Certifications to Boost Your Open Source Career

By FOSSlife Team, 17 May, 2021

In today’s competitive tech industry, both employers and job seekers understand the importance of IT certification. In fact, according to a CompTIA study, “91 percent of employers believe IT certifications play a key role in the hiring process and are a reliable predictor of a successful employee.” Additionally, certification can help tech professionals earn higher salaries or move into new career roles.

“Many of these certifications can help technologists earn high salaries, … help them stand out in a crowded job market, as well as give them leverage in negotiations for better roles, salaries, and benefits,” writes Nick Kolakowski. “This is particularly true in highly competitive, ultra-specialized arenas such as cybersecurity, where companies really need the assurance that you’ve mastered some very complex tools and platforms.”

Learning new skills or earning a certification can result in a salary increase of more than $12,000 a year, according to the Global Knowledge 2020 IT Skills and Salary Survey. And, the most recent Dice Tech Salary Report lists 17 tech certifications that can particularly pay off for tech professionals, including those related to IT operational skills, security, and professional project management. “Agile and Scrum certifications have also attracted technologists interested in proving to employers that they have the skills to effectively manage teams,” Kolakowski says.

Linux Certification Choices

If you have a Linux certification, you always have excellent career opportunities, notes Barnali Chanda at hackr.io. Organizations are interested in hiring candidates who have demonstrated the ability to manage servers, schedule cron jobs, write shell scripts, and perform other aspects of Linux administration. “Certifications keep you ahead of the crowd and increase your competitive advantage,” Chanda says.

QuickStart offers a guide to the top five open source certification choices, which concentrates on the following Linux certification paths:

Hackr.io’s list of the top five Linux certifications includes: