What does certification really mean.
It means that some education has taken place and that the participant has
completed the required tests.  For the most part these credentials are only
a method of screening applicants for a job either full-time, part-time or as
a consultant.
This is true for all professional workers.  Lawyers, plumbers, medical
industry and even computers.  If we do not like the test being given then
let us as a group work on improving the test and increasing the level by
which we accept certification as employers and workers.  For the trial tests
I was thinking, there are fare more things to decide to determine if a
person is a system manager capable person.  And yet the testing is
administered by a testing organization with no clue as to the real
correctness of the answer.  It would be hard to have someone explain a
backup strategy in a multiple answer test.  Given the fact that the
structure of the test needs to be computer graded  we need to, as a body of
professionals, create a test to accurately test an individuals capability.
I learned long ago at a users conference as we sat around and complained
about HP support, that the people on the other side of the wall are not
making decisions to purposely make things hard for us.  They are doing the
best they can with what they know.  We need to help them increase their
knowledge so that they can more appropriately serve us.  I would hope that
the questions raised with the certification test have been in the attitude
of helping this individual which wrote the tests to improve them.  I would
hope that it would take more that 10 questions to certify a network
engineer, and so I would hope that we could come up with appropriately
worded questions to test a persons ability.  Perhaps this takes the form of
a questionnaire that we send applicants for a position to help in the
screening process as to who to hire.
With the wonderful power of communication and sharing that we have with the
Internet it would seem a waste not to use it to improve these things.

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Larry Simonsen          Phone: 801-489-2450
Flowserve Corporation   Fax: 801-491-1750
PO Box 2200             http://www.flowserve.com <http://www.flowserve.com>
Springville, UT 84663   e-mail: [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
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All opinions expressed herein are my own and reflect, in no way, those of my
employer.