7 ms·

This is a pretty interesting acquisition. Linkedin is trying to position themselves as a full service job market. If you want a particular job, go to Linkedin a

by kirinan 11y ago

This is a pretty interesting acquisition. Linkedin is trying to position themselves as a full service job market. If you want a particular job, go to Linkedin and even if you are missing a few skills you can pick it up on their site and get "Linkedin Certified". This provides Linkedin with a series of "Linkedin Certified Professionals" that recruiters need to pay to get access to. It's an interesting position to be in: desired from both sides of the equation (Job Seekers and Recruiters/Talent Sourcers).

easytiger 11y ago
Great, back to the 90s and java & oracle certification style shit being demanded by employers
- theVirginian 11y ago
  I think we can do better this time. I'm optimistic that these new "certifications" will be ways to continue learning after higher education, or a way for people who didn't have that opportunity to learn gainful skills
jkestner 11y ago
Does MCSE still pull weight? Are there newer certifications that matter now? What fields do you think will benefit from this certification? In design (one of Lynda's pillars), half of hireability is portfolio. I suppose in production roles, you'd want to know you're hiring technically proficient people, but that too you can mostly tell from the work. Perhaps this works as well, or better, from the angle of "People who had this skill got looked at 3x more than you. Go get that skill."
- kirinan 11y ago
  I think in some realms MCSE does pull some weight, such as large financial institutions and non-tech companies. There are newer certificates such as those from Coursera and Udacity that are starting to pull more and more weight from the industry, mainly tech though. The main fields that benefit from this are business and technology. Human resources and recruiters tend not to be technical: they have no idea if you actually know Java or not. They simply know you have it on your resume. This gives them at least some peace of mind that you know at least some Java. Conversely, Business people can be evaluated on whether they know how to do basic things like rate of return or efficiency metrics. This does help in that realm, but it helps in giving some people confidence as well. Some people have imposters syndrome so a certificate saying they know it alleviates that feeling.
- ForHackernews 11y ago
  I had always heard that MCSE was considered a joke. I've heard positive things about RHCE and some of the Cisco networking certs, but I haven't been around that world for several years now.
  - chx 11y ago
    "Some of the Cisco networking certs" -- well, if you ever make it to CCIE you will never have to worry about having a job.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  > Does MCSE still pull weight? Depends where you are in your career. I've heard it claimed that an MCSE can be a stand-in for a degree (yes, I know that makes no sense, but I mean from a recruiter's perspective when reviewing a candidate's overall qualifications, rather than relating to technical skill/knowledge). So in your first 1-10 years? It might help. I will say eventually you have to remove an MCSE from your CV/resume as it does more harm than good (e.g. if you had a Server 2000 MCSE on your CV right now, it's just going to make you look out of touch). > Are there newer certifications that matter now? Timeless is key(!). A cert' which is tied to a specific piece of software only helps you while that software is relevant. So getting a cert on something like Project Management, Project Planning, or a broad cert' on security (with a focus on policy, not systems like CISSP or Security+). That's why degrees are a no-brainer. They're always timeless. People list their degree in their first and last job. Few certs survive more than fifteen some odd years.
  - webwanderings 11y ago
    > if you had a Server 2000 MCSE on your CV right now, Why? It would show strength and background of your past and history.
    - moheeb 11y ago
      I know how to use a rotary dial phone too, but I'm not putting that on my resume. Some stuff just goes out of style....like Windows Server 2000.
    - gohrt 11y ago
      "Server 2000,2003,2007,2013 MCSE" or such, would show continuous strength.
      - loco5niner 11y ago
        Yes, but that is different than the argument that was made.
        11y ago
eli 11y ago
I think this is exactly right. If you look at what's going on at education in general right now, "credentialing" is one of the top challenges for education startups. Particularly for MOOCs but also for bootcamps. How are hiring managers supposed to know which certificates mean something or which classes actually teach people something? LinkedIn's revenue right now is all about services to make recruiting easier.
- endlessvoid94 11y ago
  My personal opinion is that credentialing is going out of style anyway. Employers want to see what you can do, not where you learned. Put another way -- when's the last time you cared if someone was Microsoft Visual C++ .NET certified?
  - kirinan 11y ago
    For startups, I agree: certificates mean nothing. In fact, they can be a detriment as the certificates cause an increase in pay that may not be affordable in a startups budget. Plus since startups tend to live on the bleeding edge, there tend to not be certificates for newer technologies like golang. For large enterprises, I believe it gives them the peace of mind that the new hire has at least basic skills in a technology.
    - gearhart 11y ago
      For tech roles this effect is compounded by the fact that, in a startup, the person doing the hiring is likely to be technical themselves so they can quickly work out whether someone has basic skills, whereas in a bigger company HR likely can't do so as easily.
  - orionblastar 11y ago
    Back in 2001 I asked my manager about taking Microsoft certified classes to earn a Microsoft developer certificate. He told me it was a waste of time as all of the tests for it are on file sharing networks and Microsoft doesn't change their tests often enough so people study the pirated tests and then pay for the exams and get certified without knowing the material. At least that was his reason for not supporting me and getting money for me to take classes on it. I was already a very good Visual BASIC programmer. I earned a reputation for debugging other people's code and fixing databases in SQL Server. They would have comp sci bachelor of science holders, who could not even program. I had to train them in Visual BASIC to get them started. I only had an Associates because I could not afford a Bachelors. I take MOOC classes for free, so I don't get certified, but at least I learn new skills.
alexashka 11y ago
It's quite terrible, I mean, amazing for Lynda :) Now that we have free Stanford, MIT, etc courses online, for free, what has Lynda got to offer? It's a sinking ship. The 'one-stop for all your learning needs' is simply a bad model - all programmers know this. You have to go and seek out different resources that work for you and now we CAN, more than ever. The only reason to choose Lynda is out of ignorance or laziness. Both of which are indicators of somebody you don't want to hire! LinkedIn's head must be operating in oldschool mode of certificates actually meaning something. They don't. Unless they're HARD to get, really hard. And if they are, then you are better off going to a real college/university where you can get realtime feedback and support. What few skills can a working programmer get from Lynda? Honestly...
- cleaver 11y ago
  I would see Lynda as being more valuable for specific software packages like Adobe Illustrator. Videos teaching programming don't really fit my learning model. I really need to build and tweak to learn. A walkthrough like on video seems better suited to software packages.
- kleer001 11y ago
  > what has Lynda got to offer? Lots of practical vocational skills that fill in the gaps of an academic track. > What few skills can a working programmer get from Lynda? Depends on how diverse said programmer would like to be. Maybe there's a tidbit about being a real estate broker or plumber or data-entry drone that some working programmer re-maps to a problem they've been chewing on for months. My $0.02: Being open to new experiences and having an always-on learning POV goes a long way to fertilize success.
- puranjay 11y ago
  Exactly. Take is as someone who has been teaching himself how to code, Lynda, Codecademy, even Udacity are not going to cut it. These are good if you want to play at coding. But if you want to do anything serious, you'll have to check out actual lecture videos and books. For example, I was trying to figure out linked lists and the best resources were either from solo Youtubers, or a couple of videos uploaded by MIT and IIT (in India)
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
mathattack 11y ago
I've heard a few Jeff Weiner speeches, and he's very big about connecting and improving human capital. This is him putting his money where his mouth is.

