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CompTIA Certifies Home Network Integrators
prostoalex writes "Consumer Electronics Association and Computer Technology Industry Association introduced a new certification for individuals and companies installing home networks and connecting consumer electronics devices to a central PC: 'The certification is geared to individuals who install, integrate and maintain "smart" homes, in which the PC is the hub controlling lighting, security systems, audio-visual and digital entertainment gear, including home media centers.' The home networking market is predicted to grow at 20% a year globally."
Did any new standard supplant X10 in this field?
Isn't this basically an electrician with knowledge of niche product availability?
I can't imagine this qualifies you to build and install a soffit-mounted machine and code up some custom serial control. That's a service I would pay for.
"There is nothing nice about Steve Jobs and nothing evil about Bill Gates." - Chuck Peddle
Got Network+ certified a couple of months ago. The actual test material isn't bad, and it covers a lot of networking fundamentals from a vendor neutral standpoint. I had heard they had really made the test a lot harder. Boy, if my test was hard, I would have hated to have seen the easy test. It seemed repetitive and all very easy, with a lot of port number questions, firewall questions, and basic TCP/IP utility questions, most of which I could have passed without hardly any actual study.
Now, I see no reason to make it so hard that hardly anybody can pass (Cisco are you listening?), but it would be nice to have a test that reflected the study material a little better. All in all, I have had Brainbench exams that were much, much harder to pass.
Transporter_ii
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
Ok, I snagged this from a Slashdot post a while back, author unknown:
Assume there are 2 people up for a job:
(1) If neither has the experience and one has the certification, the one with the certification wins.
(2) If one has the experience and no certification and other has no experience but a certification, the person with experience wins.
(3) If both have the same experience and only one has the extra certification, the one with the certification wins.
(4) If both have the same certifications and the same experience, the one who is cheaper wins.
(5) If both have certifications and neither has any experience, the one who talks better wins.
(6) If neither has any certifications or experience, the one who looks better wins.
Transporter_ii
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
I agree that most certs are generally meaningless to most tech savvy people. I would never rely on a cert as an indicator of ability and would probably be suspicious. But... if one were, say, to go into business as a "Home Network Specialist" the average, not so technically inclined customer might feel comforted to see some sort of certification on your business card.
Given that the market shows promise and I that can probably handle most of the tech involved with my eyes closed, I am seriously consider dropping out of the corporate rat race and starting up a little business helping normal people with the tech they have at home. May take the test myself just for marketing purposes.