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RE: Certification or College degrees? Was: RE: list problems?

  • From: Christopher J. Wolff
  • Date: Wed May 22 15:26:35 2002

Alan,

Thank you for the objective response.  It seems that there is room for
multiple perspectives on this topic.

I take my new volvo to the local equivalent of "Joe's Garage" for
regular (3000 mile) service.  Joe is not volvo certified, but they do
let me watch over their shoulder to make sure everything is perfect.
The service is a fraction of the cost.  If there was a mistake in
service, they only ask for their cost for the parts to rectify the
mistake (This is the 6th car that I've taken to "Joe's Garage".)
However I do take the car to Volvo for the 30000 mile service interval
(which, in fact, contains no service, only diagnostics).  If Volvo finds
a problem, I'll take it back to Joe's Garage for the actual repair.

I see your perspective on the HR department.  HR probably deals with
dozens of applicants and the certification is an easy pass/fail
evaluation method.  However, IMHO, there are probably many expertly
qualified candidates that have no paper but are more qualified than the
paper CCNA.  

Regards,
Christopher J. Wolff, VP CIO
Broadband Laboratories
http://www.bblabs.com
 


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Rowland, Alan D
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 12:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Certification or College degrees? Was: RE: list problems?



While the effectiveness of degree requirements may be argued, they are
efficient. When your HR department gets hundreds or thousands of
applications, they need some way to find the wheat.

The net sector is young and was mostly immune to traditional business
practices. Not all traditional business practices are bad (see
dot.bomb). Lack of business acumen means the days of six figure income
and significant stock options because there were 10 job openings for
every geek who could RTFM are over. Even though the "job market is
coming back" there's still 20 'techies' in Birkenstocks and Star Wars
t-shirts for every (decent) job hiring. Everything else being equal
(which is often the case) a cert or degree is a great tie-breaker.

Welcome to the traditional job market fellow geeks. Remember all the
jokes about Sanitation Engineers? ;)

Put another way, when you take that expensive car of yours in for
service (you do have one if you're successful in this industry, right?
;) ), do you go to Joe's Garage (apologies to all named Joe) or a
dealer/service center with "certified" mechanics?

Just my 2�. The delete key is your friend.

Best regards,
_________________________________________
Alan Rowland
(BS in Business and Management, UofM, 1990
"no warranty expressed or implied, use at 
your own risk, may be terminated at any 
time without notice"





-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher J. Wolff [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 11:16 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Certification or College degrees? Was: RE: list problems?



I would add to that statement:  Requiring a technology certification is
equally as obsurd.  I've been told I could pass the Emperor-Level CCIE
test; however, I do not believe it will add more value for my customers.

Regards,
Christopher J. Wolff, VP CIO
Broadband Laboratories
http://www.bblabs.com
 

Andrew Dorsett said:
*jumping on my soap box*
I have to say that the idea of requiring a degree for the IT industry is
obsurd.