I see this almost every day in the IT world.
People are chasing certifications nonstop.
One after another. Cloud, security, DevOps, networking — you name it.
And don’t get me wrong — certifications are useful.
I have them too.
But I want to say this clearly, based on my own experience:
Certifications alone won’t make you good at your job. Skills will.
The Certification Obsession I Keep Seeing
A lot of professionals today are:
Memorizing exam questions
Rushing to clear exams
Adding badges to LinkedIn
But never actually building anything
Then reality hits — production issues, outages, security incidents — and suddenly the certification doesn’t help.
Because real systems don’t behave like exam questions.
What I’ve Learned the Hard Way
In real IT jobs, no one asks:
“Which exam did you pass?”
They ask:
Can you troubleshoot when something breaks?
Can you figure out why it broke?
Can you fix it without panicking?
Can you explain the issue to non-technical people?
I’ve seen people with fewer certifications but stronger fundamentals outperform those with a long cert list — simply because they understood how things actually work.
Skills That Actually Made a Difference for Me
These are the things that helped me grow — not just exams:
🔹 Hands-On Practice
Setting up labs.
Breaking things.
Fixing them again.
That’s where real learning happens.
🔹 Understanding the “Why”
Not just how to configure something — but:
Why this setting exists
What happens if it’s misconfigured
What breaks downstream
🔹 Troubleshooting Mindset
Logs, alerts, failed deployments — this is daily life in IT.
You get better only by facing problems, not avoiding them.
🔹 Communication
Being able to explain an issue calmly and clearly is a skill many people ignore — but it matters a lot in real jobs.
How I Personally Look at Certifications Now
For me, certifications are:
A way to validate what I already know
A structured way to fill gaps
Sometimes a checkbox for HR
They are not a shortcut to expertise.
If I don’t have hands-on experience, I don’t feel confident — no matter how many badges I have.
What I’d Tell Anyone Starting (or Restarting) Their IT Career
If you’re serious about growing in IT:
Build labs before booking exams
Practice more than you memorize
Focus on fundamentals
Learn how systems fail — not just how they work
Technology changes fast.
Exam syllabi don’t.
Final Thought
Prefer video? Watch the short version on my YouTube channel – IT Blogs by Jaspreet
Certifications might help your resume get noticed.
But skills are what keep you employed and respected.
I’ll always choose:
Skill over shortcuts
Understanding over memorization
Experience over badges
That’s how you build a career that actually lasts.