Re: RH 9: ok, so i overreacted ... but i'm still miffed

["Rodolfo J. Paiz" <rpaiz simpaticus com>]

At 09:33 PM 3/24/2003 -0600, you wrote:

> IMHO a distro-neutral certification is a computing science degree.  [...]
>
> Perhaps I'm showing my bias but I don't like *any* certifications.  Show
> me somebody who's got the theory and the braincells and I'll teach him
> the syntax.  If you know what you're trying to do rather than just
> regurgitating what you learned, then it doesn't matter if it's Linux or
> VMS.

I'm with Ed here. I spent a couple of years in CompSci before moving to 
Business Administration, and I did lots of database programming even before 
that. And for that last 15 years in business, the general concepts and 
underlying theory I learned while programming C, C++, LISP, assembly 
language, and BASIC (Apple Basic at that) have served me well. The 
even-more-general stuff I learned in CompSci has taught me to speak nerd, 
and today I can design software packages generally better than the people 
who write them for me.

Certifications are valuable to whatever extent they impress the person you 
want to impress, period. The value held by the certification is DIRECTLY 
related to the values of the person running the interview. Me... I want to 
see the mindset, the discipline, the will to learn, the love of challenges, 
the attitude, the self-teaching ethos, and the recognition of the immense 
importance both of effectiveness and integrity, with efficiency coming in 
third.

I'm happy if someone has taken the time to get a cert in addition to all 
that, but anyone who thinks the cert will qualify him for the job has 
already disqualified himself before the interview starts.


--
Rodolfo J. Paiz
rpaiz simpaticus com