Transcription
In 2026, your tech career will be defined by one thing: your ability to prove that you can actually do the work. And with AI making it easier than ever to cheat on traditional multiple-choice exams, companies are getting smarter. They don't care about your test score. All they care about are your hands-on skills.
And what this means is that the value of tech certifications are changing dramatically. Some tech certifications are becoming worthless. Others are becoming more valuable than college degrees. And in this video, I'm going to dive into my definitive no BS tier list of the tech certifications that you should actually be getting in 2026, ranked from F tier all the way to S tier.
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Starting with F tier certifications. These are the certifications that have the lowest ROI. They're redundant or they're simply not respected in the tech industry anymore. First certification is the CompTIA A+ certification. And this is a foundational IT certification that covers basic hardware, software, and troubleshooting skills. And what it does is just show that you understand basic computer skills. But my issue with this certification is that it's a two-part exam. It costs $500. And a lot of people still don't get jobs after they get the certifications. Some people take over 12 months to get this. I think the better certification to get is actually a completely different certification and I'll talk about that next.
10 years ago, this certification was valuable. It might have been able to get you a job paying maybe $10 to $15 an hour in help desk, but nowadays it's not going to get you that because of this fact. I would just say completely skip the A+ certification. If you want to know more about my justification on why you should skip it, I have another video that I made all about the A+ certification. The link's in the description. You can watch it after this.
And by the way, if you're wondering how I know which tech certifications are better than others, I am somebody who has been working in tech literally my whole life. I've spent over 15 years working in the tech industry. I started from help desk making $10 an hour at 16 years old to now making over $300,000 a year as a principal system engineer. I've helped thousands of people land tech jobs. I've reviewed over 300 résumés. And I've seen which tech certifications actually lead to job offers and which ones just are a piece of paper and they don't help you at all. Anyway, enough about me. Back to the tier list.
The next certification is the CEH, which is the Certified Ethical Hacker certification. This certification is offered by EC Council and it claims to help you think like a hacker, but what it does is really cover penetration testing concepts and it's mostly theory with no hands-on components to it. And because non-hands-on certifications aren't helpful compared to certifications like the OSCP, this is just seen as a paper certification, and most hiring managers really don't care about it, especially if you're going after penetration tester roles. This test is a little difficult, but it's very expensive. It costs close to $1,000. So, I would definitely say skip this certification. If you want to be a penetration tester, you should get the OSCP instead.
The next certification is the Google Cyber Certificate. And this is a beginner-level certificate, not to be confused with a certification. It's offered through Coursera. And what this does is teach you basic cybersecurity concepts. It teaches you about Python, but it's not recognized by any employers. It's not a real certification. And because of the fact that you have to pay $50 per month on Coursera and it takes 3 to 6 months to get, I would say just don't spend your time on it.
The next certification is the Microsoft AZ-900, which is the Azure Fundamentals certification. And this is a very entry-level basic cloud certification for Microsoft Azure platform. And it's not going to give you any real cloud skills. If you want to get real cloud skills, you should go and do actual cloud labs. And you can find cloud labs on YouTube or you can use different AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude and actually get some real cloud skills by deploying different cloud VMs. This certification is very easy. It only takes about a week to get and this is why it's an F tier certification. I would say skip it and go straight for the AZ-104, which is a higher certification.
Now moving on to the D tier certifications. These certifications have a low ROI unless they're specifically required by the job. This certification that I'm going to start with is the ITF+. And the ITF+ is better than the A+ certification. And the reason being is it's just $104 and it only takes a couple of months to get at most. And for people that are looking to see if they even like tech, I would say get the ITF+ if you're somebody who needs a certification to feel like you're making some actual progress towards your tech career. But you still don't need to sit for this certification. It is a certification that is used by the military to weed people out of different tech roles. So, this is something that you can definitely look into. And I want to make it clear that the ITF+ is only useful if you're starting from absolute zero and if you're somebody who feels like you must get a certification just to add something to your resume. But I'm telling you, you're much better off just spending your time and money on more respected certifications.
