Which IT certifications are actually worth having

Certifications are heavily marketed, expensive, and genuinely useful in some situations and close to worthless in others.

Here is how I would think about it.

What a certification actually does

It gets your application read. That is the honest scope of it.

It proves you can pass an exam on a defined body of knowledge, which is a real signal, particularly when you have no employment history in the field. It filters you past the first screen.

It does not prove you can do the job, and interviewers know that. So the useful strategy is: enough certification to get read, and enough demonstrated experience to survive the interview.

People who collect certifications instead of building things have a difficult time, because the interview questions are all about what you have actually done.

Worth having at entry level

CompTIA Network+. The one I would pick first. Networking is the foundation everything else sits on, most self-taught people have a gap there, and this covers it properly. Genuinely respected.

CompTIA Security+. Widely recognised, and it appears as a requirement in a lot of Australian government and defence-adjacent job advertisements. If security interests you at all, this is the entry ticket.

CompTIA A+. Fundamentals of hardware and support. Useful if you are starting from nothing, and somewhat redundant if you have been building computers for years.

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) or AWS Cloud Practitioner. Cheap, quick, and they show cloud awareness. Neither is deep, and everybody knows they are not deep, but they are inexpensive boxes to tick.

Worth having once you are working

These carry considerably more weight, and they are better done with some experience behind them.

Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) or the AWS Solutions Architect Associate, depending on which platform your employer uses.

Cisco CCNA, still the standard for networking roles, and still respected.

Microsoft 365 administration certifications, if you work in that world, which a large share of Australian businesses do.

Red Hat certifications for Linux, which are unusual in being practical examinations rather than multiple choice. That makes them harder and more meaningful.

Where the money is wasted

Collecting them indiscriminately. A resume with nine certifications and no projects reads as somebody avoiding practical work. Two relevant ones plus something you built is a stronger position.

Expensive vendor certifications for products you do not use. They date quickly and they are only valuable in shops running that product.

Boot camps promising a certification and a job. Be careful here. Some are genuinely good. Many charge a great deal for content available cheaply and imply employment outcomes they do not deliver. Check what the actual exam costs directly from the vendor before paying anybody a multiple of it.

Certifications instead of the fundamentals. Cloud certifications taken by people who cannot explain DNS are common and it shows immediately.

The Australian context

A few things specific to here.

Government and defence work frequently lists Security+ or equivalent, and requires citizenship and security clearance. If that path interests you, the clearance is often the harder gate than the certification.

TAFE qualifications are well regarded by Australian employers and often better value than vendor certifications. A Certificate IV or Diploma in IT costs less than a couple of vendor exams and covers more ground.

In NSW schools, VET IDT produces a Certificate III plus 70 hours of work placement, which is a genuinely strong starting position. See is VET IDT worth it.

Employers here weight experience heavily, more than credentials, in my observation. The interview will be about what you have done.

What I would actually do

If you are starting out and have limited money:

1. Build a home lab first. Free, and it is what you will talk about in the interview.
2. Network+, to cover the gap most self-taught people have.
3. Apply for jobs. Do not wait until you feel qualified; nobody does.
4. Security+ or a cloud associate certification, once you know which direction you are heading.
5. Let your employer pay for the rest. Most will, and many have training budgets that go unused.

That order matters. Certifications before any practical experience is the common mistake, and it produces candidates who read well and interview poorly.

The thing certifications cannot give you

A referee.

An exam does not know whether you turn up, whether you stick with a problem, or whether you can explain what you did. For somebody with no employment history in the field, one credible person who can speak specifically about how you work is worth more than another certificate.

That is worth arranging deliberately: volunteer work, a placement, a tutor who has watched you build something. More on that in getting your first IT job.