Slashdot Mirror
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?"
Wrong question. What you really meant to ask:
And the answer is: networking. It's free or cheap, but it's time-consuming and time-delayed.
And I consider referrals to be a special case of networking. You said you already "did stuff". If what you did was just for yourself, then you need to do it for someone else. There are plenty of non-profits (or even mom & pop for-profits) who would love some free work.
I've been an Independent Contractor in IT specializing in architectural and product consultation for early phase startups and internal product start-ups and prototyping for established enterprises. And in over 10 years and never have any shortage of work.
Yet I never went to college, am self taught and have never once bothered with shelling out cash for any bullshit certificate nor do I maintain any sort of web presence or "portfolio"
I merely have a resume on Craigslist, which most comment on being rather impressive and features some pretty big names and interesting projects.
In all the years I have been doing this, even when I was first starting out -- I obtained my work by being able to describe highly advanced yet exceedingly efficient solutions to my client's seemingly complex problems.
Of course, sometimes, descriptions aren't enough -- on occasion you will need to provide a proof of concept, the time for which you should be compensated for -- if successful in proving your point that is. For instance, to win a contract with a client to build a new social music service, I spent a week creating a prototype site out of my proposed frameworks and specifications featuring streaming on-demand music to an spider-friendly HTML5 AJAX UI with no plugins aside for degradation for archaic browsers with demonstrated mobile browser compatibility as a technical proof. That went over very well and I'm presently building the real deal.
Of course, offering proofs of concept might not work if you're looking for a rank and file job -- but, in any technical interview, the white board is your friend. You should always make a point to get up and draw out what you're talking about. You'd be surprised how effective a back of the napkin diagram can be in making your case. And it allows you to make a presentation and thus, take charge of the interview room.
But in the end, it all hinges on you being able to identify the problem and compose a compelling if not novel solution on the fly. I've found that there's not a great many that can do that, especially while under pressure in an interview room.
I used to teach a course in Grid/distributed computing in our local IT College, but after putting up with the stupidity of the students for two years I stopped. This was a side project where I wanted to give something back, not my main finance source, but I just couldn't cope with last year sysadmin/systems engineers struggling with linux command line. I mean that it was as bad as unpacking their tarballs exclusively with double clicking on it on the desktop. I did try in the second/third iteration to pre-empt it a bit by doing a few first weeks basic shell programming tutorials, but there was no foundation to build on and I didn't have the time to teach a whole seat if courses from scratch so I stopped the course although they still ask if I want to return every year.
I've seen the same in other universities too, the people who are excellent were already before entering and have just hoend and extended the skills. Who enter blank rarely make out as anything useful...
Psych students are all nuts and think they will somehow figure out their own issues at school.
That makes a lot of sense. I've often found that engineering students are shoddily put together and hope to figure out their own issues at school. Also that physics students are mostly composed from particles beyond the Standard Model and medical students are dying of cancer. English lit students can't read and communications majors tend to be deaf-mutes. Based on your shoddy understanding of logic, I'm guessing... philosophy major?
Mock the GP all you like but my Psych 101 professor basically said they occasionally do have people choose the major in an attempt at self-treatment. The professor confessed he did so himself. He said that when he came home from Vietnam he was able to go to college using G.I. Bill benefits, wasn't sure what he wanted to study and chose psychology hoping it would help him deal with his personal issues. He said it did not, that it never does, and that anyone sitting in the class thinking of going that route should save themselves some time and frustration and seek professional help now.
... why is that mother f'er shooting at me ... God is you let me survive this ... sh*t I am not going to survive this ... might as well do my "job" until then.
He was a great professor by the way. His humorous description of how he progressed through all five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) in seconds during his first firefight was quite memorable. This sh*t can't be happening
Since when do IT Trade/Tech schools give you real knowledge? Nearly every applicant I've met who's been to one thinks he has real knowledge until you ask him to answer a real world question. The few who know the right answers generally knew the answers before they went to school for the paper.
Trade schools don't teach knowledge, they teach a trade. "Why do I insert tab A into slot B? I don't know, I just do it." College, on the other hand teaches knowledge, but not a trade. They know why tab A goes into slot B, but not how to do it. If you get really lucky you get someone who already had knowledge that then went to trade school, or someone who already knew how to do something and then went to college. Me, I've been programming since 6th grade, and then I went to College.
As for the original question, I think some of the information in the question is superfluous. "How To Prove IT Knowledge Without Expensive Certificates?" is the same question as "How To Prove IT Knowledge With Expensive Certificates?" to me, as the certificates mean little if nothing to me. The reason is because I have probably a dozen certificates, many in things I have never done, simply because I studied for a test. I also have failed to get certificates in things that I have a great deal of experience in, because I knew how it really worked and didn't study for the test. So to me, a certificate is not a likely statistical indicator of knowledge of a field anyway, so with or without a certificate, you're going to have to prove your knowledge to me.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
show them documentation you've written. UML diagrams, tutorials, presentations.
Everyone wants an IT specialist who can sling code, but if you can convey information effectively to help other people work better, it shows that you're focused on the bigger picture and the longer term.
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