Great question, Mark. I think certifications continue to have real value, especially in a platform and industry that evolve as quickly as ours.
For me, the main benefit of renewing certifications is not just maintaining the credential itself, but using the renewal process as a structured way to stay current...
Products, best practices, implementation approaches, and customer expectations all change over time. Renewal helps validate that our knowledge is still aligned with the current state of the platform, not just what we learned when we first certified.
That said, I also think there is a practical balance. At some point, it may be more valuable to maintain a strong core certification and then focus selectively on the specialties most relevant to your role, customer needs, or career direction. Having many certifications can be impressive, but being able to apply that knowledge effectively in real-world scenarios is what ultimately matters most.
My approach would be to prioritize certifications that reinforce the areas where I actively work, where customers depend on my guidance, or where I want to deepen my expertise. In that sense, renewals are less about checking a box and more about ensuring I can continue to provide accurate, current, and trusted guidance.
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Juan Sebastian Lozano
Principal Technical Account Manager
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-13-2026 09:41
From: Mark Cains
Subject: Too Many Certifications?
Hello all,
Trying to get general feedback. I have always had the mindset of the more certifications the better. As I get older and later in my career I start to ask myself is there a point to where I say Ok do I really need all of these and should I just focus on for instance the Professional Certification and a Specialty I want to focus on? To add some additional context. I currently have 4 of them. I am studying for another at the moment and will take it shortly before I have to go back and re-new my Professional certification before I start on the next one I wanted to do which would make it a total of 6. By all means not bragging at all. I am just looking for everyones thoughts on how you yourself keep up with the rotation of ever expiring certs!
Thank you in advance for your input.
#Certification #Training
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Mark A. Cains
Contact Center Engineer, Unified Communications
Office of Information Technology (OIT)
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
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