Today's gist: Thoughts on Certificates and Tooling (2025-08-25)

Thoughts_on_Certificates_and_Tooling_and_Why_I_should_be_an_Fullstack_Engineer-2025_08_25.md

Recently, I've been taking a Udemy course to learn about Terraform. The course explains the core paradigm of writing Terraform code while using Terraform to manipulate Azure resources. I also decided to take this opportunity to learn as much about Azure as possible, so I looked through the self-study materials for the Azure Developer Associate certificate. The materials mainly focus on theoretical knowledge, but also include hands-on coding and command line operations. There are also multiple-choice questions. I've always thought that obtaining a certificate doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to actually build or code software in the real world, as defined by the certificate's subject. I still think that, but I've found the certificate questions to be difficult. In fact, if I were to obtain the Azure Developer Associate certificate, I would have to spend time memorizing the details of Azure services, and the certificate questions are not completely unrelated to software construction and engineering. However, if I had the time to study for a certificate, I would rather use it to study more practical courses. For example, I'm currently studying a React application development course. While it would be better to systematically study the basics of Node.js and React, I'm taking a more direct approach and speculating on the React application development course. While some of the course content is confusing, I'm deeply moved by the fact that we live in an age where the minimum level of understanding is easily attainable using the LLM. After the React app development course, I plan to study a "standard" development course that incorporates LLM capabilities into applications, and then I plan to study a comprehensive API server project written in Go. The project also includes an SDK for the API server, and the source code is structured with a real-world organizational distribution style in mind. Therefore, by the time I complete this project, regardless of my proficiency level, I believe I will have acquired the engineering knowledge required of a top-notch backend engineer. While it's true that various certificates are still difficult, I can't help but feel that the time spent obtaining them is a waste. This feeling is especially complicated when compared to the posts I see every day receiving LinkedIn gold medals. Anyway, you just have to believe in yourself. One thing I believe is that with the advent of the LLM, opportunities to become a self-sufficient freelancer have increased, and I strongly believe that it's important to reach that state as soon as possible. That's why I want to become a full-stack (not just Node.js full-stack) engineer as soon as possible. There was certainly a time when I thought certificates were unnecessary. Now I feel they're useful, and regardless of how useful they actually are for building software, obtaining a certificate is not an easy task, and it has meaning in itself. I also once thought, "talk is cheap, show me the code." Now I feel, "talk is not cheap, but I know what is cheap talk." There was also a time when I thought that learning tools alone was pointless. Now I understand that being able to use various tools is meaningful in itself. And more than anything, I understand how amazing it is to be able to use them in such a short time to learn them. To be honest, I think it's amazing enough that I can be a tool person.