Re: Certification Available +Pronounce - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

I want to chime in a bit here, and just perhaps add a few things and
repeat a few thing, perhaps.

I have been though a couple of IT training classes and certs in the
day. And at the end of the day a lot of the reasons that certs exist
are not due to the lack of technical ability of the people (as the
postgres community clearly shows), but from a PHB management POV its a
psychological thing. In the beginning a certification value is that of
soothing the nerves of people as to have some kind of 'proof' that at
least someone else claims a person can at least pass an exam.

Later on as the field spreads out, a good training program and valid
cert will help bring others in from associated fields and lend
credibility. Credibility begats acceptance, acceptance begats usage,
usage begats jobs; and so on. There are things to shake out along the
way, but in the long run, having training and certification for the
purpose of building a qualified group of people is the right way to go.

As an aside, having been a computer/network tech for 10+ years, I have
studied for the A+ exam, and never taken it. I found the sample tests
to be filled with 'useless' reference material, and not very helpful
for actual real world issues. There is a reason why there are reference
manuals, so you dont have to memorize infrequently used minutia.

Brian


On Oct 5, 2005, at 1:04 PM, Robert Cleary wrote:

>  I think this is the point where i humbly retreat,
>    i still think it's a fair argument that a certification would
> improve popularity - but for the aforesaid reasons, its probably not
> worth-it
>  based on the pros and cons.
>  thanks for the insight.
>  Josh Berkus wrote:Robert,
>>
>>
>>> If certifications are seen in a bad-light, I believe it's directly
>>> because people sell-out their principles, or just plain set-out to
>>> make
>>> cash.
>>>
>> Well, actually: you're asking a group of users and proponents of an
>> OSS RDBMS
>> that has no certifications, and until a few years ago wasn't
>> supported by any
>> large companies and didn't have any compliance certificates or major
>> reference implementations, what they think of certifications.  What
>> answer
>> did you expect to get?
>>
>> Serious hackers never like certifications; they see them as something
>> that
>> their boss is liable to waste their time making them take.  The
>> people who
>> like certifications will not generally be subscribed to this list.
>>
>>
>>> This might be a mad-idea, but if you can build an open-source DBMS,
>>> why
>>> can't you build a certification by the same process?: open-source
>>> collaboration for its inception, elaboration, construction and
>>> deployment?
>>>
>> Well, first off, how would you keep the questions secret from
>> potential
>> test-takers?  Also, keep in mind that designing a good certification
>> exam is
>> a lot of work, like 1000 hours of work.
>>
>> I'm lazy ... I'd rather just let SRA do their thing.   ;-)
>>
>>
>