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Linux Certification Roundup
jdean writes: "I thought I'd take a minute and toot my own horn and mention my
article on the O'Reilly Network which gives a roundup of the various Linux certifications currently available. It's part of my series on Linux certification."
Case in point. A few months ago, I was job hunting. A headhunter called me up about a certain position. I had all the quals. . .but their HR droid shot me down, because I wasn't an MCSE.
Oddly enough, in my new position, we work with that company. And they've borrowed me numerous times to fix what their wet-behind-the-ears, just-got-my-MCSE PFY couldn't do, or botched. Needless to say, it has been a source of many billable hours to my current employer. And all because Company "X"'s HR droid decided that a shiny, new MCSE certification trumped years of experience in the field. . . .
I was intimately involved in the initial design of the RHCE (which started back in 1997). Red Hat asked for (and received) extensive community input into the design of the program via a public mailing list. Many of the criticisms of IT certification that are occurring in this discussion were very thoroughly explored in that forum.
Red Hat required a certification program to handle two related needs
1) Red Hat needed to know that its partners had sufficient technical expertise to deliver Red Hat Linux to our mutual customers. This is an essentail part of our QA process and our ability to deliver on our promise of quality to our customers.
2) Companies wishing to deploy Red Hat Linux needed to know that there were high level qualified Linux people who could perform on the job - ie who had the skills and knowledge at a detailed level AND who had shown their ability to produce quality solutions to problems under pressure.
Resulting directly from the discussions, Red Hat decided that its certification program had to require more than passing a multiple choice exam. We finally settled on a performance based (ie hands on) examination as this is the only real way to test for on the job performance.
The hands on examination lasts most of a full day and is very tough. You get a 'broken' system and have to find out what is wrong - and fix it, then we break it again and you get to fix it again, and so on.
Because of this performance based examination, the RHCE is in no way comparable to almost all other IT certification programs (the exception being the Cisco program which is also performance based). Neither the MSCE nor the CNE have performance based examinations.
The content and level of knowledge of the RHCE was also determined through the community discussion process. The archives of this discussion are extensive and detailed - for example, including discussion of the level of detailed sendmail config knowledge we should require.
I would agree that much IT certification is of very limited value. It was for this specific reason that Red Hat, with the benefit of extensive community involvement, decided to design the RHCE the way it did.
I hope this helps to clarify some of the discussion that is occurring here.
Everyone bitches because "certifications" mean nothing. I don't believe that's quite true; a certification means nothing if you check out the braindumps, memorize the questions and particular answers, and pass by the skin of your teeth. It can mean you DO have the basic experience necessary to perform a job if you learn your stuff and pass with real knowledge using real experience.
I have several certifications. I have them because I wasn't getting respect in my particular field while looking for a job. (Yep, partially Microsoft, but also partially Solaris.) I have yet to score below 95% on a certification test. My biggest beef with the cert tests is that they're entry to mid level; they don't cover complex things. (For some really tough questions, see brainbench at http://www.brainbench.com.)
Anyway, Linux, CompTIA, Novell, or Sun, all cert tests are limited by what they can offer for a reasonable price. Cisco is about the only test that isn't abused yet, and I've started hearing commercials for "CCNA Boot Camps" (do me a favor; don't do a boot camp and come configure my router, okay?). However, the CCIE certification, a prize still, is done in a lab environment. Of course, the CCIE lab is over $1k last time I checked. There's a big diff between $100 and $1000. Everyone else is multiple choice or fill in the blank. (Although Microsoft's emulator tests are actually getting pretty good.) Just like the SAT or ACT, you've got a 20% chance of getting most questions right just by guessing.
Oh well.. you either recognize a cert for what it is, or you don't. Most of the employers I've been interviewing with recently ARE ASKING LIVE TECH QUESTIONS, despite the certs. The cert gets you in the door, the live tech makes sure you do know your stuff.
-- Talonius
My reality check bounced.
Unfortunatly for me a cerification is very neccessary. I have been using Linux for a very long time and have helped a couple of charitable organizations setup Linux based networks as well as my own somewhat complex home network. I am also a Computer Technician in the Windows World, with several years of front line support experiance. My employer is starting to use Linux internally and has posted various jobs for which I have applied. The problem I run into is my resume goes to HR first who reviews it for appropriate skill sets and trainability, and then I get an email which states I have no formal education in this field nor a certification to prove real world skills and my resume will not be forwarded to the hiring manager and they ended up hiring some schmuck with an MCSE and on his first day of work I have to go down and show him how to start X.
So what to do ? I have dropped a $1500 on formal training, to learn things I already know, $200 more for an LPI Level I certification, which I passed very easily and I have even went so far as to take the BrainBench certifications. Next time I get an email like that, I walk.
Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.
"Our products just aren't engineered for security,"
-Brian Valentine,VP in charge of MS Windows Development
Excerpt from Microsoft MCLE Core Requirements Training Kit:
The idea of certification is that it provides a guaranteed level of competance in a certain area, is a nice one and all that, but it's hardly one that has a place in the modern computing industry. Like all training and courses, it merely provides an illusion of competance which can lull employers in a false sense of security - no "certified professional" is worth anything without the real-world experiance that comes from being on the job.
In many ways, having a certificate is like being part of a trade union - it provides a group which seeks to push its own members foward regardless of whether they're the right people for the job. And like trade unions, this attitude is the downfall of a capitalist economy based on the cut and thrust of a free market, including a free market for employment.
I'd rather hire someone willing to learn than some wet behind the ears fool with a Red Hat certificate who thinks they've already learnt everything.