Re: Certification
On Fri, Feb 14, 2003 at 11:04:33AM -0500, Mike M wrote:
> Certification is for PHBs only. Right? Is there any evidence other than
> marketing blather that certification is a worthwhile endeavor?
Depends on the certification. Some carry significantly more weight than
others. And you should also remember that PHBs often set your pay and
budget, so appeasing them now and again isn't a bad idea. In the end, a
certification mainly shows that you were able to demonstrate some
knowledge in a specific field once, it doesn't really say anything about
the future. I would put the average certification above a CS degree, but
it seems like the average fresh CS graduate these days isn't even
qualified to use a computer, let alone run or program one.
For MCSE, yes, your statement is true. Most of the people I've known and
worked with who really knew NT well did not have an MCSE. The same goes
for A+ PC hardware certification. Novell certification is just a joke
now because there were too many classes that just taught the tests.
At the complete opposite end of the spectrum are the Cisco
certifications. Some of their higher-level certifications are very
difficult and very expensive to get, so if you have one it really will
set you apart from other people in networking. Sun, IBM, and HP
certifications are meaningful, but not as difficult as Cisco's are.
Linux certifications (which is what you're probably most interested in,
since you're asking on this list) are still so new that they're not
well-known, the only one that seems to be widely known is RHCE because
Red Hat never misses an opportunity to mention it. How much a Linux
certification will help you really depends on where you're working (or
wanting to work).
--
Michael Heironimus
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