Re: Metro East: Certification SIG meetings

[Kara Pritchard <kara@luci.org>]

On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, Tony Zafiropoulos wrote:

> What is the purpose of certification these days???
> 
> Does it really help get you a job???  or a raise??? or more clients???
> 
Yes, depends on the employer, and yes. In the current market, there are 
more applicants than jobs available. We are seeing more employers prefer 
certified candidates with experience than those without. As for the raise, 
I know of several certified individuals who had their certs paid for, and 
received a raise for their efforts. As for clients, we've had calls for 
work requested to be performed ONLY by a certified individual. Personally, 
I wouldn't have much of a career right now, had I not pursued my RHCE. :-)

In any case, your certification is worth what you make of it. 
Unfortunately, people can even benefit from worthless certifications.

> Mike808 is an able programmer/sysadmin... does he need a 'cert' paper to
> prove it??
> 
Well, you probably read where I said that Mike808 was above level for what 
I was discussing. However, he may want to show off his knowledge, and may 
want to support Linux use in corporate business by showing that not only 
is he NOT an MCSE, but he's an LPIC (or RHCE, whatever).

> What about the person who went through a class for 2-4 weeks and then
> passes the cert tests...  does that minimize Mike808's cert??
> 
There's a reason that SAIR had so many people take their exams while 
Linuxgruven was in business. The people, after a short course (wasn't it 
several weeks?) had to take the exams multiple times to pass. You can't 
pass the RHCE with simply a course and no experience, and I'd have even a 
harder time with the LPIC (since I'm better at hands on).

> Just pondering....
> 

Sounds like s/pondering/picking a fight/ to me.

I'm probably the biggest certification bigot there is, wrt certification 
meaning anything. Not very many of them do. Even RH's RHCE just certifies 
you to use their product, not unlike M$. True job certification is a 
difficult concept, and the process hasn't been mastered yet. LPI is doing 
a pretty good job, IMO. I really think a lot of the certification market 
would have a lot to learn from certifications like Cisco, Red Hat, and 
LPI.

-- 
Kara Pritchard                          Phone: 618-398-7360
Director of Exam Development            http://www.lpi.org/
--



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