Those Pesky Certifications
Has anyone bothered with obtaining certifications when moving to a new area of skills without experience? I've never bothered as the language/framework ones seemed way too unnecessary (surely we software folks can always pick them up, so testing for the fundamentals is more important), and the other certs I knew of were more for hands on IT work like for network infrastructure and fixing computers.
I recently finished my master's (in health informatics: I was bored and decided looking into health would be fun) and ended up in a slight career switch to data engineer though, and in the process of re-entering the workforce it looked like companies were insistent on some pretty technology specfic stuff, especially from the AWS stack. On one hand, I've already secured the job so it shouldn't be useful for job applications in the near future, but on the other hand (especially no thanks to ads on social media) it feels like I should "keep up with the Joneses" and obtain say, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate cert followed by the AWS Certified Big Data - Specialty cert.
There's the practical aspect of the knowledge acquired to obtain them that I'd concede is useful even if I never list the certs on a CV, but it probably requires me to go more in depth than I need, and despite the tech stack being in demand it seems so... vendor specific. So, useful or waste of money?
