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Subject:Re: certification From:Matt Ion <soundy -at- SOUNDY -dot- ML -dot- ORG> Date:Tue, 17 Nov 1998 23:17:56 -0800
On Tue, 17 Nov 1998 11:14:34 -0800, Corinne Kantor wrote:
>I've been a tech writer for about 5 years now, and I have a portfolio that
>contains samples of my work, which I keep up-to-date and bring to every
>interview. If I was hiring a writer, I'd be much more interested in their
>portfolio than a certification. By seeing samples of a potential employee's
>work, you can learn more about their style of writing, maybe their page
>layout skills, etc. I don't know how you can learn this type of information
>from a certification exam.
A brief word on certification:
I'm probably the only guy out of our dozen-strong team of installers at my
present place of employment, who doesn't have or is not in the process of
getting MCSE certification (and has no plans to, either).
Yet oddly enough, there is only one of them that I've ever needed or received
useful information *about MS products!* from (and even that was only once or
twice), yet every one of them has at least twice come to me for advice on
hardware, system basics (like how drive partitions work), and other sorts of
really basic-knowledge questions. They can run through a checklist (or
Wizard) to set up an NT webserver, but few of them have even the basest clue
of how ANY of it works - LANs, protocol stacks, interface bindings, TCP/IP,
routing, proxies, DNS, HTTPD, HTML... it's all beyond them. And this
includes those who have passed every single MCSE exam!
Not to belittle those who are certified and DO know their stuff, but when it
comes right down to it, certification proves only one thing conclusively:
that you could regurgitate the correct answers onto an exam paper at the
correct time. It doesn't mean that you're smarter than the next guy, or that
you'll retain those answers for five minutes after leaving the exam room.
If I were the one doing the hiring, I'd take a good demonstrated knowledge of
the how/what/where/why BASICS, and an ability and desire to learn quickly,
over a framed piece of paper any day.
Your friend and mine,
Matt
<All standard disclaimers apply>
"Reality is in alpha test on protoype hardware."
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The choral background music for the recent Internet Explorer TV ads is
the Confutatis Maledictis from Mozart's Requiem (Mass for the dead).
The words of the final blast of music that accompanies "Where do you
want to go today?" are "confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus
addictis..." which means "the damned and accused are convicted to
flames of hell."
- anonymous
