IT Insights Blog — certification

Legend has it that, in 1626, Peter Minuit and a party of Dutch colonists acquired Manhattan Island, the site of present-day New York City's Manhattan borough, from the indigenous Canarsie, a constituent tribe of the Lenape, for trade goods worth 60 Dutch guilders. That's the equivalent, as most familiar with the legend have no doubt heard, of $24 in ... well, not "today's" currency. In 2014, historians estimated that Minuit's trade goods would be worth between $2,600 and $15,600.

There's something to be said for persistence. Not everyone has the willpower and commitment to start something and then see it through to the end. One thing that's been said for persistence is the thing that was said by the late Shel Silverstein, who probably should have been America's poet laureate at some point, but somehow never was. (Also towering up to the clouds in that particular hypothetical category: the late Theodore S. Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss.)

There are a lot of good things about IT certification. Money — more about that in a second — is just one of them. Certification is a great way to learn new IT skills or brush up old ones. Most people study for at least a month or two to prepare for a certification exam. That's a lot of time spent concentrating on IT mastery. Even if you're just getting back up to speed on things you already knew, having a learning mindset and developing good study habits is invaluable.

Singer and songwriter Michael Stipe of R.E.M. once explained that he wrote the lyrics to the hit single "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" as an aggregation of everyday experiences: "The words come from everywhere. I'm extremely aware of everything around me, whether I am in a sleeping state, awake, dream-state, or just in day-to-day life, so that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I'd seen when I was flipping TV channels."

Studies have found that about 40 percent of U.S. residents make at least one resolution each time that the calendar turns over to a new year. Further studies indicate that, out of the 40 percent who make a resolution, about 40 percent will be successful in achieving it. In other words, it's more likely than not that you didn't make a resolution — and even if you did, then it's more like than not that you won't be successful in achieving it.