On Certification and Training
I just finished writing a long post for a mailing list regarding whether certification, and training for it, are worthwhile. It occurred to me it's worth posting here as well. With the caveat that I'm a trainer (non-vendor-specific) and certifiable, um, certified with Red Hat, whether a certification is worthwhile depends on:
- The quality of the certification, does it create just "paper tigers" that can't really do anything or does it actually test what you can do?
- If employers are looking for the certification either to hire people, or before you can be promoted or get raises.
Whether training is worthwhile depends on:
- How you learn. Some people learn best in a GOOD training environment. By good I mean is it, in the case of technology training, mostly lab work or mostly reading and lectures? IMO lab work is essential for good tech training and most of the classes I've taught that I liked best were more than 50% labs.
- If you can afford it. Training can be expensive, no bones about it. It is not 100% essential. It can be a way to speed up the learning process. I found it particularly useful as far as learning the ins and outs of a specific vendor's products. Books will not be enough if you are studying for a performance-based exam, IMO (meaning that you have to do things with live machines in order to pass, both the Novell and Red Hat Linux exams are completely performance-based) ... however, you can make up for this by going through all of the vendor's manuals very carefully and doing the things laid out in there. Practice on your own is essential, especially if you want to save money by only taking the highest-level pre-exam course or by not taking a course at all. The four-day pre-exam classes are brain-melters if you aren't already experienced. However, it can be a good kind of brain melt. I took the pre-RHCE 4 day class, oh, hmm, many years ago when the RHCE was brand new and referenced my notes and the materials for a good number of years after taking the course.
- If it's a quality training program in general. There will always be glitches. I walk into a class to teach it on the first day wondering what will go wrong this time. However, training company should use knowledgeable, approachable instructors and should have useful materials for you to take with you. They should have been very clear about what the course entails so you know you're in the right level class. However, in my experience sometimes companies have their own internal sign-up process and have misleading write-ups about the courses that were not from the training center, so sometime it's not the training company's fault. :)
- If your company is offering you the training, go for it. It's always a good idea to update your skills.
There is also online training, which can be less expensive than in-person, especially given the lower cost. You'll want to really research before paying for an online class to make sure it's of good quality. Or maybe a group of people can pull together their own training for it, each heavily researching a subject and then teaching each other. Be creative.
Comments (3)
I am now trying to re-enter the IT field after my college computer tech job was budget cut in Sept. 2003 and I am finding it very difficult. I can't afford an instructer led course, but see Linux+, MCSE and/or Cisco certification the best way to get my resume noticed. One interviewer even told me he had over 40 apps and 26 of them came with certs. Why should he even read the others? Like many of my recent efforts, I got the interview, but not the job. I am hoping certification will show the person that hires that I am up-to-date and focused on my career goals. Without someone knowing about my skills and my work, certification seems my best option. As an alternative to spending my money on courses I took my 3 household computers, have added 2 routers from ebay and bought genuine MS and Cisco textbooks. My Linux System Administration Black Book is getting dated and I have added the O'Reilly nutshell and Tech Republic Linux Admin CBT. And hoping to self train! Certification, 18 years after college, here I come. Cheers, eddacker
I took the CompTIA A+ course last year just for shits and giggles. I was / am quite confident in my skills, however I have no formal training of any sort on computer repair or network administration. I was mostly interested in seeing how much of the stuff I thought I knew stacked up with the courses being taught. After about the third class, the teacher was asking me all sorts of questions on computers and networks because I had all the real world experience and some of it contradicted the coursebooks. The course was $550 and it was basically wasted but I do have peace of mind that I was able to ace that course without needing to study. I had to impress upon the class that they need to think outside the box in the real world, because everything is so vast. It's not all cut and dried like in the text books. I recall one instance where the network card appeared to be working, I could get an IP from the dhcp server and I could ping and get replies but logging onto the network was unbearably slow. My instincts told me that it was the driver for the card yet everything in the books said to replace the card. I found a better driver for the card and installed it, and things magically worked. The only clue I had that it could be the card was the distance this PC was from the rest of the network. It was nearing the 300 foot limit for cat5.
Anyways, just my $0.02.
Linux+ is a very basic certification. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but it's not administrator-level. If you're wanting a Linux administration-level certification look at LPI, Novell, or Red Hat (given in alphabetical order so as not to show favoritism :).