Luke,

Having taken and and passed two certification tests from SANs (GCIH, which has lapsed for me, and the GCUX [twice]), I can say that not all certifications are made equal. The SANS tests are very difficult, and unless you have an eidetic memory, you won't pass them by just memorizing the material. In addition, the newer SANS certifications have two levels: silver and gold. If you pass the rather difficult exam (and I hear the newer tests are even harder), you get a silver level cert. If you want a gold level cert, you must write a fairly extensive paper. These days those papers have more difficult and stringent requirements than when I wrote my 52 page paper years ago for my GCUX Gold level cert.

So, automatically discounting someone because they have a certification isn't always the best approach. If you don't really understand the quality and difficulty of the certification listed, you may be missing out on someone with above average skills.

Cheers,
Jesse

--
Jesse Trucks, GCUX
[email protected]
Director, LOPSA
http://lopsa.org




On Aug 21, 2009, at 9:28 PM, Luke S Crawford wrote:

Esther Filderman <[email protected]> writes:

If I can answer the question with "man" I shouldn't have to remember
it. I'm all for remembering commonly used things, but, in my unhumble
opinion, rote memorization tests are for monkeys.

And certifications are not?  all other things being equal, listing a
certification usually makes me think less of a canidate (I mean, unless
I'm looking for a job where rote memorization and following the script
is what the customer wants; especially in large corporations, sometimes
following the script is extremely important.  In those cases, yeah, go
certification.)
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