Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 08:35:45 -0500 From: "Mike Avery" <mavery@mail.otherwhen.com> To: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD Certification...again Message-ID: <199907121339.IAA22993@hostigos.otherwhen.com> In-Reply-To: <19990712182309.08163@welearn.com.au> References: <199907120742.DAA87738@freedom.cybertouch.org>; from Lanny Baron on Mon, Jul 12, 1999 at 03:42:58AM -0400
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> On Mon, Jul 12, 1999 at 03:42:58AM -0400, Lanny Baron wrote:
> > I would just like to say that it irks me to death that I must spend
> > $16,500.00 (canadian) to take a 23 week long immersion course to be
> > "prepared" for MCSE, Oracle and A+ certification. Although the school
> > (private) I am going to will touch on solaris for a whole week, many
> > people I have talked to on IRC tell me I am wasting my time.
Free adivice is generally worth what you pay for it. Many times
advice you pay for is worth no more. And conditions change with
markets and local laws. Your mileage may vary.
Lots of anti-certification people are motivated by the sour-grapes
syndrome... "I can't get it, therefore it must not be any good". And
many people overlook what the certifications were intended to do.
The training course for the granddaddy of the lot, the Novell CNE,
was intended to take a person who was already a computer expert
and make that person an expert with NetWare. It was not intended
to make a high school dropout marketable. Nor to help a person in a
mid-life crisis find a new career. This is not to say those aren't
worthwhile goals, just that they aren't the goals of the training or
testing programs.
The testing programs were designed to insure employers that
prospective employees know how to use the systems they are tested
and certified upon. The employers liked the idea, and then everyone
wanted certification. Jobs started requiring certification. Even
jobs that really didn't need certification because it was such an easy
thing to screen for when looking at resumes or cv's. Which lead in
turn to quick "shake and bake" classes where in just a week or two
you could learn to pass the certification tests. Even if you were a
dolt. This has weakened the perceived value of the certification to
many technical people and to some employers.
I will point out that no training course and certification - by itself -
is sufficient. Have you ever had a bad doctor? A bad lawyer? And
both of them were the product of a much more rigourous
educational and certification process than the computer industry
does, or can, insist upon.
So, is the training worth it? It depends on your goals. Are you
trying to just get certified so you can get a job? Then a
shake'n'bake course could be a good investment. Just don't take it
too seriously once you're done.
However, 23 weeks doesn't sound like a shake'n'bake course. (A
note to non-USA residents.... "Shake'n'bake" is a commercial
seasoning mixture. You put into a baggie with chicken or pork chops
and shake. The seasoning covers the meat, which you remove and
bake. Quick and easy. Almost like cooking. Many soldiers in the US
Army refer to the Officer Canidate School as "shake'n'bake", a
deragatory term intended to convey that in 8 weeks they don't
teach enough to make an officer useful. Graduates are referred to
as "another shake'n'bake".)
If you want to learn what you are doing, a longer course is a good
idea. A real danger in commercial courses is that it's too easy to
pick up the mind set of the vendor. After Novel courses you'll know
that NetWare rulez! After Microsoft courses you'll know that NT
will blow away NetWare and Unix. Oracle will probably teach you
that Sybase drools. And so on. Regaining one's equilibrium can take
a while.
A common comment in this forum with regards to FreeBSD books is
that "Unix books are FreeBSD books, because FreeBSD is Unix."
Cool. I believe there are courses that lead to certification as Unix
administrators. Those courses should do the trick for FreeBSD as
well.
Mike
======================================================================
Mike Avery MAvery@mail.otherwhen.com
(409)-842-2942 (work)
ICQ: 16241692
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