I see a lot of posts on LinkedIn these days saying certifications don’t hold much value in today’s job market. That HRs won’t even glance at them. That they won’t help you land your next big job. That certifications are just a facade to mask your lack of skills in the domain.

Well, I find these claims to be utter bullshit.

Certifications are just as important in today’s job market as they were 10 years ago. Job or not, they help you in many ways like,

• 🔄 Switching Domains

• 📈 Upskilling

• 🔄 Staying Relevant

For me, preparing for a certification has been one of the best ways to gain knowledge in a particular domain. Whether you clear the exam or not, the process equips you with the much-needed understanding to get started in a specific domain.

Switching domains

In the IT landscape — especially in India — it’s not always up to you to pick your tech stack. You graduate, get hired in an MNC through a mass recruitment drive, and then you’re randomly slotted into a group and trained on whatever tech is assigned.

You’re lucky if you get trained in a trending skill.

You’re blessed if a quick switch helps you break free from the clutches of some legacy technology.

And then… There are folks like me who’ve made multiple switches, jumped through hoops, dodged bullets — only to land right back in the same outdated tech stack. Every. Single. Time.

But you know what helped me finally break free from this deadlock? Certifications.

I started getting intrigued by Cloud technologies, but the information was so scattered that I couldn’t follow any proper roadmap to build the right skills. So, I enrolled in the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification. I bought a Udemy course for its preparation, and that gave me a structured learning path I could follow at my own pace while working a full-time job in legacy tech.

Soon, I got so comfortable with all these cloud services that I enrolled for the certification and cleared it on my first attempt. That boosted my confidence to start applying for Cloud roles.
Yes, I faced a lot of rejections in the beginning, and that was fair. I didn’t have real-world experience, even though I had the certification and hands-on skills through my side projects.

But eventually, one company gave me a shot — the only shot I needed.
And now, it’s been over 8 years since I’ve been working in the Cloud.

Upskilling

In IT, the only constant is change. If you don’t upskill yourself, you’re going to end up a dinosaur. And I say this from experience.

10 years ago, when DevOps was gaining steam, just a single mention of it on your resume would sell you like a hot cake. But fast forward to today, DevOps is still relevant, still important…
But are you still a hot cake?
Probably not.

I experimented with it recently, where after getting an AWS ML engineer certificate, I put this on my LinkedIn profile, and believe it or not, mere mentioning this got me 4–5 calls, for a 50–60% hike, in some of the most amazing startups and MNCs.

So you see, certifications help with upskilling too.
They give you the knowledge you need in trending domains and help you stay relevant in an industry that’s constantly evolving.

Now you might say, “I already have the knowledge, why should I bother with a certification?”
Well, if I’m hiring, and I have two equally good candidates, guess what could become the deciding factor?

Who has the certification?

So, what’s the harm in earning a few brownie points — and some credibility — while you’re at it?

Staying Relevant

Let’s be real — technologies and tools don’t wait for anyone. They keep evolving, and if you’re not keeping up, you’re falling behind.

Take AWS, for example.
Back in 2015, it had around 50–60 services, and that was already impressive. Fast forward to 2025, and AWS now offers over 200 fully featured services spanning compute, storage, databases, AI/ML, networking, analytics, and much more. That’s 4x growth in just a decade.

So when people ask, “Why should I go for an AWS certification in 2025?” — the answer’s simple.

Certifications aren’t just about getting a badge.
They’re one of the most effective ways to stay current with the ever-evolving tech ecosystem.