Certified Professional program
• VMware sponsors certification programs (VCP & VCDX)
• Zend Technologies sponsors the Zend Certified Engineer program

All these certifications are awarded by the concerned companies, or the authorized testing centres spread worldwide.How one gets benefitted by these certifications?

If you pass this examination, (which will be easy if you have had proper guidance) then you will be given a certification by the concerned company that you are certified in that particular technology.

For example, a person doing a core Java course from XYZ institute in ABCD gets a certificate from that institute saying he knows core Java. Another person is doing the same core Java course and appears for the exam conducted by Sun Microsystems and gets a certificate from the company itself.
Both put it down on their CVs.It is for you to decide as to who an interviewer will give more importance to.
Also, once you join any organization you will have to undergo any of these certifications, so it will give you an added advantage if you have it already.

So those who wish to have a good career in the Technical side of the IT sector should stress on these steps. As one gets certified he gets an added advantage over the other candidates and chances of his employability becomes bright. There are further divisions of these certifications like if one person is doing ORACLE DBA version 10g and wants to go for certification for the same technology, he needs to study the material provided by ORACLE University and then register himself for the tests at any of the nearby Prometric Testing centres and has to appear for the 3 tests. After the completion of these tests, he will be certified by Oracle Corporation and entitled for the benefits which we discussed above.

However one serious question is being asked these days, do these certifications really prove candidate’s employability? And do these certifications give job guarantee during the current IT meltdown????

Well, the answer is, these certifications definitely add value to one’s resume but do not necessarily guarantee a job. When you face the interview, you have to be like before your Certification gets desired.Certification does not plug the gaps in your career or Personality. In the end, I can say Knowledge matters the most over what we call as a piece of paper.