> Hmmm...I don't know that you've provided enough information for us all > to make the same decision here. And I don't think that a > high-schooler that spent the summer cramming for an RHCE cert is > the obvious choice over a college grad with no work experience.
Without any particulars and assuming that the high school person was fairly mature, I'd probably hire the high schooler who crammed. I haven't personally taken the RHCE, but I do know those who have, and I have read the study guides and it is definitely not just a paper certification. It's a testament to your knowledge. From what I've seen, if you can 'cram' for a couple of months and pass the RCHE... Well, to put it plainly, you know a butt load about Linux. And not just Red Hat Linux. However, I am speaking more about how individuals who hire and HR departments perceive certifications and online degrees. People can say what they want, but HR people at a large percentage of companies still view cert's and online degrees as a cop-out from college. Some HR departments are fair... In 1988 I applied to AT&T Bell Labs in Miami. I was asked to write a small program in basically any language that I wanted that would add a series of numbers from an input file, then print the subtotals onto a line printer, breaking the page whenever the total reached 1000 and then start over. Later, they told me that the purpose of this dumb little routine was to see if you would actually give it a try. They said that you would be surprised at how many people would balk at the test. They didn't know why these individuals freaked out, but if you cant play along, at least in the interview, you probably won't work out with the team. Some HR departments are idiots... I applied at another company for a job as a COBOL programmer. During the interview I was NEVER asked about my abilities or experience. However, I was asked where I went to school. As I've said, everything really depends on where you are trying to get a job. (And who's doing the hiring...) Regards, Mark. -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