The next certification is the CompTIA PenTest+. It covers different penetration testing concepts and it has some hands-on skills, but not actually like spinning up a VM. So, this certification does take a lot of effort to get through. I see people take anywhere from 3 to 4 months to get the PenTest+. And this is not going to be something that can compete with the OSCP certification, which is going to be all hands-on and a sandbox environment where you're actually testing and you're actually trying to hack into the sandbox. So, this is just going to be all theory, all multiple choice. The only reason why I even gave it D tier is because in the GovTech sector, it is a well-respected certification. It can help you get seen by hiring managers by getting this certification. But it does not mean that it's going to help you land a penetration tester role, especially if you have no experience.
The next certification is the Microsoft AZ-104, which is the Azure Administrator certification. I believe even with AI that administrators are going to be needed since there's going to be so many different cloud environments. They're going to still need different system administrators and Azure environments are more common than AWS. And that's why I put this in the D tier. And this will be a good certification to start getting your foot in the door with system administrator roles, if you pair it with other hands-on certifications as well, like the Red Hat Certified System Administrator certification. This certification shouldn't take you longer than one to two months. And this is going to be a D tier certification. It's very job-specific. So, you should get this certification only if you absolutely need it.
The next certification is the CyberArk Defender certification and this is going to be another vendor-specific. This certification is going to be good for people who want to get into identity access management. I do believe that identity access management roles can be roles that AI will replace. So, I'm not the biggest IAM fan, but if you're looking to start off in your career and you want to eventually get into IAM, I don't think it's a bad idea. But, I do think you should eventually venture out into system administration or even system engineer roles instead. It really shouldn't take you longer than a month to get the CyberArk certification. And the main issue is that it's too niche. And if the company that you're looking to work at doesn't use CyberArk, it's not going to be very helpful for you. And that's why I think that the Azure IAM certification is a better certification to get when it comes to IAM or even the Okta IAM certifications.
Now, let's talk about C tier certifications. These are going to be more specialized certifications that actually can help you land a job. The first certification we're going to start with is actually two certifications: the Splunk Core Certified User and Power User certifications. Pretty much every shop uses Splunk. This is a very popular SIEM tool and it's going to allow you to actually start to get your foot in the door in cybersecurity analyst roles. So, if you want to work in a SOC, a lot of SOCs you're going to be using Splunk for your SIEM tool and for just identifying if different threats are real threats or if they're not real threats and seeing if there's anything that you need to do when you see these threats that come up in your SIEM tool. You compare the Splunk certifications with the CySA+ certifications and it'll help you get on the right path to getting into a cybersecurity analyst role. I recommend that you spend your time and focus on getting an entry-level IT role before you even decide to look at cybersecurity. And I have a full cybersecurity roadmap video. I'll put that link in the description as well and you can watch that after this video so you have a full idea of which certifications are worth your time and which certifications you should just completely skip.
The next certification is the TCM Security Blue Team certification and this is offered by TCM Security and it focuses on blue team cybersecurity skills. So it teaches you how to detect and respond to different cybersecurity threats. This is not something that you're going to see pop up on different job descriptions, but it will give you some hands-on skills. So although it's not truly respected by hiring managers, those practical skills, they cannot be beat. So this certification, it takes anywhere from 2 to 3 months for people to get and it's going to help you specialize in blue team operations. If you want to work in a SOC, it's great for learning, but don't expect it to actually open up any doors for you.
The next certification is the CompTIA CySA+. This is a mid-level cybersecurity certification offered by CompTIA. And again, this is another certification that covers threat detection analysis. Also, it covers threat response and incident response. For this certification, it's not hands-on, but it is respected by different hiring managers. Specifically within GovTech, I would say that it's not as respected in the general broad tech industry, but if you're somebody who's looking to get a role at a government contractor company, this is definitely going to be a certification that opens up the door to cybersecurity analyst roles for you. Now again, another caveat to that that I have to say is that if you have no experience, you don't have a clearance, and you don't have a degree, just getting the CySA+ is not going to land you a cybersecurity role. It shouldn't take you more than one month to get your CySA+ certification if you already have your Security+. And this certification is again going to be another $400 certification. So, it is expensive.
The next certification is the Microsoft AZ-500 Azure Security Engineer certification. And this is going to be for security engineers that focus on Azure. So this is now going to allow you to combine cloud skills with security skills. And this certification, it is going to be great for you because if you're somebody who wants to actually step into the cloud security realm and as I talked about earlier, Azure is used by many different corporations. So it's going to be a very common platform that you'll find on different job descriptions. And this certification really shouldn't take you more than 1 to 3 months depending on how good your skill set is already when it comes to Azure and it's going to be very job-specific, but it is something that recruiters will be searching for. So if you want recruiters to reach out to you on LinkedIn, they do actually search for this certification.
