Lyle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm interested in what experiences people on this list have had with > programmer certification in any language. What they thought was good/bad > about it. Ideas on how they would improve it, etc.
My main experiences are:- 1. as a teacher and advisory board member, seeing the discrepency between modern mainstream education with its portfolio-based assessment programmes, and current certification systems with their (usually paper) short-term tests; 2. as a business owner, with people who have passed (fluked?) a programmer certificate and use it to try to convince us they can program when they can't. I think the strength in the mainstream education certificates comes from the human assessment, which seems to be a feature that many programmer certifications seem to try to remove, trying to make the assessments as automated as they can. There is a danger in assessment that is too human-based, in that some certificates become essentially "old boy network" ones, where it's much easier to get them if you move in the right circles. Automated assessments are verifiable, but they can be too crammable I guess. > Ultimately I'm interested in what you guys things about the idea of Perl > Certification. I know it pops up at Perl Monks, use.perl, advocacy, etc, > now and again. Strong arguments on both sides. Would be great to know > who's for it, against it, and who's sitting on the fence :) Strongly against. Do a good demonstration instead. There are tons of free software and voluntary-sector projects other there which would appreciate the help. References can also be good, but sharing the code is better, at least from where I'm sat in the third sector. I guess some private sector business might prefer people to show they can keep code private! "Paul Makepeace" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [...] > A certificate can save you spending the time making that explanation. > Saying "I have a degree" saves a lot of time, on both sides. [...] Only if the hiring side wants to risk a horrendous mistake. If you're lucky, a good degree will give someone the basics of algorithms, data structures, time management and research skills. It won't tell you whether they can actually do the work you've got. Lyle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > was very impressed, and I could see why I had read so many posts saying > that Red Hat certs are the ONLY viable Linux certs. I've heard OK things about the Red Hat certs but I've not seen anything which suggests that they're viable GNU/Linux certs rather than just Red Hat certs. David Cantrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [...] > We didn't think to do it until after the pimps started being dicks. I think you need new pimps^Wrecruiters. Regards, -- MJ Ray (slef) Webmaster for hire, statistician and online shop builder for a small worker cooperative http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ (Notice http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html) tel:+44-844-4437-237 _______________________________________________ BristolBathPM mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.bristolbath.org/mailman/listinfo/bristolbathpm
