GoCertify Looks Back: Our 10 Most Popular Articles of 2021
Last week in this space we recapped GoCertify's Second 10 Most Popular Quizzes and Second 10 Most Popular Certification Watch newsletters of 2021. Today, as the countdown to 2022 rolls forth, we're reflecting on our other major source of written content, IT certification articles.
There are typically two new certification articles per week, which means that over the course of a year, we bring you about 100 new articles addressing various IT and certification topics. Articles tend to run between 700 and 1,200 words in length, so that's somewhere in the ballpark of 105,000 words of new content.
For the sake of comparison, the 1930 Southern gothic novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is 56,695 words long. So if you've been a faithful GoCertify reader and have taken in every article to appear on the site in 2021, then congratulations: You've accomplished the equivalent of reading As I Lay Dying from cover to cover — twice.
(Not only that, but we didn't make you spend a lot of time scratching your head, muttering under your breath, and then, wait, really, Addie is barely six feet under and Anse has already bullied Dewey Dell to get himself some new teeth and — sweet Lord, I can't even with these people. Also, you didn't have to read everything that ran on GoCertify twice. Just saying.)
To clarify, all of these are articles that first appeared on the site this year. That is to say that we've considered 2021 articles only. There's a vast library of older articles available, and many of those are still regularly read, but they get enough attention already.
Without further ado, the 10 most popular IT certification articles to appear on the site this year are as follows:
1) Six Hot Data Privacy Certifications for 2021 — "According to business research firm Gartner, 'By 2023, 65 percent of the world's population will have its personal information covered under modern privacy regulations, up from 10 percent today.' Companies are investing in technology and recruiting skilled professionals to enable them to comply with data protection regulations and safeguard customer information." (by Reena Ghosh)
2) Six Hot Microsoft Certifications for 2021 — "While there is a job market segment for every role represented in Microsoft's training and certification program, the current explosive growth in the cloud services marketplace should be given consideration when choosing what training to pursue." (by Aaron Axline)
3) Skillsoft Gobbles Up Global Knowledge — What's Next? — "There is a myriad of additional details concerning the various ownership stakes and funding arrangements, but the primary takeaway is that the new Skillsoft company will have significant financial backing and an international reputation. It will also have the potential to become the world's most significant online education company." (by Aaron Axline)
4) Six Hot Oracle Certifications for 2021 — "Oracle operates its own training and certification program anchored by its impressive online education site, Oracle University. The OU site contains a wealth of resources, including a new feature launched in 2020 called Oracle Learning Explorer which offers free entry-level training for IT starters." (by Aaron Axline)
5) A 'Definitive' Top 10 List of Security Certs for 2021 — "If you've been reading my work here at GoCertify for any length of time, then you know I like to jump on and critique various elements from the continuous stream of 'Top 10 Certification' stories on the Internet. My old friend and former editor David Strom interviewed me in connection with one such piece for a blog post he wrote for Avast recently." (by Ed Tittel)
6) Not All That Glitters: Beware Bad-Faith Book Reviews — "I believe Amazon posits that heavily reviewed books will exhibit crowdsourcing behavior and tend toward the truth anyway, despite false positives and false negatives. FWIW, I agree with this philosophy. On the other hand, as the author of more than 100 books myself, I have felt plenty of stings from negative reviews." (by Ed Tittel)
7) Certification: Should You Do It Fast or Slow? — "I put certifications into four distinct buckets. Quick hits, your focus area, stretch goals, and out-of-area or extracurricular (something that's outside the realm of your normal workplace goals and functions). With respect to each of these areas, there is a different approach and a different time frame for achieving certification." (by Nathan Kimpel)
8) Robert Half's Take on Valuable IT Certifications — "Robert Half is a major staffing and consulting firm that's been in business since 1948. It keeps tabs on the employment market across all fields, but is particularly well known for staffing and consulting services in the areas of financial audit and operations, technology, governance and risk management." (by Ed Tittel)
9) Who Invented the Computer? Thomas Watson Jr. and IBM — "For more than 70 years, companies had used electromechanical accounting machines and punch cards to track inventories, process bills, maintain their books and calculate payrolls. The machines did the job, but the process was laborious and slow(.)" (by Calvin Harper)
10) The Explosive Growth (and Disruptive Potential) of Grow with Google — "Getting a certification speaks to a person's ability to pursue and pass a specific, targeted program of study that aims to verify and validate their competence in, and understanding of, a well-defined body of skills, knowledge, and experience." (by Ed Tittel)
KEEP ON TRUCKING:
GoCertify's mission is to help both students and working professionals get IT certifications. GoCertify was founded in 1998 by Anne Martinez.
