Codility, a tool for tech recruiters screening coding skills with short programming assessments, has recently launched a free certification service for coders -- no signup, just give your name (or nickname), deliver a solution to their programming challenge and grab a personalized certificate. Is it useful for landing a better job?

If you consider a bachelor's degree or master's degree a certification, then yes, they are very valuable for "landing a better job".

Hopefully they are obtained because you want the education, not because you just want the employment boost.



All the other certifications are less useful generally.

They are only useful if you are applying to a job specifically for it.

A Cisco certification may be useful if you are going to be developing specifically for Cisco systems. Certain Microsoft certifications may be useful if you are going to be developing Active Directory programs or similar apps on MS systems. Developers for systems like SalesForce or SAP or other specific technology may benefit from such a certification specifically for the product they are for.


There is very rarely any benefit except for entry level or career transitions.


The "free certification service" you listed is not about any kind of specific technology, so it is basically worthless.


And in any event, a certification by itself is useless. Knowledge and the ability to apply it are the things that matter:

I once took a C++ certification test at brainbench, not knowing that they sell on your personal information to recruitment agencies. After getting a good score on the test, I had a few different recruiters track me down and offer me job interviews... I guess that's useful for getting a decent job, but it was the selling of my results that caused it, not the certificate.