Re: [NOVICE] PostgreSQL Training - Mailing list pgsql-general

Quoth chris@travelamericas.com (Chris Travers):
> On Fri, 2003-12-12 at 02:04, Keith C. Perry wrote:
>> I think it just the opposite- or perhaps better said, its starting
>> to chance.  I think many companies have learned that a piece of
>> paper is just that- especially in the case of certs.  This is not
>> to say that there are exceptions but lets face it, it really comes
>> down to what a person has actually done.  The change I'm seeing is
>> that the decision making folks are more often asking "what have you
>> done and how can we confirm" instead of "what are you
>> certified/degreed in and can we see the paper"
>
> I still think that there is a movement in many businesses to see the
> role of DBA, sysadmin, etc. as that of a glorified technician rather
> than a really serious professional.  Certifications are a part of
> it, but it is a broader pattern.  This is especially true of the
> market of mid-size businesses.  The larger businesses tend to have
> the lower ranks manned by glorified techs, while the upper ranks are
> managed by the more academic types.
>
> I presume that your experience is different, and I hope you are
> right. I personally thing that databases are so important to a
> business that they should really look at doing it right.

I think there are two considerations to look at:

1.  The businesses that are sufficiently "forward thinking" to
consider using PostgreSQL may be thoughtful enough to be looking more
for 'serious professionals.'

2.  It seems to me that the "IT Downturn" is starting to make the
value of certifications like MCSE unravel.  From what I can see, most
of the "certifications" were valuable to IT workers when the markets
in the things certified were expanding.

The latest Microsoft ads are showing off claims of saving hundreds of
thousands of dollars, and the only way THAT is likely is if the upshot
of installing new versions is that the companies can eliminate most of
the MCSEs.  (Which means that if there was "truth in advertising," the
administrators presented in the commercials would be white-faced, and
asking who's going to get the axe next...)

In a market where there are a whole lot of "paper-qualified" people
out of work who have written tests that were designed for the answers
to be memorizable, you've got to have better than "paper."

>> The beauty of PostgreSQL, Linux, Apache et al, is that there is no
>> singular concept of "should".  Its a worldwide community and there
>> are going to be many paths to a successful marketing campaign.  As
>> such the only "should" criteria to me is that we SHOULD respect all
>> methods equally.
>>
> OK.  I misspoke.  It is easy to think of a community as a monolithic
> entity...  Perhaps more appropriate would have been:
>
> This is why moving toward eventual training documents and possibly
> eventual certifications is important for the PostgreSQL community.

I think there are training documents; what needs to happen is to
improve them.

And I think the notion of certification is quite distant down the
road...
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