Hi guys, I want to know the prospects of the SCJD (which of course you can't take without first having the SCJP) certification, and maybe couple with CCNA and Project Management. What kind of companies can employ me in Nigeria and how much can they offer to pay me? Please I need serious answers. Please it will do me a lot of good if you can specify actual company names and an estimate of the monthly salary they can pay. Thank you.

The programming aspect is the main thing. I mean the SCJD + SCJP. What salary can it attract and from who?
Then what of SCJP + SCJD + SCBCD (Sun Certified Business Component Developer How much can that attract per month?

U have been certified, what can you do with the skills u learnt during the process of obtaining your certification?

@Cactus, Seconded,

IT specifically Programming is far from Certification.

Most companies will definitely want solution to a problem, and will take an efficient Programmer without Certification over a novice with many Certificates,

It all cuts down to how good and efficient you are.

One of the directors of SoftCity don't have one Certificate, he is just pursuing one now!

Yet he is a Big Man, cause of his productive capability,

Good thing is that he still has time for pals like me

@All Maybe you did not get me right. The SCJD certification is aimed at proving to any employer that the bearer of the certificate can handle an industry standard project and figure out solutions to problems because in the SCJD exam (unlike SCJP which is an objective multiple-choice test) you handle a real world software project (that requires you to deploy your solution in a client/server manner often times even involving you to create a multithreaded server). The project can take you a month (working round the clock without seeing the sky!),six months or even a year!!! Don't you think this is enough for an employer?

We understand clearly the objective of getting a certification. This is not to discount the effort of those who have acquired their skills and gotten certified and doing pretty good.

Experience trumps certification any day any time. Getting certified = theory + some lab work. Getting on a project, trust me you will be surprised how different things could be. Though skills you acquired during your certification process will be helpful. Most of your learning will be on the job.

Talking about if the practical aspect of your training is enough for an employer. It may likely be enough for some employers. But dont put all your eggs on the fact that you have a certification. This situation is more like a catch 22. You need a job to get experience, you need experience to get a job.

This is my opinion in an ideal situation, from your description, an employer would most likely consider someone with a certification like you for an entry level job or as a trainee on a project (sidelined). But to be active on a project that will be tough unless you have exceptional talent. Your role could be more of support, documentation, etc.

My advice if you are trying to sell yourself I would recommend you focus more on the process you went through than the end result. I am hoping your training was for more than 3 months which will be great. So you can position that as a job experience/internship type of thing. Then after you finished, you felt you could get certified. Not that you want to be certified you went for training. You started the training to get the experience and acquire new skills, maybe describe some little things you were tinkering with as the thing that led you to training. And certification is a by-product.

It is a dog-eat-dog world. The reality is there is no straight answer, experiences differ, some find it difficult, some find it easy, but the key is try to get more experience however possible.

I saw an Apple job posting looking for iphone developer, they stated their requirements. You will be assuming they are only looking for university grads with some supercool degrees, but if you only did highschoo, if you did not even go to school, as long as you know how to develop on the iphone platform, you have solid experience working with development teams, you stand a chance of getting the job, Basically it all boils down to experience irrespective of and individual's educational background.

Can you prove yourself?
Are you confident enough with your skills?
What is the value-add you intended to bring into the project?
   certification = standard procedure which is cool gives you the tool to get by.

Do a lot of reading, do your own research about new techniques, Your value-add should be targeted towards efficiency, streamlining a process which leads to cost reduction and hopefully meeting deadlines.

Your major concern is your potential salary. Well, the salary you may get wont meet your expectation. But hopefully whatever company you join, would give you the exposure and much needed experience to dictate your salary. Worry less about money for now

Yes boss! but this lil' brother needs some cool cash too, atleast to justify all the sleepless nights, training/certification costs, frequent internet surfing, isolation from family and friends etc. @Cactus please eMail me on marvelindaclub@yahoo.com

Please what is the typical salary programmers recieve (monthly) on entry into an organization in Nigeria?
Which companies employ programmers (high level, e.g Java) in Nigeria? Specific names will help. Thank y'all.