by kirinan 11y ago

easytiger 11y ago

Great, back to the 90s and java & oracle certification style shit being demanded by employers

theVirginian 11y ago
I think we can do better this time. I'm optimistic that these new "certifications" will be ways to continue learning after higher education, or a way for people who didn't have that opportunity to learn gainful skills

jkestner 11y ago

Does MCSE still pull weight? Are there newer certifications that matter now? What fields do you think will benefit from this certification? In design (one of Lynda's pillars), half of hireability is portfolio. I suppose in production roles, you'd want to know you're hiring technically proficient people, but that too you can mostly tell from the work. Perhaps this works as well, or better, from the angle of "People who had this skill got looked at 3x more than you. Go get that skill."

kirinan 11y ago
I think in some realms MCSE does pull some weight, such as large financial institutions and non-tech companies. There are newer certificates such as those from Coursera and Udacity that are starting to pull more and more weight from the industry, mainly tech though. The main fields that benefit from this are business and technology. Human resources and recruiters tend not to be technical: they have no idea if you actually know Java or not. They simply know you have it on your resume. This gives them at least some peace of mind that you know at least some Java. Conversely, Business people can be evaluated on whether they know how to do basic things like rate of return or efficiency metrics. This does help in that realm, but it helps in giving some people confidence as well. Some people have imposters syndrome so a certificate saying they know it alleviates that feeling.
ForHackernews 11y ago
I had always heard that MCSE was considered a joke. I've heard positive things about RHCE and some of the Cisco networking certs, but I haven't been around that world for several years now.
- chx 11y ago
  "Some of the Cisco networking certs" -- well, if you ever make it to CCIE you will never have to worry about having a job.
Someone1234 11y ago
> Does MCSE still pull weight? Depends where you are in your career. I've heard it claimed that an MCSE can be a stand-in for a degree (yes, I know that makes no sense, but I mean from a recruiter's perspective when reviewing a candidate's overall qualifications, rather than relating to technical skill/knowledge). So in your first 1-10 years? It might help. I will say eventually you have to remove an MCSE from your CV/resume as it does more harm than good (e.g. if you had a Server 2000 MCSE on your CV right now, it's just going to make you look out of touch). > Are there newer certifications that matter now? Timeless is key(!). A cert' which is tied to a specific piece of software only helps you while that software is relevant. So getting a cert on something like Project Management, Project Planning, or a broad cert' on security (with a focus on policy, not systems like CISSP or Security+). That's why degrees are a no-brainer. They're always timeless. People list their degree in their first and last job. Few certs survive more than fifteen some odd years.
- webwanderings 11y ago
  > if you had a Server 2000 MCSE on your CV right now, Why? It would show strength and background of your past and history.
  - moheeb 11y ago
    I know how to use a rotary dial phone too, but I'm not putting that on my resume. Some stuff just goes out of style....like Windows Server 2000.
  - gohrt 11y ago
    "Server 2000,2003,2007,2013 MCSE" or such, would show continuous strength.
    - loco5niner 11y ago
      Yes, but that is different than the argument that was made.
      - 11y ago

