Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 18:18:30 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: lnb@cybertouch.org Cc: webmaster@freebsdmall.com, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG, core@FreeBSD.ORG, Nik Clayton <nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: Tekmetrics tests and FreeBSD Certification Message-ID: <3766ED56.3DE1B63@softweyr.com> References: <5475.929433334@critter.freebsd.dk> <199906151917.PAA16693@freedom.cybertouch.org>
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Lanny Baron wrote:
>
> Certification, once standardized, in my humble opinion, in addition
> to instilling in the person doing hiring or contracting for services,
> confidence in the person he/she may be thinking of using,
> certification gives the person holding that certification a better
> chance to get that job or contract.
>
> I constantly look for jobs here and in the news paper, in at least
> 8/10 cases, certification of some type is required.
Most of the employers who are looking for some sort of certification
are doing so because they have no capability of evaluating employees
on their own. Offer them practically anything and they'll probably
bite, because they don't know better.
I was the one who called for advocates to visit the tekmetrics site,
because I wanted to get a feeling for how the rest of the group felt
about their tests in general. I didn't post my concerns because I
did not want to taint the opinions of the rest of the group, but since
we've now gone a week or so, I'll state my piece and shut up.
1) The Tekmetrics tests are NOT very comprehensive. They are not
really intended to be. They aspire to be the equivalent of a
screening test an employer might throw up to sort out 1,000 applicants
for a sysadmin job down to 10 or 20 that *might* be qualified.
2) The test methodology is easily broken. It would be simple to record
the questions given in a particular test, and I suspect you could
record a large subset of the total questions in any test in just a
few tries.
3) Yes, a certification program might be a "good" thing to have as
an assurance to stuffed suits that FreeBSD is a real operating system,
with real people using it. Let's face it, the entire tech school
industry (in the USA at least) is a pacifier for suits who don't know
any better, and churn out thousands of certified, know-nothing and
do-nothing boneheads every year, but corporations and especially the
gov't departments of welfare-as-we-will-come-to-know-it have swallowed
their bait hook, line, and sinker. The whole business has enough stench
attached to it we may not want to associate ourselves with it. Eventually
the suits are going to wise up to the quality of people turned out by
the CNE/MCSE/etc programs and start blaming everyone remotely associated
with them for their own failures.
OK, I'm done raining on the FreeBSD-Advocacy parade. Please return to
our usual mutterings.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com
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