Linux certification options

[Mark Musone]

Well, although I do agree with treating people's certifications in
perspective and with a grain of salt, I don't agree with going the
completely opposite way either. Not being formally trained is just as
bad as being 100% formally trained. It's about balance and being well
rounded. Not being formally trained often implies not learning the
"proper" ways of engineering solutions, managing, troubleshooting, and
most importantly learning.

Don't get me wrong, kudos to you for being self taught and being self
employed and a success. However that formula rarely works for most
people.

While I'll be the first to admit that schooling does not give any real
world training. It does provide to me the core essential parts: 1. It
builds a foundation of information. 2. most importantly, it teaches
people HOW TO LEARN.

When I interview people, I often don't care what they know. I care about
what they don't know and how they would find the answer/knowledge.
Hardly in the real world does someone go into a job knowing 100% of what
needs to be done. Careers and responsibilities are all about solving
problems...problems that one usually does not have the immediate answer
to..knowing where to find that answer is what separates a key
individual, or just another dime-a-dozen follower.

-Mark



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nflug at nflug.org [mailto:owner-nflug at nflug.org] On Behalf Of
Cyber Source
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 11:03 AM
To: nflug at nflug.org
Subject: Re: Linux certification options

Having been all self taught and self employed my entire life, I couldn't

agree more.

Dave Yearke wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I just wanted to jump in with my (possibly not worth even) $0.02 worth
>on the topic of certifications. If one is going to take a certification
>course, one should do it for the right reason, which is gaining
>knowledge.
>
>I've had the privilege of being part of a few search committees (what
we
>call job interviews), and I try to ignore certifications, as I'm not
>much impressed with them as credentials. As a potential co-worker, I'm
>more interested in someone that can learn and adapt, has an attitude
>that enables them to work for and with others, and has years of "real"
>experience, than in someone who has multiple sets of four-letter codes
>on their resume that they paid for at one-week OS love-fests. I've
>encountered too many "certified" people who can't think "outside the
>box" (a term an old friend and collegue on this list likes to use), and
>if they encounter a problem that isn't in a book they brought back from
>a training course, they get like a deer in headlights and have no idea
>how to proceed. To be fair, not everyone I know is like this, but I've
>seen my share of people who think ..CE courses give them all the
>knowledge they'll ever need.
>
>Short version: Personality and experience go a lot further than
one-week
>excursions to pay for a piece of paper and a set of initials. Again, my
>opinion, based on my world view.
>
>Oh, and for those interested in learning Unix-like operating systems,
>you'll do yourself a favor by also working with the more successful
>commercial versions, like Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX (in fact, Solaris is
>free (as in beer) for the downloading). Your mileage may vary. :-)
>
>Final thought: There are some employers who might perceive a lot of
>training as a liability, because there might be an implied expectation
>that they'll have to pick up the cost of re-certification and
continuing
>courses, instead of the individual. Food for thought ...
>
>  
>