The next certification is the CyberArk Sentry certification and this is another vendor-specific offered by CyberArk and it's the next level above the CyberArk Defender. And what this certification does is it proves that you have theoretical skills and hands-on skills with the CyberArk solution. And again, because this is CyberArk, it's not used everywhere. It's not a widely used tool by the majority of companies, but the companies that do use CyberArk, this will allow you to be put on their radar. So, this certification can take you anywhere from 2 to 3 months to get depending on where you are in your career. So, if you're in a CyberArk shop, this is going to be great for you, but otherwise, it's going to be too niche.
Now, we're going to get to the good stuff, the B tier certifications. These are going to be emerging niche or good supplemental certifications that can help boost your tech career. First B tier certification is the CompTIA Security+. And this is going to be a foundational entry-level cybersecurity certification. And this does not mean you're going to go straight to a cybersecurity role. But it helps you learn cybersecurity concepts, cybersecurity management, risk analysis, and it's going to just help you get your foot in the door into entry-level IT roles. When I say entry-level IT roles, I'm talking about help desk, IT support, IT technician, data center technician. No, this job will not allow you to go straight to $200,000 a year, but it will put you on a path to a six-figure tech career. This certification is extremely valuable in GRC. It's going to allow you to get root access to government systems. And so, if you want to get a job as a government contractor at government contractor companies, or if you want to work for the federal government, this would be a good certification for you. In terms of the general broad tech industry, the Security+ is still a good certification because it shows that you did much more work compared to somebody who got the A+ certification or even somebody who went out and got the Google cybersecurity certificate. I think the Security+ certification has one of the best ROIs, which is return on investment, compared to any tech certification out there. The Security+ certification costs $44, but there are ways for you to get discounts on the cert. You can buy older certifications that are about to expire or you can buy certifications from other people who have decided, hey, I'm just not going to take the certification anymore.
The next certification is the CISM, which is the Certified Information Security Manager certification. This is a management-focused certification offered by ISACA and this proves that you can manage an information security program and this is going to be for people who already have experience. I believe you need to have 3 years of experience to even sit for this certification. But trust me, I've seen people with no experience still somehow be able to sit for it. And this certification can add a lot of income to your salary if you're somebody who already has cybersecurity experience. So, if you're looking to step more into the cybersecurity management space, but you don't want to go for the CISSP, I think that the CISM certification is a great mix between kind of the PMP certification and the CISA certification. So this will be a great certification for people who want to go down that management cybersecurity route but don't want to go for the CISSP. The CISM certification is expensive. It's going to cost you around $700 if you aren't an ISACA member. If you are an ISACA member, it's in the $500 range, but this is still a great certification. And so if you're somebody who's looking to invest in your career and you want to move into that cybersecurity management realm, I definitely suggest you look at the CISM certification because even with AI, we still will need cyber managers for sure.
Next certification is the CISA certification, which is the Certified Information System Auditor and this is going to be an audit-focused certification also offered by ISACA and this proves that you can audit, control and assess IT systems. There is a high demand for IT auditor and GRC professionals in cybersecurity. So this certification I do think that is great to get. But you need to understand that if you have no tech experience, it's not 2020 anymore. You're not going to be able to go and get the CISA certification and then just go straight into an IT auditor role. It doesn't really work like that anymore. And this certification is pretty expensive. ISACA certs aren't cheap. And again, it's going to be around $575 for ISACA members, and it's going to be in the $700 range for people who aren't ISACA members. But if you have the experience and you want to step up in the GRC space, definitely get the CISA certification for sure.
Next, we have the Cisco CCNA certification, which is the Cisco Certified Network Associate. This certification is great. It's a great foundational networking certification offered by Cisco. Pretty much everywhere you look, you will see everybody using Cisco. I'm talking from data centers to corporations to government contractors, government agencies. Literally, everybody uses Cisco. So, if you want to get a network administrator role, if you have no experience, this is going to be a great certification for you to get. It's not going to be easy, okay? You're going to have to study. You're going to need to spend time. It takes most people on average 3 to 6 months to get the CCNA certification. But there's no better networking certification for people who do not have any experience. If you want to step into either network administration roles or even data center technician roles, this is going to be the best certification for you to get to start your networking journey.
