sas certified? What is the best way?

[AmbatiRaydu]

I’m getting my masters in health informatics. I don’t really have a technical background so I’m learning but I’ve realized many potential jobs require additional certifications on top of the degree.

I’ve been looking at a sas certification to start. Many jobs in my company require a certification to even qualify for an interview.

So I’m looking at potential courses to take in the future. Would SAS certified specialist: base programming using SAS 9.4 be a good place to start? I’m open to learning and welcome any suggestions.

Please be kind, I’m only asking a general question and, after my interactions with other subs, I really don’t want my head chopped off for no reason.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Base Programming is surely a good start, you need that knowledge for any career that involves SAS.

PS I moved your post to the SAS Certification community, where it's better located.

PPS and welcome to the SAS Communities!

[Patrick]

May be the best people to ask would be your professors. They hopefully have some industry knowledge and should be able to assess where you are at and which additional skills would be most valuable to land a job.

If you are looking for jobs within your company then use your chance and contact the people in this area directly to better understand the opportunities and what the real requirements are. Especially now in the times of "the big resignation" more opportunities should be opening up plus many companies will likely put in some extra effort to keep their talents and support them in their professional development.

There are different SAS learning paths but they will all need a basic understanding of SAS and as such going for the base certification first feels right.

I would normally say that you should first learn and then use SAS before doing a certification - but if it's the certification which gets you over the first HR screening then of course get the cert as fast as possible.

[Mark2010]

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...you should first learn and then use SAS before doing a certification...

@Patrick This might be my favorite cert prep advice ever. Thank you.

Mark - SAS Global Certification 

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