Re: The Great Certification Debate

[Esther Filderman <ecf@psc.edu>]

Scott, I couldn't'a said it better.

It's like companies that won't even interview people who
don't have a degree.  If they have a Bachelors of Arts in
Underwater BasketWeaving, that'd be ok with them because,
hey, You Have A Degree.

The person who first hired me as a sysadmin told me that he 
believed in hiring people for what they _can_ do, not what 
a piece of paper claims they've done.  His words have stuck 
with me for all these years.  I've seen cow-orkers hired who
had beautiful resumes, and then seen them fired because all 
they were capable of, it seems, was writing a good resume :).
Now that I'm in a position to interview and recommend in the
hiring process, I stick to his words when considering
candidates.

I always tell my student-slaves, it's not so much _what_
you know as  _how well_ you can learn and _who_ you know 
--not necessarily in the "networking" sense but in the 
"who will say, 'yes, s/he's one of the best learners 
I know.'"  If you can learn new things you can adapt to
any job.  If you impress people with your abilities, it
will open better doors, in my opinion, than that piece
of paper you're paying a zillion dollars a year to get.

'cause, I think, any company that won't look at someone
because of a lack of degree is only hurting themselves.
And is probably not a company worth working for in the 
first place.

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

----------------------------------------------------------------
    ecf@psc.edu     Esther Filderman    moose+@cmu.edu
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