Next, we have the CompTIA Security+X. And this is a new expert-level certification offered by CompTIA. It was rebranded from CASP+ to the Security+X. And what this does is it validates your ability to be able to design and implement secure systems. So this is an advanced cybersecurity practitioner certification, but it's still not a hands-on cert, but it is actually very valuable in the GVE space. This is another certification that's going to unlock different roles for you. This is going to be something that's very valuable in the DoD 8570 realm. I made another video on that as well. You can go look it up on my channel. This certification is expensive. It's a certification that's in the $400 range as well. This certification is great if you want to move up in your cybersecurity career and you're focused on GovTech.
The last certification for tier B is the Microsoft SC-300, which is the Identity and Access Administrator certification. And this is an Azure-focused certification. So it proves that you can manage identities and access in Azure. And this certification is in extreme high demand because everybody uses Azure, right? There's Azure everywhere. You have to make sure that the people that are working at your company or your organization have access to the right resources and have access to the right groups. So I believe that this certification is probably one of the best IAM certifications that you can get for sure.
Now we're going into the elite territory, the A tier certification. These are solid mid-level to advanced certifications that provide career mobility and help you move up in your tech career. First, we have the Microsoft Azure AI Security Engineer Certification. This is a new certification offered by Microsoft and this came out, I believe, in 2025 or at the end of 2024. And it proves that you can implement security controls for AI workloads that are on Azure. And this certification is going to be highly valuable right now because AI security is the future. So every company that's using AI and companies that have cybersecurity organizations within their company, which is pretty much every company, they are going to start moving into AI security. And right now, hiring managers, they are looking for people that have this cert because there's not really a good way to tell who has the AI security skills yet. And so when recruiters and hiring managers are looking for people, this at least gives them the idea and understanding that, hey, this person is committed to AI security. Let's at least bring them in and have a conversation with them. Now, your skills and what you actually do and the labs that you've done, that's going to be on you. But the certification can help you get looks from recruiters and hiring managers for sure.
Next certification is the RHCE, which is the Red Hat Certified Engineer certification. This is an advanced Linux certification from Red Hat. And what it does is it proves that you can automate and manage different Linux systems at scale. And because this certification focuses on Ansible and automation, this is going to help make you futureproof because automation is where we're heading. And with AI, we are going to need the AI infrastructure to help support where AI is headed. And Linux and Red Hat is going to be the backbone of this AI infrastructure. So, this is definitely an A tier certification. It's hard to get and it's hands-on. It costs about $500 to get the exam. And so this is definitely a certification you want to get if you want to focus on AI infrastructure for sure.
The next certification is the AIGP certification, which is the AI Governance Professional certification. This is a non-technical certification focused on AI governance, ethics, and compliance. And so for people who want to focus on GRC and governance of the new AI world, this certification is going to be in high demand. So pretty much every company, every government agency, government contractor company, they are scrambling to find professionals who understand the AI landscape and understand how we apply GRC concepts to AI. So if you are an AI professional, you're more non-technical, maybe you want to be a technical product manager or project manager, or you're already in the GRC space, this is going to be a great certification for you to get for sure.
Next, we have the CompTIA AI-SEC certification, which is a brand new certification that's offered by CompTIA, and it comes out in February 2026. And so, this certification is going to be focused on AI security. And it is not a vendor-specific certification. And so, that's what's going to make this certification good. If you just want to show employers that you're moving on and you're focusing on AI security, this is going to be a great certification to signal that. Again, this doesn't mean that you're going to be able to get an AI cybersecurity role. This is going to signal that you are moving with the trends. So, this certification is definitely something that I believe people should look at. Now, again, it's brand new, so there aren't any practice exams or anything out yet, but this is definitely a certification I think people should look at in 2026. It is perfectly positioned for the AI era of security.
