Blowing $300 on a useless certification course

Back in 2019 I signed up for this project management cert that promised to fast track my career. Cost me $300 and 40 hours of video lectures. Turns out the cert wasn't recognized by any actual employers in my field. I only found out after I brought it up in an interview and the hiring manager had never heard of it. Anyone else get burned by a pricey certification that went nowhere?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_val18d ago

Wait did your friend get caught in the same trap too? My buddy spent like $400 on some "professional scrum master" cert back in 2020 and thought he was gonna land a six figure job. He brought it up in an interview and the guy literally said "oh thats that online thing everyone buys" and moved on. The cert was from some random website with fancy logo but zero real backing. He still brings it up every time we talk about career stuff, gets all red faced about it.

anthony_fox9018d ago

and I swear I read somewhere that most of those "agile certs" are just cash grabs with no real industry weight. like the scrum alliance is legit but these random .org sites just copy their branding and sell cheaper versions. I looked into it once and the actual accredited stuff requires way more than just paying and taking a 20 question quiz.

wesleyjohnson3d ago

Right place right time matters more than the cert name. I know a guy who got hired because his random agile cert made him stand out from other candidates who had nothing. The hiring manager didn't care about accreditation he just saw initiative. Sometimes paying for something shows you actually want it more than the piece of paper. Bad certs are still better than no cert if you can talk your way through an interview. You just have to sell it like it means something even if it doesn't.