IBM Certification: Your Key to Success

What Is the IBM Professional Certification?

The IBM Professional Certification is a way to earn credentials and demonstrate your knowledge of IBM technology. IBM Certification programs vary from entry-level to advanced and include many different job roles for IBM professionals. The plan consists of reading/study material and a test. Once you pass the test, you will receive a sparkling new professional certification badge.

Why Pursue IBM Certifications?

There are numerous benefits to earning certification. Certification shows your capability and expertise in a particular subject, which allows partners to recognize potential opportunities to utilize your skill-set.

In the scenario I mentioned above, IBM stopped to grant the client certain access rights and permission in their environment. They did not require the client to accidentally break the situation and then be called to fix things. IBM surely would have been less wary had the client had an IBM-certified employee to act as admin.

Who Can Obtain IBM Certifications?

The Program is for any IBM professional who recommends, sells, supports, and uses IBM products and solutions. You can go with IBM Analytics, IBM Cloud, IBM Security, or IBM Watson, to name a few.

How to Ace Your IBM Exam?

To help guarantee your success at exam time, IBM gives several test preparation options:

• Sample tests can help familiarize you with the test form and the types of questions. Answer keys are included. Sample tests are offered at no charge.
• Assessment tests assume the certification exams. They are an excellent gauge of whether you could benefit from additional study.

Be careful where you locate these tests, as usual, found on the Internet are questionable legality or currency. IBM gives the tests at the IBM Professional Certification website.

Value of IBM Certification

The Prometric and Edge Research survey also shows that IT decision-makers believe that certification benefits an organization in these critical areas:

• Skills and knowledge
• Retain employees’ skills current
• Show staff to new products
• Troubleshoot problems without the help of outside support
• Productivity
• Help staff do their jobs better
• Lead to more active implementation of IT solutions
• Increase the reliability and efficiency of the IT environment
• Reduce network downtime
• Staff value and productivity
• Benefit from robust return-on-investment
• Show competency to clients
• Make staff more valuable to the organization
• Increase staff retention

Document the Value of IBM Certification

IBM and Prometric have created the Why IT Certify website to find solutions to common questions about the value of IBM certification, including:

• Does certification aid you make more money and move up the career ladder faster?
• Does having certified employees help your business?
• Does certification help make faster quality solutions to the market?

The site includes salary surveys, industry reports, white papers, recommendations, and links to other certification resources.

Once you are certified, you are welcome to join the IBM Professional Certification Community. This members-only conference is an excellent way to continue to improve your skills, learn about new certifications, and make a lifetime of contacts critical to your professional success.

The Benefits of IBM Certification

1. Employability and Job Security

Certifications do more than validate professional expertise. They affirm a professional's responsibility to career-long learning. For employers, this matters. According to a study, 91 percent of hiring managers consider certifications when assessing potential candidates. Another 86 percent said they believed IBM certifications of high or ordinary importance.

It would improve if you also kept in mind that some certifications may be more in demand than others. Publications occasionally publish lists knowing some of that year's highest-demand IBM certifications.

2. Bigger Paychecks

IBM certifications do not inevitably carry automatic salary increases, but they can still quite literally pay off. According to a report from IBM, professionals who had earned an IT or project management certification within the last five years gained $5,242 more than their uncertified counterparts. Keep in mind that earnings tend to change from one certification and location to the next. Many resources can give more insight into the value of specific certifications within certain geographic markets.

3. Networking

Certified IBM professionals are a club all their own, and the company has its benefits. IBM reports that some networking communities and events are sold through particular vendors; others are established by motivated professionals online or through discussion networks. Certified professionals may also have more support on social networking sites, notes IBM. These networks can hold power for those looking for new employment opportunities or help on specific projects.

4. Career Flexibility

IBM certification, which offers certification training tools and materials, many IBM professionals have multiple certifications. These credentials do not just focus and certify their current skills, but also serve to diversify them. This can open up new professional doors for those who might need to switch gears.

Conclusion

The IBM certifications will keep your IT staff up to date on the latest techniques and security best practices or elevate your income and marketability. But being security-aware is not only for IBM professionals. All business staff should have a foundational knowledge of big data, and the risks technology poses.