And finally, S tier certifications. These are the high impact, high investment certifications for the $200k+ roles. These are certifications that will change your life. I'm talking certifications that will put you in a whole new realm in your tech career. The first S tier certification is the SANS GCloud, which is the GIAC Cloud Security Architect and Design certification. This is a deep hands-on technical certification from SANS that proves you can design and build secure cloud architectures. And I believe that where tech is headed, we need to make sure that we're focused more on architecting and not just doing the hands-on work. Thinking and being an architect is what's going to set you apart in this new AI world. And SANS is the gold standard for hands-on practical skills. So, you definitely want to take a look at this certification if you want to combine cloud and security skills together. And here's a pro tip: If you can't afford the SANS certification, SANS has put together a free AI knowledge hub on Google's NotebookLM. And this is a great resource that's going to be able to give you access to SANS-level knowledge for free. So, I'm going to put the link in the description so you can just take a look at it and you can start learning these different SANS skills as well. And they're also going to be offering new different SANS AI certifications towards the end of 2026. So, definitely keep your eye out for these certs. They'll have an Offensive AI certification, a Gen AI and LLM certification, and also they'll have an Automate Security with Gen AI certification as well. So, you definitely want to keep an eye out on these SANS certifications, and I recommend that you make sure that your employer pays for SANS certifications because they are very expensive.
Next, we have the CKA certification, which is a Certified Kubernetes Application Developer. And what this is is a hands-on certification from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. And this proves that you can develop and deploy applications on Kubernetes. In the AI world, Kubernetes is super valuable. So this is the industry standard for container orchestration and you want to make sure that you have Kubernetes skills. So if you're somebody who wants to get into DevOps, DevSecOps, infrastructure engineering, platform engineering, you definitely need to get this certification. It's going to help you stand out for sure. And this certification can help you get into jobs that pay anywhere between $150,000 all the way up to $300,000+ a year.
Next, we have the OSCP certification, which is the Offensive Security Certified Professional cert. And this is the gold standard for penetration certifications. And this certification proves that you can exploit vulnerabilities in real-world systems. This is the best hands-on certification to get. If you want to become a penetration tester, you need to look at the OSCP. The OSCP certification can definitely allow you to command anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000+. Now, it is very expensive. It costs $1,600 for the course and for the exam, but this is one that is going to pay itself off.
Next, we have the AWS SysOps Administrator certification. And this certification is going to be great for when it comes to SysOps and deploying different AWS VMs and making sure that the company always has access to their AWS infrastructure and AWS resources. Even though AWS isn't used as much as Azure, they're definitely moving up the ranks and it could be what sets you apart from other cloud engineers for sure.
Next, we have the Nvidia certifications and these are going to be a suite of certifications offered by Nvidia for AI, data science, and deep learning. And with these AI certifications, Nvidia is the undisputed king of AI hardware. And being certified by Nvidia is like being certified by the source. So if you want to be at the highest level of tech, I definitely recommend you look at these Nvidia certifications for sure.
Next, we have the CISSP, which is the Certified Information Systems Security Professional certification. And this is going to be a high-level management certification for experienced security practitioners. And you need at least 5 years of experience for this certification, but it is worth its weight in gold. This is for people that are going to be able to design, implement, and manage best-in-class cybersecurity programs. So, if you want to head down the CISO track, this is going to be a hard requirement for CISO and director-level cybersecurity roles. So, this is not entry-level, but this is something that you can aim for when you move further on in your career. And this is going to be a major salary unlock. It can easily allow you to make over $200,000 a year in cybersecurity with the CISSP certification.
All right, and that wraps up all of our certifications for 2026. Now, the certification landscape is changing. It's not about collecting as many certifications as you can. It's about being strategic and focusing on hands-on practical certifications that prove that you can do the job. And like I said at the beginning, with AI making it easier to cheat on traditional exams, AI making it easier for us to do our job as technical professionals, you need to make sure that you are focusing on certifications that prove that you have hands-on skills and are respected across the industry. So, I want you to use this tier list as your guide for the next 2 years. Focus on the S tier and the A tier certifications. If you're just getting started, go after the more entry-level certifications so that way you can get your foot in the door. If you want a personalized roadmap to figure out which one of these certifications is right for you and how you can navigate in your tech career and scale up in your tech career, then make sure that you click the link in the description below. You can apply to work with me. I'll help you get your first tech job or your next tech job and help you scale up in your career. So, I hoped you liked this video. Make sure you like, comment, and subscribe. And let me know what you think about these certifications. Did I miss any? See you on the next video.