[aklug] Re: IT certifications

On 9/7/16 1:02 PM, Royce Williams wrote:

> I'm actually more with Kris on this one. The level (and volume) that this
> thread has taken is not the kind of constructive interaction that I personally
> think that AKLUG should be about.

It's perfectly constructive. Much of this is, in fact, "violent
agreement", on about 95% of the topic, it seems. The problem is, some
folks seem to be more taken with (incorrectly) demonstrating
intelligence and mastery of "big words", and voicing snarky opinions,
than learning to read things more in-depth than a Tweet. I dislike
that, because it forbids intelligent discourse. I am also highly
allergic to the notion that "Well, just build a home lab!"/"Tinker with
it!" is some form of cure for the problem of initial
experience-gathering, as though the Cisco fairy comes by and drops 3750s
and ASAs off free for the asking, and also as though some Linux weenie
screwing around with Ubuntu installs on his home desktop is worth a shit
on a production network without heavy supervision (that most employers
are not, in my observation, willing to provide).

(Side note: if you believe that said Linux weenie *is* adequately
prepared for life as a sysadmin by home lab work, then *you* hire one
and turn him loose on your network without supervision. Report the
results of this exercise at your leisure... though more likely, we'll
read about it in the Dispatch News. ... That is not to say, however,
that home lab work has no place; merely that it is not a particularly,
uniquely, or uniformly useful or necessary method of *starting* one's
career in IT, owing primarily to the fact that the hardware to make the
lab meaningful is *expensive*. Having and using a home lab is mandatory
for *maintaining* such a career, though.)

I am confident that you know people who are caught in a trap where they
can't get the job without the official experience, which is subsequently
impossible to get without the job. In this economy, nobody (and
especially, nobody in THIS state) is taking chances -- that's the
problem. Employers are generally not "hungry" these days, and can
afford to play 'Simon Says' until they get the special unicorn candidate
they want, whether from the local area or out-of-state. Consequently,
they do just that. It's like that in a lot of other places, too.
Behold, the New Normal.

One way for the enterprising aspirant to attempt to *circumvent* that
trap is to stack up on certs and hope to make it through the interview
phase, then work their asses off when they land the job to either
backfill what the cert didn't cover, or demonstrate that they know their
stuff well enough to keep 'em. That's why they do it, and I'm confident
you know people who meet that description. In fact, I am confident that
there are people meeting that description on this very list. If you
don't know any such people, then you REALLY need to get out more. It's
not a good thing, but it *is* the Truth.

If you do not like that state of affairs, then for all those of us
involved in the hiring process, I suggest putting your money where your
mouth is and outright overriding HR, to wit:

  * taking, as a hiring manager, direct control of job postings and
posting realistic requirements not including certifications;

  * viewing, or having a technical hiring manager view, *ALL* resumes
submitted, not just the ones passed through the
Taleo/LinkSpin/Lemonparty/HR-software-du-jour mill;

  * personally screening the ENTIRE raw pile of candidates;

  * interviewing EACH AND EVERY candidate, focusing on real-world
technical skills with practical demonstration;

  * responding quickly (same-day) for rejected applicants, with at least
some vaguely useful list of reasons why and suggestions for improvement;

  * making a personal commitment to take a chance on sub-qualified
applicants and "growing" them into the position by personal mentorship.

That cures the certification problem *tomorrow*, by depriving it of its
entire raison d'etre, but I can hear people hyperventilating already. I
can sense a million keystrokes surging through the Force, as though a
million managers screamed "BUT WE DON'T HAVE THE TIME", "WE CAN'T DO
THAT", "THAT'S NOT PRACTICAL BECAUSE REASONS", "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA
LA", etc. etc. OK -- fine. Then zip it. You are part of the problem,
and you are unwilling to help *fix* the problem, so your only other
choice is to live with the result -- certification mills, eventual
saturation of the market for/dilution of the value of any given cert,
and ever-churning "new" certifications and tests to remedy this problem,
in a pattern exhibiting Lotka-Volterra dynamics. Deal with it. All
this has happened before, and all this will happen again. You can
choose your actions, but cannot choose your consequences, etc. etc.

In the meantime, join the ACM. It's a cheap way to get
moderately-useful online free training materials for the major
certifications that employers crave! >;->

> Many of us are unhappy with the state of assessing technical skills. And I'm not
> strange to an occasional rant.
>
> But I think we should drop this where it is.

There are another two sayings that are worth mentioning:

"Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito."

-and-

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Be that as it may, I'll leave it here unless someone wants to continue.

-- 
"nothing personal"
-SD
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