Supercharge Your Career with SnowPro Certification

Have you ever wondered why so many IT professionals devote their valuable time to studying for and taking various certification exams? Do people just enjoy taking tests? Is there a prize for the most badges someone can get in a year? Or are there other reasons why someone would prepare and sit for a certification exam?  

According to Pearson VUE’s 2023 Value of IT Certification Report, 75% of surveyed individuals saw IT certification as necessary to upskill and stay up to date with current technology trends. Additionally, 81% of respondents said that earning certifications gave them the confidence to explore new job opportunities. These statistics align with what Snowflake’s SnowPros have reported as their motivations for achieving a Snowflake certification. Over 67% of SnowPro candidates list personal and career development as their main reasons to become Snowflake certified. 

We asked some of our stalwart SnowPros what value they found in earning a Snowflake certification, how they prepared for the exam, and why becoming a SnowPro should be your next career goal. 

Snowflake certification is important because it gives my company external recognition to our clients. For me personally, I find that being certified shows that I not only know the content of the certification, but also I have the will to study all the materials, even things that I do not use every day. 

After I became certified, I was given more responsibility, (and) allowed to work on more challenging tasks, like architecture-related work. It also helps me to stand out and become an authority to whom others can come to for advice and direction.

— Maja Ferle, Senior Consultant, In516ht

It was useful to apply my knowledge and demonstrate that I knew what I was talking about with customers. Sharing my achievements on social media has gotten me a lot more social media traffic and I have been contacted more, which is great.

Job candidates who hold the SnowPro Core Certification can pretty much hop, skip, and jump right through the vast majority of our company’s technical interview processes.

— Chris Hastie, Data Engineer, InterWorks

Certification supports our company mission to improve our partnership with Snowflake. Certification is also a requirement to conduct different projects for certain customers. Having SnowPro-certified team members allowed Initions to get options to work on some different client projects.

— Tobias Trawka, Business Intelligence Consultant, Initions

Becoming Snowflake certified has helped a lot with my career and personal goals. It has advanced my career at a professional level and has helped me develop a team of engineers. Now, I lead a team of SnowPros who deliver Snowflake client work. It has allowed me to grow in my individual career, but also has helped us develop our own practice as well. We’re representing South Florida and our goal is to continue expanding here in Florida to have a large footprint.

— Charlie Rosado, Senior Principal Data Engineer, Slalom 

Now that you have heard some reasons why holding a Snowflake credential is valuable, we asked several SnowPros how they prepared for their Snowflake exam. 

My solution is to start with the SnowPro Core Certification because that covers basic and fundamental concepts about Snowflake. Once you are more confident in your role, go for an advanced certification. Pursue that role and make sure you have hands-on experience with Snowflake before you attempt the exam. When I started preparing for the certification, I got a lot of hands-on experience and started learning the Snowflake inner workings. A person who is not ready for the certification will say it is terribly difficult, a person who works closely with Snowflake would say the exams are easy. 
— Rajiv Gupta, Senior Architect, Cognizant

Take all the certifications that are possible. Go through the study guides and prepare well—that’s what I would recommend to everyone. Don’t take it easy. Go through the guides and whenever you have a question, look at the documentation. The documentation Snowflake provides is amazing. Work with it over and over again, and if things are unclear, try the concept directly through hands-on sessions or alone on your Snowflake account. 

— Florian Fischer, Business Intelligence Solutions Consultant, Initions

One thing I absolutely love about Snowflake is that the documentation that is published on the Snowflake docs, as well as the official study guide, is very organized in terms of tutorials, quick start guides, best practices, and considerations to keep in mind whenever Snowflake is being used. I like the fact that the certifications are finite, requiring credential holders to recertify, because new features come to life and become generally available to Snowflake customers.  Making sure that we’re tested on those features is essential to ensure that the skill set for Snowflake is up to date.

     — Mostafa Ghazi, Solutions Architect, ARC

I would advise certification candidates, even if they are just beginning the certification process, that they at least should have a good look at the SnowPro Certification study guide. Learning a new product sometimes can be really hard, and sometimes you don’t know where to start. I think the SnowPro Core Certification exam and study guides are great tools to use to prepare. 
— Tobias Krueger, Business Intelligence Consultant, Initions

We love that our #SnowPros are passionate about Snowflake and how the certification has helped each of their personal journeys. What are you waiting for? See our steps to SnowPro success to achieve this goal today!