What value does cloud certification add for a sysadmin?

[SamuelBR]

I’ve been working as a sysadmin for about five years now, and lately I’ve been wondering if getting a cloud certification is worth the time and effort at this point. I see job postings mentioning them constantly, but I’m not sure if it would actually change anything for me or if it’s just another line on the resume. Some of my colleagues say the hands-on experience I already have is what really matters, but I feel a bit stuck and curious what others who’ve been in a similar spot decided to do.

[MilaS]

Five years in and I get the pull of a cloud certification, but it has to be more than a badge. If your hands-on track record is solid, the cert can help you signal that you keep up, not replace the real work you’ve done patching outages and automating playbooks.

[George64]

Do a quick ROI: how long to study, cost, and which cloud you’ll certify in, versus the actual job postings you want. If the answers point to a vendor stack you handle, a focused cloud certification could speed up interviews, but it won’t substitute the optics of proven automation, IaC, and cost controls.

[ElizabethTH]

I might be hearing cloud certification as a badge you hang on your desk or a line on a resume, and that framing bugs me. The real question is whether a credential would unlock projects you can’t land today, not whether you like the sound of a certificate.

[NoraS]

Certs can feel like marketing fluff unless they unlock concrete improvements in deployment speed, reliability, or cost. If your day-to-day is solid already, the cloud certification might not move the needle unless a recruiter or new team cares about the badge.

[Olivia66]

Maybe the move isn’t about the certificate at all but about choosing a cloud problem to own next year—reliability, automation, or cost optimization. If you pick that, the learning path will matter more than the label.

[Aaron_J]

I chased a badge once and learned more by building small projects than reading slides. A cloud certification could help in some shops, but your track record and a few visible outcomes will beat a curriculum stamp any day.