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The pros and cons of TW certification are pretty well-illustrated with the
certification test you can take at Brainbench.com. The advantage is a test
that can screen for basic skills, provides a refresher when you need it, and
provides a simple, object benchmark.
The cons are that within the questions, methodology is more important than
real-world content, and that methodology tends to rely overly much on one or
two experts. In addition, I found some terminology, such as storyboarding a
bit confusing, because storyboarding has a different connotation for those
of us who came out of marketing and advertising.
BTW, I scored at the Master level, but I haven't seen any promotions or
raises as a result ;)
"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me,
and I'll understand." - Native American Proverb
-----Original Message-----
From: Lurker writer [mailto:lurker_writer -at- hotmail -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 10:47 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Not again: certification?
Ah, but Geoff, be careful not to fall into the "getting respect" trap by
stating "...it gives our profession more of a "professional" appearance and
increases our visibility." I know you don't favor either position, but
employers really would not regard this type of certification with any
serious merit. It seems to me that any certification initiative by STC would
play into the "we don't get no respect" camp.
<rhetorical question>How on earth does a piece of paper hanging on a wall
get you respect?</rhetorical question>. As someone said the other day,
certification seems to be used as an argument by those who desperately need
to justify their existence on a regular basis to engineers, developers, and
other technical types. Someone who passes a certification exam can be
ineffective in the trenches, where what you know really counts.
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