What free certifications should a first-year Computer Science student get to build a strong portfolio?
Posted by Jittesh@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 16 comments
Hi everyone, I’m currently taking a Bachelor of Computer Science with Honours and I’m still in my first year. My degree is 3 years (6 semesters). In the second semester of my second year, I’ll have to choose between two specialization paths:
Big Data & Visualization
Digital Forensics
Since I’m still early in my degree, I want to build a strong portfolio but I’m unsure what certifications or steps I should take.
My questions:
-
What are the best free certifications a first-year CS student can take?
-
Which platforms are the most trusted for beginner-friendly, free certifications?
-
Besides having a LinkedIn profile and uploading my coding work to GitHub, what else should I be doing to stand out?
-
Any advice for someone in their first year who wants to prepare early for internships or future job opportunities?
v0gue_@reddit
First year student? None, you don't know your head from your ass yet. 3rd/4th year, start looking into cloud provider certs
osotramposo@reddit
Anything that interests you. Any certification will distinguish your resume. It's something different and it's someone else vouching for you.
grantrules@reddit
Free certs on a resume for a programmer, to me, looks like fluff.. I view em as a negative.
cheezballs@reddit
None. Certifications are not held in high regard in the modern programming world.
OneFootOllie@reddit
A quick tip follow what upper year students in your program are doing. If most of them swear by platforms like Coursera or edX for free certs (audit mode), that’s usually a good sign. And if you can hop on any research assistant gigs early, that’s a huge bonus even if it’s small tasks.
Jittesh@reddit (OP)
That’s a good tip. I’ll start paying more attention to what my seniors are doing and follow their lead. I’ll also keep an eye out for any small research assistant opportunities. Thanks for the advice!
Sorlanir@reddit
I can't answer questions 1 and 2 because I have no certifications, just my degree. That isn't to say getting a certification would definitely be worthless, but in my mind, if your goal is to be able to show a potential employer "Hey, I can do X thing," it's actually probably more effective to just focus on talking about interesting projects you've done (don't need to be external to school, can just be school assignments or final projects) at a level that shows that you have a good conceptual grasp of what you were doing, along with some experience with the tools that are common to the industry you're interested in. Tools that you might get asked about are ones related to version control (e.g., git), debugging (e.g., gdb), and unit testing (lots of options, and you may not use anything formal for this purpose, which is also OK). It is not necessary to fully master any one tool, you're just trying to signal "Hey, I have used these tools as part of my process, and I can fairly quickly pick up different ones that do the same job."
As for questions 3 and 4 about what else you should be doing right now and how to stand out, I will first say that I admire your willingness to think ahead. On the other hand, I will also say that you should not feel compelled to do extra work beyond what is already being assigned to you at school. This is because, imo, the amount of hard work and effort it takes to stand out is not worth the payoff if your only goal with that effort is to stand out a little more. Your driving motivator should just be what you're interested in, especially because what you're interested in may change, which can lead to you going into a different field than the one you're currently considering, at which point any past hyper-specific work done for the purpose of standing out may not be very useful to you.
That being said, projects are a good place to start. A project can be anything you're interested in: a website, a game, a tool, an extension of a school project. The important thing is just that there's some overlap between your project and the field you're interested in. For example, if you think you might want to work in embedded systems, then building a web app won't help you very much (it may still help a little, though). However, you want to be willing to devote some proper time to it -- probably at least 50 hours in total, spread out over the course of a summer or school year.
Jittesh@reddit (OP)
Thanks for the detailed advice! I see what you mean focusing on projects that show real understanding and use of industry tools makes more sense than just chasing certifications. I’ll make sure to highlight school assignments or personal projects and show how I’ve applied what I’ve learned.
I also like your point about following my own interests rather than overworking just to stand out. I’ll try to pick projects that genuinely interest me and are somewhat relevant to the field I might want to go into, while still putting in meaningful effort. Really appreciate the guidance, it’s very practical and encouraging.
Sorlanir@reddit
Sure thing and good luck! Just one more thing to note: some kinds of certifications could still be worth looking into, especially as they relate to specific tools. Git is basically industry standard for version control and you will almost certainly use it. I'm aware of a GitHub Foundations course and certificate that should be free for students, you can look into it here: https://education.github.com/experiences/foundations_certificate
I didn't make use of this myself because I was only made aware of it late into my senior year, but it looks pretty solid. You may find this a more approachable way to learn than with something like a textbook. Just keep in mind that the certificate itself may not necessarily be that valuable, but what you learn in the process of getting it could be.
Jittesh@reddit (OP)
Thanks for sharing this! I’ll definitely check out the GitHub Foundations course learning Git properly is something I know I’ll need anyway, so having a structured way to go through it sounds helpful. And yeah, I get what you mean: the certificate itself isn’t the main value, but the skills I gain during the process are what really matter. Appreciate the tip!
Traditional_Mind_654@reddit
Certs are cool, but projects are king. While the knowledge you gain from them is valuable, building a solid portfolio often outweighs collecting certificates. Since you're just starting out, don't stress about locking in a career path yet. Focus on exploring different fields and keeping your curiosity alive rather than chasing credentials.
Jittesh@reddit (OP)
Totally agree, projects really are king. I’ll focus on building things and exploring different areas while I’m still early in my degree, instead of stressing about certificates or picking a career path too soon. Thanks for the advice!
maqisha@reddit
"Certification" can be a bit vague, especially across language barriers. But if you are talking about those "Certificates", the answer is NONE. Totally, 100% useless, and fully a waste of your time.
The only certificate you need is your BS (or higher if you decide to go for it), everything else comes from actually learning, building stuff, getting better, and progressing in your career.
Jittesh@reddit (OP)
So you’re saying taking extra certificates is basically a waste? I get your point that the degree and real hands-on skills matter more, but I thought free certificates could at least help me learn basics, explore different areas, and show I'm putting in effort.
I understand they won’t replace actual projects, but I figured they could still be useful for beginners. Thanks for the perspective.
maqisha@reddit
Not only a waste, its actively gonna also degrade your situation. A lot of the hiring processes will straight up disregard you if you mention random online certificates.
But much more importantly: You as a software engineer will have no idea where you stand. You will probably be like "I have this Senior Data Engineering certificate, I'm pretty decent at this, let me apply for senior-level roles". And then you will be met with the reality.
Continue learning, focus on school. If you have time and energy outside of school, that's AMAZING. But spend it learning more, building more, maybe doing different things, tweaking your setup, etc. Those are the things that matter.
Jittesh@reddit (OP)
Thanks for the perspective! I totally get it certificates can give a false sense of skill and might even hurt more than help. I’ll focus on really learning, building projects, and experimenting with different things outside of school.
Appreciate the advice it’s a good reminder to prioritize actual experience and skill over just “having a certificate.”