Beyond the certs arms race: Why more is not always better. In today’s job market, stacking certifications feels like the default “hack” to stand out. Take Alden, a poly grad who spent $4,500 and 600+ hours online to earn six cybersecurity certs. Ambitious? Absolutely. Smart? Up to a point. Here’s the reality check: 🔹 Fresh grads with multiple certs no longer automatically turn heads. When everyone stacks, the signal dilutes. 🔹 Recruiters don’t want a CV that’s a shopping list of badges. They want relevant, strategic credentials plus proven application - internships, projects, portfolios. 🔹 Data from the 2025 graduate employment survey shows full-time job placement under 80% for fresh grads. Certs alone don’t fix economic uncertainty or hiring caution. 🔹 Coding certificates? Great. But can you solve problems, communicate clearly, and work in a team? Those skills aren’t on any cert but decide whether you get hired. Stacking certs isn’t the enemy. Stacking without strategy is. My advice to students and job seekers: ✅ Be selective. Choose certs that directly support your career goals. ✅ Pair learning with doing. Build projects. Take internships. Show impact. ✅ Don’t chase FOMO on LinkedIn. Focus on building real capability. In the skills race, quality beats quantity every time. Want to climb ahead? Stop collecting badges like trophies. Start building competence that moves the needle.
Benjamin Ong
7mo
Used to be that people with relevant experience got the job, no need for whatever cert because your work demonstrated your proficiency & ability. Then, these certifications come along and we have bought into their narrative that passing a certification exam = you have passed an independent assessment that proves your proficiency. Now, fresh grads are getting these certificates, often by the bucket full, to stack them and demonstrate that they have proficiency and hence, deserve that job. Useful? IDK. It shows one is very good at passing an exam, though. In my career, I've had the pleasure of having a good pen tester in my team. He was a engineering diploma holder with no professional cyber certificate (then) but took pen testing gigs part-time while in Poly. He even did some work for free, in his own time, just because he was interested in it. Of course, the company hired him after seeing his portfolio of work....and putting him through a quick test. No need cert. No need cyber degree. Just plain olde fashion ability. He eventually got his OSCP but only because as he said "everyone else on the team had one" + his new company "needed" him to get it.
It’s not the paper qualifications that get you hired. It’s the demonstrated ability with the technically stuff. A couple of years ago, I came across a 1st year NUS student who was offered a full scholarship by a e-commerce company with a high paying job waiting for him when he graduate. Every vacation, he would intern with them. That company don’t normally offer scholarships, he he was that good in him application even as a first year student. I knew of a business student who taught himself C++ and python. He applied for a PM role in the IT department of a global FMCG. He was the only non-computing student who applied for it. He secured the role and after he graduated, he was offered a full time role… in the IT department. So it’s not about the paper, but what you learn and apply matters more. He self-learnt his C++ and Python. I don’t think he received a certificate for them.