eli 11y ago

I think this is exactly right. If you look at what's going on at education in general right now, "credentialing" is one of the top challenges for education startups. Particularly for MOOCs but also for bootcamps. How are hiring managers supposed to know which certificates mean something or which classes actually teach people something? LinkedIn's revenue right now is all about services to make recruiting easier.

endlessvoid94 11y ago
My personal opinion is that credentialing is going out of style anyway. Employers want to see what you can do, not where you learned. Put another way -- when's the last time you cared if someone was Microsoft Visual C++ .NET certified?
- kirinan 11y ago
  For startups, I agree: certificates mean nothing. In fact, they can be a detriment as the certificates cause an increase in pay that may not be affordable in a startups budget. Plus since startups tend to live on the bleeding edge, there tend to not be certificates for newer technologies like golang. For large enterprises, I believe it gives them the peace of mind that the new hire has at least basic skills in a technology.
  - gearhart 11y ago
    For tech roles this effect is compounded by the fact that, in a startup, the person doing the hiring is likely to be technical themselves so they can quickly work out whether someone has basic skills, whereas in a bigger company HR likely can't do so as easily.
- orionblastar 11y ago
  Back in 2001 I asked my manager about taking Microsoft certified classes to earn a Microsoft developer certificate. He told me it was a waste of time as all of the tests for it are on file sharing networks and Microsoft doesn't change their tests often enough so people study the pirated tests and then pay for the exams and get certified without knowing the material. At least that was his reason for not supporting me and getting money for me to take classes on it. I was already a very good Visual BASIC programmer. I earned a reputation for debugging other people's code and fixing databases in SQL Server. They would have comp sci bachelor of science holders, who could not even program. I had to train them in Visual BASIC to get them started. I only had an Associates because I could not afford a Bachelors. I take MOOC classes for free, so I don't get certified, but at least I learn new skills.

alexashka 11y ago

It's quite terrible, I mean, amazing for Lynda :) Now that we have free Stanford, MIT, etc courses online, for free, what has Lynda got to offer? It's a sinking ship. The 'one-stop for all your learning needs' is simply a bad model - all programmers know this. You have to go and seek out different resources that work for you and now we CAN, more than ever. The only reason to choose Lynda is out of ignorance or laziness. Both of which are indicators of somebody you don't want to hire! LinkedIn's head must be operating in oldschool mode of certificates actually meaning something. They don't. Unless they're HARD to get, really hard. And if they are, then you are better off going to a real college/university where you can get realtime feedback and support. What few skills can a working programmer get from Lynda? Honestly...

cleaver 11y ago
I would see Lynda as being more valuable for specific software packages like Adobe Illustrator. Videos teaching programming don't really fit my learning model. I really need to build and tweak to learn. A walkthrough like on video seems better suited to software packages.
kleer001 11y ago
> what has Lynda got to offer? Lots of practical vocational skills that fill in the gaps of an academic track. > What few skills can a working programmer get from Lynda? Depends on how diverse said programmer would like to be. Maybe there's a tidbit about being a real estate broker or plumber or data-entry drone that some working programmer re-maps to a problem they've been chewing on for months. My $0.02: Being open to new experiences and having an always-on learning POV goes a long way to fertilize success.
puranjay 11y ago
Exactly. Take is as someone who has been teaching himself how to code, Lynda, Codecademy, even Udacity are not going to cut it. These are good if you want to play at coding. But if you want to do anything serious, you'll have to check out actual lecture videos and books. For example, I was trying to figure out linked lists and the best resources were either from solo Youtubers, or a couple of videos uploaded by MIT and IIT (in India)

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

mathattack 11y ago

I've heard a few Jeff Weiner speeches, and he's very big about connecting and improving human capital. This is him putting his money where his mouth is.