On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 2:23 PM, John Todd <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Jan 9, 2009, at 5:03 AM, Nir Simionovich wrote: > >> [snip] >> For example, say that you would like to approach a company like >> Verizon or Vonage, stating that you are an Asterisk consultant. The >> immediate response from your target entry point would be: state your >> certifications, experience and references. Now, as long as you are in >> the first 9 months of your business, you won't have many references - >> what you have is experience and possibly certifications. In this case, >> the certifications can help you a little. >> >> Without being self promotional, let's take a look to my case. I've >> founded the Israeli Asterisk community back in 2004, when basically >> there was nothing to build upon - as I was more or less the only user >> here. I started building the community, one by one, installation by >> installation, and surely enough, almost 5 years later, there are over >> 300 community members, over 3000 installations in Israel and as the >> founder of the community, people no longer really care for my >> certification - they know my experience and mileage. So, when I >> started >> my own business in 2007, I had already a few things working for me >> and I >> need to thank Google for that. >> [snip] > > > Risking tomatoes thrown at me, I'll put my $.02 in here as well. > > There are, I believe, three components to successful consulting with > Asterisk: > > 1) Experience. There is no substitute for experience. > > 2) Involvement. If you don't know what is going on with the > project, and you don't know who is doing new things, you will > inevitably fall behind. > > 3) Certification. Getting a dCAP certificate is proof of your > ability to solve many problems with Asterisk, not just those you've > seen before. > > > Experience: > Experience teaches you a set of solutions for particular problems, and > the process of experience is to move from "not knowing" to "knowing" > via being presented with a problem that you have to solve via trial- > and-error. Often these experiences are very deep, meaning that you > spend a lot of time learning the intricate behaviors and methods of a > certain set of solution components. This is great, in that it also > has byproducts of teaching you what does NOT work along the way which > is just as valuable. There is no substitute for experience. > > Involvement > Being well-versed in Asterisk requires knowing how the project is > proceeding. Optimally it would involve your contributions back to the > project in the form of code, documentation, white papers, testing, bug > work, or anything else that allows other people to benefit from your > now-growing experiences. The most successful people using Asterisk, > and the ones who get the big jobs handed to them, are the ones who are > "community leaders" by virtue of their involvement. > Knowing what is happening in the Asterisk community also implies > knowledge of what solutions other people are building in the > surrounding ecosystem. Who is doing what programs for Windows? Who > has a decent log parsing tool? What is the best device to use for an > attendant desk? All of these questions are asked and answered on a > frequent basis on the mailing lists, IRC channels, and other forums. > Getting involved gives you relevance, which is REQUIRED to continue in > a consultancy business if you wish to be successful. > > Certification > Getting a dCAP is 100% a good idea, and I'm not saying that just > because I work for Digium. :-) The certifications get your foot in > the door in many companies. Let's look at it this way, as well: as > the number of Asterisk-capable installation and integration shops > increases, the number of criteria necessary to compare them against > each other becomes more important. Just like having a good grade > point average gets you to the interview step of University > applications, so might the dCAP certification get you to the next step > of an evaluation process that allows your experience and community > involvement to be considered as the next decision factors. > The dCAP certification gives you a broad range of miniature > experiences, and the instructor can tell you what does not work. > Learn from THEIR experience. The classes are not expensive, and they > are not long, but IMO they provide more than their time/money > investment in the actual learning that you do. You end up not only > with the piece of paper, but actual knowledge to go along with it. > > Summary: > If you have a first step you want to take that gives you the most > return in the shortest amount of time, get the certification. Then > get involved - write code, author some white papers, put up some > demonstration dialplans. Experience is the end result of involvement, > and certification is the first big step you can take and is a bonus > for those potential customer companies which deem it higher than some > other things. The combination of these three elements is what will > win you business. > > > PS: Everyone who thinks they know a lot about Asterisk should talk to > Jared about a few questions on the dCAP test. There is a lot you > probably don't know, and that would take you a while to Google the > answers to. I've talked to a few Asterisk experts who have taken the > dCAP and they've all been somewhat surprised at how difficult some of > the test questions were, and what they didn't know. This isn't > because Asterisk is difficult; it's because Asterisk is a toolkit, and > some methods of combining tools are not always obvious. > > JT > > > --- > John Todd email:[email protected] > Digium, Inc. | Asterisk Open Source Community Director > 445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville AL 35806 - USA > direct: +1-256-428-6083 http://www.digium.com/ >
I will be getting my FSAP, continue building systems, and stay current with experience and offerings of open and closed source solutions. Thanks, Steve T _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
