Are online courses worth it to boost your CV?

[phdapplicant]

With COVID, I'm spending a lot more time at home and I have been wondering whether to do some online courses to put on my CV. However, I'm not sure if the courses are worth the time and effort or whether they would just get ignored.

For example, I work in research and I could do with improving my statistics knowledge so I have identified a few free statistics courses that look really good. Would it be worth doing one of them and putting it on my CV or are they not really well-regarded? Is it worth paying the £60+ to get a certificate?

Difficult one. If it gives you confidence go for it

If you're purely after a qualification to boost your CV, then look at job adverts for jobs in your area (the sort of job that you might want to move to next). What qualifications are they looking for? If it's an industry recognised qualification that gets asked for a lot, definitely worth it in terms of boosting your CV. If it's a non-specific training course then future employers might note you've done it but would be more interested to see you applying the skills in your job.

Of course, doing a training course for personal development, outside of what it brings to your CV is always worthwhile.

Thank you for the replies! The course in question is a statistics course which teaches how to use software I would need to use in the jobs I am applying to so I have decided to do it. :)

I suspect you can often find free versions of courses -- I'd hesitate a lot before paying. I did get some computing skills from (free) online tutorials few yrs ago that helped me get a job, so not to be sniffed at.

I did a couple on coursera for free. I decided on completion to pay for one of them. Not for the certificate but because it was really good and the reading content alone would have cost more than the fee.

What course is it out of interest, I’m also in research and need to improve my stats knowledge. Are you working at the moment? Our industry is being hammered at the moment.

@RainbowCookie

What course is it out of interest, I’m also in research and need to improve my stats knowledge. Are you working at the moment? Our industry is being hammered at the moment.

It was this one courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:HarvardX+PH125.1x+2T2020/course/ It is just an introduction to R rather than a general statistsics one. It was useful though as I had never used R before.

I'm a graduate, just finishing up in the lab and applying for PhDs and jobs. What area of research are you in?