In this slow economy, employers can be picky about who they hire. Storage job ads try to ferret out candidates that possess special skills, loads of experience and certifications. The value of holding a certification can be a very controversial topic, but these days more companies are asking for them. The following ad is fairly typical:

"Must have a thorough understanding of server, storage and appliance hardware and accompanying software. EMC product competency is a plus; advanced storage system experience is required. Candidate must demonstrate advanced knowledge in network operating systems, networks and server/storage consolidation principles; certification in one or more enterprise-class server or storage environments."

Make no mistake - the most important criterion of all the ads I recently read called for relevant job experience. If storage experience didn't show up on a rÉsumÉ, the electronic rÉsumÉ-scanning programs would automatically direct the rÉsumÉ to the archive file, and being in storage you know how often archived documents are reviewed. However - and it's hard to generalize - headhunters say that if all things are equal between two job candidates, a recent certification can be a plus. If you're a career changer from, say, the publishing industry, who passes a certification exam after taking a six-week course, your certification won't carry enough weight to trump someone who has loads of experience.

That said, storage certification programs - mostly from vendors - are growing like mushrooms. Here's a sampling:

• The Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA) is offering vendor-neutral certifications in Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Networking at various levels. Their latest exam - the FC SAN Certified Specialist (Level 3) - is offered by Infinity I/O. For more information, click here.
• Adaptec's Certified Storage Professional program covers general storage and focuses on Adaptec's products, RAID theory, server I/O technologies and array performance tuning. Click here for more information.
• Brocade has various certification programs covering SAN fabric areas such as server and storage consolidation, LAN-free and serverless backup, remote data replication and storage management. For more information, click here.
• EMC offers a number of certifications, each progressively more technical. All candidates must pass the EMC Enterprise Storage Fundamentals exam prior to enrolling in any of four specialized tracks. Once passed, candidates can enroll in four tracks: Operator, Builder, Architect and Instructors, and for each track, there's an Associate and Master Level accreditation. Naturally, there's a heavy emphasis on EMC products. For more information, click here.
• IBM storage certification offers exams in IBM's TotalStorage Networking Solutions and High-End Disk Solutions. For more information, click here.
• Network Appliance offers a multitiered certification program focusing on its products. The NetApp Certified Associate (Filer) requires candidates to pass three exams prior to enrolling in NetApp's Certified Professional (Filer). For more information, click here.
• Switch manufacturer McData offers their Certified Storage Network Designer. The certification includes general storage networking information with an in-depth focus on McData products. For more information, click here.
• Sun Microsystems offers storage certification in data management, backup and recovery and SANs. You must pass a separate exam for each area, and the certifications can be taken in any order. For more information, click here.

Buyer beware: Some of the above certification programs require a big investment in time and money. Career counselors strongly advise that you do a lot of research before you sign up for a certification program. Look for programs that will help you meet your long-range career goals, rather than those that promise to prepare you for the latest fad or newest IT job title.