Ask Slashdot: How To Prove IT Knowledge Without Expensive Certificates?

An anonymous reader writes "I'm starting my Ph.D in psychology this year and plan to finance this period with IT freelance work, mostly building websites with Drupal and setting up Linux networks, servers, etc.. Now I have a little problem: Since I never studied ICT nor followed a course that resulted in a certificate, I can only prove my knowledge by actually doing stuff or showing what I've done so far. Unfortunately that isn't always sufficient to convince potential customers. So I was wondering what other slashdotters do. Are there any free or cheap alternatives to get certificates or other more convincing ways to prove your IT knowledge?"

Comments

Re:drop the PHD and go to a tech / trade school

[HornWumpus]

Engineering students to tend to think every device is 'shoddily put together' and that they know how to do it better.

Once you get over your butthurt and look around at your fellow psych majors you will realize that I am right. They don't all argue with trees, but they are all nuts. As the sib poster say, look at your profs. Batshit insane! A few are self aware enough to know it (e.g. sib posters Vietnam vet prof).

FYI: why I'm butthurt. In engineering school we had to take a focus area in liberal arts. Being an engineer, I looked at what area had the best ratio (psych). I found that because so many previous engineers had used the same algorithm the psych department had requested and gotten removed from the list of available focus liberal arts programs. Seems we were blowing the curve on their first 3 classes and annoying the crazies.

Re:Why not get some certs?

[Deekin_Scalesinger]

This. There is something seriously alarming about someone who wants IT certs in order to become a frigging psychologist.

If there were two more divergent fields I am not aware of it.

A personal observation - the most incompetent group of end users I have seen overall is people who have their PhDs and insist on being called "Doctor" - these folks shouldn't be let near a keyboard.