[olug] Red hat cert

[Jonathan Warren]

Thank you for the comments.  I think you make some very valid points especially about keeping some feelings to yourself while in an interview.  I have had limited experience with certifications.  I personally beleive that they often fail to examine real world situation in favor of book study and test taking.  That is why I don't like them.  I know they would help make the short list and I guess I would recomend to anyone entering IT to get all the education and papers you can saying that you know what your doing.  It never hurts.

-Jon W

On Fri, Dec 13, 2002 at 12:24:56PM -0600, bbrush at unlnotes.unl.edu wrote:
> 
> 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                                                           
>                       rumman.com>                cc:                                                                               
>                       Sent by:                   Subject:  RE: [olug] Red hat cert                                                 
>                       olug-admin at olug.org                                                                                          
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>                       12/13/2002 12:11 PM                                                                                          
>                       Please respond to                                                                                            
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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.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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