Subject: RE: General opinion wanted
From: James Bagley Jr. (james@thelostnet.net)
Date: Thu Feb 07 2002 - 15:39:17 AKST
I have done lots of technical testing. I hold an MCSE for nt4 systems
(although I don't normally admit to it), LPI level1 (levels 2/3 were not
out when I took the tests), SAIR Linux, and CompTIA A+ (I don't usually
admit to this one either).
How accurate are these test in determining actual skill? IMHO, they are
generally not good. After taking all of these tests I am far less
impressed with anyone that advocates them as 'accurate'. With the
possible exception of the LPI exam, none of these exams do a very good job
of determining how skillfull someone may be. The microsoft exams seem to
be geared more towards selling microsoft to the test taker than anything
else. The LPI exams were hard, but fair. The SAIR exams had too much
engrish in them (translated from english to chinese to english?) and were
very difficult to decipher, but technically trivial. A+ is... well... I
was forced into taking that by my employer at the time, didn't even study
and still passed with a pretty high score. If you have an afternoon and
$150 to kill some obscure employer might actually be impressed.
These certifications have almost certainly helped me gain employment.
They look good on my resume and most employers just eat it up. Having
some college and/or some experience to go with your certifications is a
must. Don't expect anyone to hire you based solely on a few exams.
On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, Wadell, Jim S (SAIC) wrote:
>
> Digging up some ancient history. I recently saw an ad for www.lpi.org ,
> who do similar testing. Has anyone had any experience with them?
>
> Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: arthur@corlissfamily.org [mailto:arthur@corlissfamily.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 11:10 AM
> To: Alaska Linux Users Group
> Subject: General opinion wanted
>
>
>
> Greetings:
>
> I know that some of you have used BrainBench (http://www.brainbench.com/) to
> one extent or another, so I have some questions for you:
>
> 1) How accurately do you believe the tests are in determining
> your skill level in any given topic?
> 2) Have their certifications helped you to gain new employment?
> 3) How much respect do you think these certifications are
> accorded by your average employer?
>
> Of course, if anyone thinks favourably on #3, that takes the bottom out of
> the
> CCNA/MCSE/etc. markets. ;-) These tests are definitely much cheaper.
>
> So, what do you guys/gals think?
>
> --Arthur Corliss
> Bolverk's Lair -- http://arthur.corlissfamily.org/
> "Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto
>
>
>
>
>
-- ... Any resemblance between the above views and those of my employer, my terminal, or the view out my window are purely coincidental. Any resemblance between the above and my own views is non-deterministic. The question of the existence of views in the absence of anyone to hold them is left as an exercise for the reader. The question of the existence of the reader is left as an exercise for the second god coefficient. (A discussion of non-orthogonal, non-integral polytheism is beyond the scope of this article.)
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