Re: SAGE, certification, and you

[zwicky <zwicky@pterodactyl.neu.sgi.com>]

 >During our January meeting, the SAGE Board did its annual planning and
 >goal-setting exercise.  Often, nothing earth-shattering occurs.  This time,
 >however, we took the Certification bull by the horns and have made a Plan.

Exactly what is that plan?  As in, what are its goals, its timelines,
and the people who're carrying it out? What's in this e-mail is 

 >We kept coming back to the mission statement phrase "advancement of systems
 >administration as a profession" and what that implies.  After a rather
 >vociferous debate we agreed (some more cheerfully than others) that a
 >"profession" entails certification - careers without such things are
 >generally referred to as "trades" (think of the difference between 
 >MDs and morticians, for example).

Doctors are not certified. They are *degreed* and
*licensed*. A brief review of the web turns up the information
that being a mortician requires a license, which in turn requires
both an apprenticeship and a mortuary science degree, which in turn
requires an undergraduate degree, preferably in biology -- so the
difference between MDs and morticians appears to be mostly that one
of them works with dead people, which is lower status than working
with live people. Also that one of them requires even more time 
in education and apprenticeship than the other, but note that the
one you call a trade requires 6 years more of education, 2 more degrees,
and 1 more apprenticeship than system administration. It looks like
we have a long way to go.

This is one of the world's poorest arguments, on a whole bunch of fronts. 
Give it up. 

Here are some believable arguments in favor of certification:
	1) It provides employers, who are not often knowledgeable about
system administration, with an objective standard of evaluation.
	2) It provides system administrators with a way of objectively
evaluating their own skills.
	3) It provides a basis for educational programs.
	4) It's a whole lot cheaper than a college degree, and provides 
some of the same advantages to its holders. 
	5) A number of people are easily impressed by certificates. Why
shouldn't we get to impress them, too?

	Elizabeth Zwicky