Used to chase every certification now I just learn by doing

Back in 2019 I spent like $800 on AWS certs and a bootcamp thinking it would land me a job. After 6 months of studying I still felt lost in actual interviews. Now I just build random projects on my own time and put them on GitHub. Nobody ever asked about my certs but my portfolio got me 3 callbacks last month. Has anyone else dropped the cert grind and seen better results from real work?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlie_ellis1mo ago

You mentioned "still couldn't explain basic load balancing in an interview" and that's actually a good point about how certs don't always teach you the practical stuff. I think the real issue is that many cert courses focus too much on memorizing facts rather than understanding how things actually work under the hood. Building projects forces you to figure out those concepts for real, even if your dog walk tracker isn't going to impress any enterprise recruiters.

jamesm481mo ago

Nah man the cert grind is a total trap for most people. Dropped like $500 on a cloud cert and bootcamp in 2020 and still couldn't explain basic load balancing in an interview. Started building a little app that tracked my dog's walks and posted it on GitHub with a simple readme. Got three interview requests off that one project alone. Real work shows you can actually solve problems instead of just pass tests.