90% of the certifications on LinkedIn are useless 🗑️

What really proves your skills to recruiters?

You see them all the time on your LinkedIn feed.

“Pleased to announce I’ve completed the ‘Intro to Python’ course on [Platform]!”

Maybe your own profile is full of them. We’ve all done it. It feels good to add a new badge, like you’re making progress.

But here’s the hot take, the hard truth that someone needs to say: for your career, 90% of those certifications are basically useless.

That doesn’t mean learning isn’t important. Learning is everything. But in a flooded market, “certificates of completion” have become noise, not a signal. This article will break down 4 levels of how you can prove your skills and show you what really impresses recruiters.

The “certificate inflation” problem (the 90%) 📈

The first category—the 90%—is the “certificate of completion”.

These are the badges you get from platforms like Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, etc., for simply watching a few hours of video.

Let’s be clear: the learning is fantastic. But the certificate itself has very little value to a recruiter. Why?

Because it doesn’t prove you can do anything. It just proves you’re good at sitting through a video course. 🤷‍♂️

It’s a “certificate of completion,” not a “certificate of competence.”

In fact, relying on these too much can even be a negative signal. A senior developer’s profile with 30+ “entry-level” certificates doesn’t look impressive; it can look a bit “junior” or like an “eternal student” who collects badges but never builds anything.

The 10% that actually matter (the “pro-level” certs) ✅

Now, let’s be fair. Not all certifications are useless. There is a small, elite group—the 10%—that does have real value.

These are the “professional-level certifications.”

What’s the difference?

• They require serious, deep study.

• They cost real money (sometimes hundreds of €).

• They require you to pass a difficult, proctored exam.

I’m talking about certifications like:

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (not just the basic Cloud Practitioner)

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

• CISSP (for security)

These are absolutely worth adding to your profile. Why? Because they signal commitment. They prove you have the discipline to master a complex theoretical subject. For specific roles (like Cloud, DevOps, or Security), recruiters actively filter for these.

These are a strong signal. But they are still not the best signal.

The “gold standard” proof: the “I built this” project 🥇

What’s the one thing that cuts through all the noise? What’s the one thing that makes a recruiter’s eyes light up?

It’s not a PDF. It’s a real, tangible project.

A simple, working project that you built and put in your “Featured” section is 10 times more valuable than 20 course certificates.

• That AWS certificate says you know S3.

• Your project that uses S3 to host and serve images for a real app proves you can apply it.

A personal project—even a small one—proves everything a recruiter wants to know:

• You have initiative (you built something on your own time).

• You can code (it actually works).

• You can solve problems (you figured out how to deploy it).

It’s the ultimate “show, don’t tell.”

Beyond gold: the “expert-tier” proof (talks, articles & open source) 🚀

Okay, so projects are the gold standard for proving you can build. But what proves you can lead, teach, and influence?

This is what separates a Senior developer from a Staff, Lead, or Principal engineer. This “expert-tier” proof is about moving from “I did this” to “I taught this”.

• Public Speaking: Have you given a talk at a meetup, a conference, or even a tech talk inside your company (if you can share it)? This is an A+ signal. It proves you know a topic so well you can teach it and that you have great communication skills.

• Technical Articles: Writing a deep-dive article on your blog or LinkedIn about a complex topic (like architectural trade-offs) shows you are a strategic, “systems thinker”.

• Open Source Contributions: This is the next level up from a personal project. Contributing to a known open-source project (even just documentation!) proves you can collaborate, pass a rigorous code review, and navigate a complex codebase.

Recruiters for senior roles aren’t just looking for coders; they’re looking for “force multipliers”. These activities are the best way to prove you are one.

So, what’s the strategy? a 4-level guide to showing your skills 🏆

It’s not about having no certificates. It’s about understanding that different ways of proving your skills have different values, and you should build your profile around them.

Think of it in levels, based on your seniority:

• Level 1: Course Certificates (Udemy, etc.)

  • Who it’s for: Developers just starting out (Juniors) or when you’re exploring a brand new field.

  • What it proves: Curiosity and initiative. It’s a great first step!

• Level 2: Pro-Level Certs (AWS, CKA, etc.)

  • Who it’s for: Mid to Senior developers who want to specialize.

  • What it proves: Commitment and deep theoretical knowledge.

• Level 3: Real Projects (Your GitHub, your live site)

  • Who it’s for: Everyone.

  • What it proves: Real-world competence and application.

• Level 4: Expert Proof (Talks, Articles, Open Source)

  • Who it’s for: Senior devs aiming for Staff/Lead roles.

  • What it proves: Leadership, communication, and influence.

The ultimate strategy: Combine the levels.

“Here is my AWS Professional certification (Level 2), and here is a project in my Featured section where I used AWS Lambda and S3 (Level 3).”

That combination is unbeatable.

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Stop wasting your time collecting low-value badges. Use your free time to build one small thing instead.

Don’t just fill your profile with “proof of attendance.” Fill it with “proof of work.” That’s what gets you the high-paying jobs.