Hello, Drew: "Perception is reality but reality isn't necessarily perception" has proven itselt many, many times. People often need credentials in order to _get_ the job but not to actually perform the tasks, especially with the current supply/demand imbalance. Non-technical hiring managers can't possibly determine who has the best technical skills, so they try to decide if the person sitting on the other side of the table 1) can do the job, 2) will do the job, and 3) will also get along with others (to state the obvious). I've read e-mail in one certification-related group on yahoo about freely available downloads of entire certification tests, and comments from the sender about having friends who know nothing about technology xyz and yet were able to pass the exams; this also puts the non-technical hiring managers in a precarious position. There is clearly no substitute for experience, yet I've seen people with "20 years experience" in a field where they've been doing the same thing for the last 17/18 years. Credentials (IMHO) tend to demonstrate that you have "follow-through", similar to completing college, though dropping out does not constitute failure or lack of intelligence (think of Bill Gates:)). I know someone who got a job (several years ago, mind you) at HP because she had won a high-school level prize for her knowledge of Japanese, which distinguished her from the other job candidates. That knowledge had absolutely nothing to do with the programming job, yet it was a perception-based factor that weighed in her favor. Ah well, such is life.... Oswald
Hamilton Andrew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I tend to agree with the certifications are BS argument. I have several certifications and they don't really help me do my job. Unfortunately, in the climate we are in these days, the fact that there are certifications lead us down the road to being forced into acquiring them. When faced with the likelihood that the hiring authority in a company may not be an engineer, but a human resource manager and the requirements for the position are certification in this, that or the other technology, even though I may have 5 more years worth of experience, my resume my get tossed aside because I don't have the piece of paper that tells them that someone else thinks I know what I'm doing, which may sound ridiculous but is still true. It is disheartening to see because I switch jobs every three years and more and more I see that someone wants you to be an SCJP, SCJD, CCIE, CCNA, MCSE, MCSD, or what have you (does this remind anyone of alphabet soup). I think there are ways for you to showcase your skills in your resume without having to resort to getting certifications but it just seems to me that sooner or later there is going to be some form of certification REQUIRED for a lot of positions. Just my .02 Regards, Drew -----Original Message----- From: Shapira, Yoav [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 1:24 PM To: Tomcat Users List Subject: RE: Apache/Tomcat/Struts Certification Proposal Howdy, >What if you had two experienced engineers, but only one of them had a ASF >certification?? >Which one would you hire? I don't know, but the certification would not likely be the deciding factor. It would come down to the relevance of the experience, familiarity with the industry, etc, there's a long list of factors that would come before the presence/absence of an ASF certification. But of course, that's just me ;) Yoav Shapira This e-mail, including any attachments, is a confidential business communication, and may contain information that is confidential, proprietary and/or privileged. This e-mail is intended only for the individual(s) to whom it is addressed, and may not be saved, copied, printed, disclosed or used by anyone else. If you are not the(an) intended recipient, please immediately delete this e-mail from your computer system and notify the sender. Thank you. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want.
