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Comment by rshnotsecure | Hacker News Reader

The AWS Associate and Professional Architect certifications together costs $450. 12 months of self-study from knowing nothing about computers, and many have done it in less. Compare them (although this is not the best metaphor) to an Associate’s and Bacehlor’s degree. You would certainly earn as much...probably quite a bit more.

The study materials for those exams, worst case, bring the total to $750.

So $750 vs $50,000 for a modestly priced 4 year university.

Can anyone in intellectual good faith argue that the latter system is going to survive outside of the very short term?

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You talk about survival in the long term yet you talk about getting certifications for technologies that can become obsolete after 5 years (although AWS, specifically, will probably be around for a while). Also I’m almost positively certain that if you do this certification without knowing nothing about computer when starting, as you say, good luck finding jobs for anything that would deserve the « architect » title.

Also going to university isn’t 50 000$ everywhere, this is mainly a weird US thing. I am a firm believer in the importance fundamental CS education, and picking up AWS from there shouldn’t be hard if that fundamental education was any good.

AWS Launched 13 years ago...

Yet when I went to University they were teaching Java/Pascal. What got me a job was learning more relevant subjects things on my own. Virtualization, Cloud, Containers, Python, Shell scripting.

Yeah I'll add my voice to the "University is overpriced and ancient" vote.

$750 vs $50,000 for a modestly priced 4 year university.

If absolutely nothing else, that $50,000 almost always includes room, utilities (electricity, water, high-speed internet, cable,) furniture, at least 3 meals a day, medical care, and a gym.

So you'd need to add the cost of those to the $750 for it to be a fair comparison.

Not sure if you've ever actually taken those certs (I have those + Sysops Associate) but they're just glorified multiple choice quizzes. In my experience hiring, they reveal relatively little about one's abilities to do meaningful work. They're more like the SAT than a degree.

Until the tech industry forms meaningful professional organizations with legal protections like law and medicine, these certs will be resume garnish compared to a degree.

That sounds like not only putting the cart before the horse but an entife stable. The certifcation is to serve the profession not the other way around.

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