RE: The Great Certification Debate

[Scott Williams <swill41@jcpenney.com>]

Stephen Adams wrote:

>You started in the right direction but I feel you hit the wrong conclusion.  
A >degree or certification is an "indicator" that one CAN learn and be taught. 
 

Just because you can learn and be taught does not mean you can do the job. 
Fully 90% of my time is spent trying to figure out what went wrong. Once 
that's done, the fix is usually easy. "Book smarts" taught me the fix, but it 
was actual experience with a mentor that taught me to diagnose. Not everyone 
can do that. Some people will never "get the big picture".


> It's all about getting your foot in the door anyway.  From there, it's up to > you, your personality, and your ability to get.....

That's what I'm afraid of with these certs. And hence my question to managers: 
When you see the certification, do you expect that person to live up to the 
image? If I met someone who was a Certified Systems Administrator, I'd expect 
the guy to be able to figure out what's wrong with sendmail, and why named 
keeps crashing when you try to do an nslookup. But without experience or 
troubleshooting skills, he'd probably just sit there flipping through books or 
calling support lines instead of going down the detective path. Now there's 
nothing wrong with that, but when the server is down, time is critical. That's 
where the experience comes in. The ability to assess the situation, figure out 
what's wrong, and impliment a solution. Or at least be able to tell support 
exactly what happened and where you are now. Having them diagnose over the 
phone takes alot of time. But hey, nobody knows everything. My favorite UNIX 
command is "man".


>I completed the CSA cert a few years ago...again it has helped in opening >
doors. And I learned something in the classes that was useful.  Knowledge is >
good...the experience will come! 

So, certification should just be a measure of academics and ability to learn, 
not mastery (or good knowledge) of what you are certified in, and the ability 
to do the job? If I hired a Certified Systems Administrator, I don't want to 
have to train him on how to do his job. I understand each shop is different 
and there is a learning curve as you pick up how they do business, but there 
are just certain skills and abilities a Certified Systems Administrator should 
have. These current programs, CSA, CNE, MCSE...on and on...are just "book 
smarts".

>Certifications are also good for one's own ego/self-esteem.  

Agreed. That's why I'm looking to Sun.


Scott Williams
Sr. Systems Administrator
JCPenney