posted 2 years ago
Depends what you want to get out of the certification. For me, education is always paramount. Given the new topics of Java, and the depth that the certification exam covers, I'm sure you'd learn something when studying for the exam.
When I'm interviewing candidates, I find those with certifications tend to know the topic a lot better than those with out. It doesn't necessarily mean they are better developers, but knowing certain features exist in the Java language (vs not knowing they exist at all) goes a long way to becoming a stronger developer. For example, I can quickly sum up a candidate's education level by asking them the member types of an interface. If they respond with abstract methods and constants, then I know they primarily trained in pre-Java 8. If they respond with static and default methods too, then I know they have been working with Java 8 regularly. Finally, if they respond with private methods, then I know they have been working with much more recent versions of Java.
So much has changed in Java over the last 2, 5, and 10 years, it's important for your skills to stay current. If you've ever taken 20-30 lines of code and rewritten it as a single, concise stream, you'll understand already why this is true.
Last but not least, many people believe certifications are important to have on your resume or landing a competitive job. I can't say for sure whether or not it will help you interview at a particular company, every company and hiring manager is different, but studying for the certification will expand your horizon and give you a larger tool set in which to build intelligent software applications.
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