Whether to get certified is a question that’s followed IT professionals for decades, and the answer keeps changing as the field does.
In 2026 the answer is a qualified yes, with the qualification doing real work. The right certification, matched to the role you want, still delivers a measurable return. The wrong one, collected for its own sake, sits on a resume and does nothing, and too much money gets made selling people the wrong one.
I’m not answering this from the outside. I spent 20 years as Director of Computer Operations and Technical Services, hiring technical people, reading their resumes, deciding which credentials meant something and which were noise. That hiring-side view is exactly what most certification advice lacks, because it’s usually written by people selling the courses instead of the people deciding whether the certificate got you the interview. Certifications themselves never gave me much trouble. I was VMware certified and held a few others, and I took the CompTIA A+ cold with no study, though by then I didn’t really need it.
Do IT certifications still matter in 2026?
They do, and the market data is specific about where. Recent 2026 analysis shows the CompTIA foundation certifications still work as entry signals, Security+ appearing in a large share of security job postings, and cloud certifications like AWS Solutions Architect Associate delivering the highest returns, with average salary uplift around twenty-six thousand dollars. AI and machine learning credentials are in heavy demand with supply lagging behind. Meanwhile a growing majority of employers now weigh certifications alongside or above formal degrees.
So the value is real but concentrated. Cloud and security lead on salary. AI credentials are the fast-rising category. Foundational certs open the first door. The credentials that don’t connect to a live job market, by contrast, deliver little regardless of how much effort they took. A book or a career decision about certifications has to make that distinction instead of treating all certificates as equal.
Why does a hiring manager’s view of IT certifications matter most?
Because a certification is only worth what an employer thinks it’s worth, and I spent two decades being that employer. I know what a hiring manager does with a certificate on a resume: treat it as a signal of current, validated skill, useful only when it maps to the work. A stack of unrelated certs reads as someone collecting credentials instead of building toward a role, and experienced hiring managers discount it.
Because a certification is only worth what an employer thinks it’s worth, and I spent two decades being that employer.Share on X
That’s the insight most certification guidance misses. The question is never only whether a cert is valuable. It’s valuable for what, and to whom? My 33 years in enterprise technology taught me to read credentials the way the people doing the hiring read them, the same practical judgment I bring to writing about cloud security and the careers built around it.
Which certifications pay off now?
The ones tied to where the money and the jobs are.
Cloud certifications lead, with the AWS Solutions Architect Associate producing the strongest combination of salary uplift and employer recognition, and the Azure and Google Cloud equivalents close behind. Security credentials come next, with Security+ as the entry signal and CISSP as the senior one. AI and machine learning certs are the rising category, with demand outpacing the supply of certified people.
I think cert collecting is one of the saddest habits in the field.
The strategic move the current data points to is stacking, choosing deliberate combinations that signal a coherent skill profile instead of accumulating certificates at random. A cloud architecture cert plus an infrastructure-as-code cert plus a container cert tells a hiring manager a clear story.
Three unrelated foundational certs tell them nothing. Depth in a role beats breadth across everything, unless you’re early and building your first foundation.
I think cert collecting is one of the saddest habits in the field. People do it because it feels like progress, and the course sellers are happy to keep them at it, while the hiring manager skims past the whole pile looking for the one line that matches the job.
| Category | Examples named | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud | AWS Solutions Architect Associate; Azure and Google Cloud equivalents | Highest returns and strong employer recognition |
| Security | Security+ at entry, CISSP at senior level | Security+ appears in a large share of security postings |
| AI and machine learning | Rising category | Demand outpacing the supply of certified people |
| Foundation | CompTIA foundation certifications | An entry signal that opens the first door |
| Deliberate stack | Cloud architecture plus infrastructure-as-code plus container | A coherent skill profile that tells a clear story |
| Random collection | Three unrelated foundational certs | Credential collecting; hiring managers discount it |
How do you write about certifications without the advice going stale?
Write about how to choose and leave the hot list to the magazines. Specific exams, vendors, and salary numbers change, so a book or guide built around this year’s rankings dates fast. The durable content is the structure: match the credential to the role, weigh cost against return, stack deliberately, and treat certs as one signal among experience and real projects. That reasoning holds up as the specific credentials turn over.
Building the durable structure and treating current rankings as timestamped illustration is where experience proves its worth. I structure the guidance around the judgment that lasts, so it still helps a reader after this year’s exam list has changed. It’s the same discipline I apply across every technology topic in the cluster, keeping the principle in front and the specifics clearly of their moment.
My take
Get the cert that fits the job you want, and ignore the rest. A stack of unrelated credentials tells a hiring manager you collect certificates, and that’s how I read them from the hiring side. Cloud and security pay best right now, with AWS Solutions Architect Associate leading and Security+ as the entry point. Stack certs that tell one coherent story. A cert with no skill behind it won’t survive the interview.
Who benefits from thinking clearly about certifications?
Anyone making a real career decision benefits, and so does anyone writing a book to guide them. The people who get the most from it are the ones who stop asking whether certifications matter in general and start asking which one maps to the outcome they want. I feel for everyone who’s spent a year of evenings on a certificate no employer asked for, and I’d like to see a lot fewer of them.
If you’re an author with real hiring or training experience and a book in you about building a technical career, that’s the gap I close. I bring the hiring-side judgment to interrogate your material and the craft to make it durable and clear. See how it works on my book ghostwriting service, and find the wider context in my technology of writing hub.
