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I explored following tools:
by myself (current company supports me to learn) with help of StackOverflow (you guys) and with my effort.
But my question is: is it good to tell interviewer that I learned all those things by myself or by getting certified from some institute which has more value towards getting a job?
I consider that Selenium WebDriver has more value in Job Market as compared to Appium. Simply because requirements for web-automation are higher as compared to mobile-automation. This results in more jobs for WebDriver skills as compared to Appium. So you should have strong webdriver scripting, framework designing skills. Appium will be good as a side-kick.
Regarding certification/self-learning comparison, I believe hands-on experience of automating a large/complex application is more valuable as compared to certification. If I am in your place (specifically for indo-pak job market), I will not spend money on certification. Instead, I will try to do hands-on automation of large application assuming it as a real project. If you do that and just share your experiences with interviewer, then it will create a better impression IMO.
Yes, it is fine to tell that you learned all these things by your-self or from online resources. Self-learning is a great attribute for any automation engineer and I believe it is valued more than certification. But as suggested previously, you should not just learn the basics but also the advance concepts like framework designing, continuous integration etc. If you do that then it will definitely value more than any certification.
When I am interviewing candidates, one of the main things I look for is their enthusiasm and capacity to learn. I am a firm believer in the versatility of testers being a cornerstone to their effectiveness.
With that in mind, if I am looking for someone to write Selenium tests in Java and they have 5 years experience, but they don't have a piece of paper that Says they can then I don't really mind. I would much rather someone who (under their own initiative) learnt new skills and tools. The fact their company wasn't able to sponsor them to do a certification doesn't mean they can't perform the role effectively.
The kind of person I will never look to hire is someone who has all the paper qualifications but can't demonstrate to me their capacity to "think outside the box". If they get stuck (as is normal) and sit there waiting for someone rather than attempting to problem solve themselves, that is a big warning sign.
If you have done certification then it is fine to tell that you did otherwise be honest with interviewer and tell that What ever you know about selenium web driver is from your own efforts and self learning.
Honesty has more impact than any other thing so be honest.
If you have impression in mind that certification will impact more in interview then it is not always true. It is depends on interviewer , Some believe in certification where some believe in skills only. Candidate have certificate it does not mean that he is expert in that particular skill. They may be expert and May not be.
Showing the ability to go out and learn something on your own is a big plus. However, don't stop there. It is even better to show how you implemented the technology at your current job (either by request or on your own) and how you managed to solve a problem with it. Making a note that you have a passion (hopefully) for the technology and its application is also a plus.
Selenium has been around longer so there are more jobs (numbers wise) for people that have skills in that area. However, there is a good demand for people with skills in implementing Appium mainly because there are few people that know it and know how to use it well.
I would also like to note that it is VERY important that you also learn the tools and programming skills that go hand in hand with Appium and Selenium. You should be well versed in Unit Test Frameworks (as they apply to automation) and the design patterns that are commonly used (factory, page object). These will be greatly valued as there are many people who can use Selenium (and to a lesser extent Appium) but few who can implement it in a way that is useable in the context of the CI, multi-environment, distributed systems, that more and more companies are using.
But to get back to your question...I would also suggest that you create an automation project and post it on Github to showcase to interviewers/QA Leads/SDETs/Developers that you do know what you are doing. Just make sure that the code is perfect and you have it peer reviewed/proofread!
