Tony, et al...

I've seen these threads before but held (bit?) my tongue on the subject...

First of all, I don't believe that Certification is anything other than an
OSes vendor to get some more of ones money.  If one has the intelligence,
they can learn the OS, the internals and other issues which are usually
tested for in certification.

As a hiring manager, I didn't (and don't) necessarily look for a college
degree either.  College courses for the most part, don't teach "real world"
experiences.  "Street Smarts" come from the streets - "Theory" comes from
the textbook.  Theory is good - but one cannot be effective without both.

I hate to bring up certain names, and I won't - but look at the plethora of
people out there who are "self taught" - in the MPE world, in the Windows
world, in the Mac world -- are these people "certified"?  Many aren't - but
are as good, if not better than those that plunked down those thousands of
dollars for courses, and the dollars for the testing.  I've seen the MCSE
test samples - I took the exams (more for curiosity than the designation)
and passed them all - without one course.  Self taught, what can I say.

So, my feeling on certification is simple - unless it really has an added
value to ones resume, and a company is willing to pay extra for it, and
unless it really means something (and I don't think that someone with an
MCSE is better than some others that I know personally, who can run rings
around them) - then who cares?  I've been working with MPE since 1979, with
HP computers earlier than that.  If someone ever demands that I get
certified, my response would more than likely be to "take a hike".  If a
hiring manager cannot tell whether someone has the ability without some
letters after their name, then that person should NOT be hiring IS
personnel.

Remember:  BS, MS, PhD means Bull####, More ####, and Piled Higher and
Deeper :)  (At least my uncle, who worked for several pharmeceutical
companies, and made several million doing it always said).

Best Regards,
Joe (gettin' the flame suit ready)

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