When you think you know your stuff but you actually don't

I have been writing code since 2004 and professionally since 2012... So i can tell, as far as i am concerned, that i am comfortable writing code and building complex systems (since i have been doing it for as long as i can remember). Ow, and by the way, i have a Master's Degree in Computer Science... Yet, i managed to fail the Angular interview questions when i received an invitation from Turing to apply for a remote senior developer role... it was as depressing as eyes opening ! I was so terrified that i didn't take the DotNet test yet...

I suppose that the majority of the developers out there knows how specific and deep this kind of interview questions can be. No matter how long you have been on the job and no matter how many projects you have accomplished, if you have never went deep enough into the technologies you are using (in my case, Angular on the front and the DotNet stack on the back), you will most likely fail those interviews. When i was taking the Angular test, i came to realise that the questions were very technical and it made sens. When you know a technology at that level of detail then, once on the job, you will be spending less time troubleshooting and more time building features, thus, you will be a lot more productive than you would have been if you didn't have that knowledge.

Certifications for the rescue

This brings us to the certification matter and how they can help us as developpers stay at the top of our knowledge.

Certifications on themselves are not that big of a deal, what realy is a bit annoying i would say is the whole preparation that is required. Nobody in its right mind would tackle a certification exam without a proper preparation first and this can be tedious, slow and time consuming but in the end, it is worth the effort.

In 2021, as far as i am aware, there are two possible ways to prepare for any IT certification; Reading through the official preparation books or leveraging the online preparation plateforms which can help you go right to the point and in an interactive way. I personnaly prefere the official books since they are published by the owner of the technology and tend to be very detailed and exhaustive. But, on the flip side, they require more effort and tend to take a bit longer.

Even more, i can safely assume (myself included) that without the proper deep detailed knowledge, we tend to spend most of our time searching through the web about the error messages the compiler throws at us or the wierd unexpected results we get and hope and pray to God (and whatnot) that somebody had the exact same problem, found the solution and was kind enough to share it on stackoverflow (or somewhere else). If, like me you want to be a specialist and you want to reduce the time you spend on Google searching and hoping, you should start considering taking a certification in the technology you want to specialise in.

Don't settle for the preparation, take the exam !

It is tempting to skip the certification exam and settle for the knowledge you think you have once you will be far enough through the preparation process. Believe me, this is the biggest mistake one can make ! First, you can't tell if you've got the required knowledge if you don't get tested for it. Second, why deprive yourself from getting the badge that certifies you and might even cut you corners in your future job interviews ? Yes, it might cost money and yes, you might fail but hey, wait a minute, if you fail, doesn't it mean you are not prepared enough ? So, make sure you are as prepared as you think you can get before taking the certification exam. Most certification authorities provide some mock test that helps you assess if you are ready to take the actual exam or not, so take advantage of that.

Final words

Certifications are a must have for every developer who want to specialize in a given technology since he won't get hired as a specialist otherwise. Unlike a generalist, a specialist is extremly well paid for a very specialized type of work, while a generalist is less paid, he might have a wider range of possible jobs to work on.