I Thought Getting Certified Would Increase My Rate: What Actually Worked for Increasing My Freelance Engineer Rate—The Order of Certifications, Practical Experience, and Communication
To put it briefly, certifications alone will not increase your rate. Your rate tier only moves up when practical experience and achievements are combined with the ability to articulate and communicate them.
Some time after I became independent, there was a period when I spent time studying for certifications because I wanted to increase my rate. I thought, 'If I get certified, my evaluation will improve and my rate will go up,' but looking back at the times when my rate actually changed, getting a certification was never the direct reason. I will organize what actually worked.
What you will learn in this article
Why certifications do not directly lead to higher rates
Areas where certifications are exceptionally effective
The order of 'certifications, practical experience, and communication' you should be aware of to increase your rate
I thought getting certified would increase my rate
I hadn't shaken off the mindset from my time as a company employee, and I had the assumption that 'certifications equal higher evaluations.' Even after becoming independent, there was a period when I secured study time on weekends, thinking that getting an AWS certification would increase my rate.
After actually obtaining the certification, it was not immediately reflected in my offered rate. I have even been told clearly by an agent representative, 'Certifications are one plus factor, but it is difficult to change the offered amount based on that alone.'
Why it is difficult to increase your rate with certifications alone
As I looked into it, I realized there is a reason why it is difficult to increase your rate with certifications alone.
It is considered that the rate tier only moves up when all three points—practical experience, certifications, and achievements—are in place.
There are many indications that what works in rate negotiations is not the certification itself, but how you present your practical experience from the last few years in your resume.
Self-promotion centered on certifications is easily seen as a 'prerequisite,' and whether or not you can articulate episodes of design decisions and configuration selection becomes the dividing line for evaluation.
Unlike the evaluation systems of company employees, I understand that a freelancer's rate is judged not by 'whether you have a certification,' but by 'how you used that certification to produce results.'
There are also areas where certifications are exceptionally effective
That said, there are areas where certifications are more likely to be directly linked to your rate. The security field, in particular, is considered to place great weight on certifications.
Vulnerability assessment/penetration testing: Monthly rate of 1 to 1.6 million yen
Cloud security design (AWS/Azure): Monthly rate of 1.1 to 1.8 million yen
Having a Registered Information Security Specialist or GIAC certification can make it easier to negotiate your rate
It seems that in the security field, the absolute number of experienced professionals is low, which makes certifications function easily as proof of practical ability. I felt that the meaning of certifications is fundamentally different from the application development and infrastructure fields I usually work in.
The order to keep in mind for increasing your rate
Looking back, my rate actually changed when I followed this order:
First, achieve results in practical work (get involved in design, expand the scope of your responsibilities)
Get certifications that support those results to the necessary extent
Articulate those results as concrete episodes in your resume and during interviews
Even if you get certifications first, they won't be reflected in your rate if they aren't accompanied by practical experience and the ability to communicate them. Conversely, even if you achieve results in your work, if you cannot articulate them, they won't be conveyed to the person in charge or the client, and they won't serve as material for rate negotiations.
As I wrote in a previous article titled 'I Considered Whether I Should Take the Generative AI Passport,' I decided that if I have time to study for certifications, it is more suitable for my situation to dig deeper into the technologies I use in my current projects and turn them into achievements.
Summary
Certifications alone rarely increase your rate; they only work when paired with practical experience and achievements.
There are exceptional fields, such as security, where certifications function easily as proof of practical ability.
To increase your rate, keep this order in mind: 'Achieve results in practical work -> Get certifications to the necessary extent -> Articulate them as episodes.'
Studying for certifications itself is not a waste, but my experience since becoming independent is that if you start with certifications thinking it's a shortcut to a higher rate, you'll end up taking the long way around.
Sources and References
Read this next
[To Survive in the AI Era] Skill Inventory for Freelance Engineers—What I Do to Maintain My Rate
→ An article summarizing the concrete steps for annual skill organization, which is the stage before getting certified.
[Rate? Skills? Environment?] Criteria for SES Freelance Engineers Choosing Projects—3 Things More Important Than Rate
→ An article organizing the criteria for choosing projects that you should consider alongside increasing your rate.
I plan to write more about the reality of freelancing next time.
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