--- title: Certifications are not enough | daily.dev description: Certifications alone are not sufficient for advancement in software engineering — hands-on experience aligned with long-term goals is equally essential.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/certifications-are-not-enough-jntmdpsnr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Certifications are not enough | daily.dev og:description: Certifications alone are not sufficient for advancement in software engineering — hands-on experience aligned with long-term goals is equally essential.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/certifications-are-not-enough-jntmdpsnr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/jNtMDpSnr.png og:image:alt: Certifications are not enough og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Certifications are not enough **[Welly Chisepo](https://daily.dev/sources/g9h5prqgitxqusjfzjx4i)** · [@nocj](https://daily.dev/nocj) · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Certifications alone are not sufficient for advancement in software engineering — hands-on experience aligned with long-term goals is equally essential. Chasing certifications or experience that doesn't serve your professional direction wastes a finite resource: time. A combined approach of project-based learning and targeted certifications is advocated as the path to meaningful growth. ## Content Advancement in Software Engineering at both an educational level and a professional one requires more than certification but also experience. It can also be very dangerous to chase certification and experience that is not focused on your long term goals, time is a resource not to be wasted. When it comes to experience; it should be hands on skills that you have used and have proven make you a better dev and a better engineer, the same should go for certifications, the knowledge you gather should also serve you professionally after it impresses clients and employers. I have committed myself to both, project based learning and certifications because honestly I cannot reach my goals without either.  ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Do programming certifications still matter?](https://daily.dev/posts/do-programming-certifications-still-matter--avh8eyu83) · InfoWorld · 4 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/certifications-are-not-enough-jntmdpsnr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/certifications-are-not-enough-jntmdpsnr","headline":"Certifications are not enough","text":"Certifications alone are not sufficient for advancement in software engineering — hands-on experience aligned with long-term goals is equally essential. 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