[olug] Red hat cert

[bbrush at unlnotes.unl.edu]

Speaking as someone who has been on numerous hiring comittees, a cert is a
good thing (tm) for getting you on the short list for interviews.

I work at NET as I've stated before (still hoping someone takes up the
membership project), and we go by University hiring rules.  This means that
a comittee of 4-6 people receive all the resume's, review them, and then
come to a concensus on a "short list" of 4-6 people.   This short list is
approved by the UNL HR dept (usually just a rubber-stamp, but they do ask
for reasons), and then the hiring authority has the go-ahead to schedule
interviews.

Generally some kind of degree and/or certification is specified in the job
description, usually with "experience equivalent considered".  As bad as
this sounds, "equivalence" will lose out to "certification" all other
things being equal when it comes to who gets on the short list, every time.
This is simply a matter of pragmatism.  If I have two resume's and they
have been in the field equal time, with similar experience, but one guy has
gotten his certification, I'm going to have an easier time explaining why I
put the guy with the cert on the short list than I will the guy without.

It's unfortunate that professional certifications have become something
that's viewed with skepticism.  It wasn't that long ago that someone with a
CNE was given a certain level of respect simply because that certification
carried a good deal of weight.  The flood of paper MCSE's is undoubtably to
blame for this.  For myself when I weight certs on a resume, I put MS certs
at the bottom (especially MCP, and MCSE) simply because there are so many
of those out there that they simply aren't that impressive.  On the other
hand if someone has an "I" (instructor) grade cert, that's impressive
because they need a much higher level of knowledge to get that.  I also
hold the Novell certs a bit higher simply because I feel Novell has upheld
the integrity of their cert program better.  Lotus also has a very good
cert program.

I guess the bottom line with certs is, they aren't necessary, but just like
a degree, they'll open doors for you.

Bill

PS:  A good example of what not to do:  A recent interviewee disparaged all
certifications during the interview.  Out of 5 interviewers, 4 of them held
at least one certification, with a couple holding more than one.  Guess who
didn't get the job?

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                      "Jacobs, Robert A."                                                                                          
                      <RAJACOBS at northropg        To:       olug at olug.org                                                           
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                      12/13/2002 12:11 PM                                                                                          
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>From: Jonathan Warren [mailto:thechunk at cox.net]

>admins.  Personnally I don't value certs too much so I don't
>care about that.

We can thank the flood of ill-prepared MCSEs for devaluing most
cert programs, I think.  There are plenty of well-qualified
MCSEs (probably some on this list) but so many MCSEs were just
people with a casual interest in computing who heard that getting
their MCSE was the path to big bucks.

That having been said, there IS a value to certs that I can see:
it can get you past Human Resources when applying for a job.
It is a checkmark in a box that says you've taken the time to
study the material and know it well enough to pass a test i.e.
you are familiar with the topic.

Once you get past HR your experience, skills, etc. are what gets
you hired.