The certification boom is the worst thing to happen to IT since the.com bubble burst.
Let me tell you a little story, last year the organisation I work for had it's IT staff leave for better shores just before a massive restructure and expansion. Without an IT department it was left up to HR to do the hiring who based their decisions on the certifications of the applicants. Disaster.
The MCSE Sys Admin didn't know how to change login scripts and the MCP/Uni Grad/A+ Helpdesk Tech was comically talentless. 2 weeks later they hired the IT manager who was selected by a technical consultant they brought in to assess the applicants. This been government he couldn't fire Tweedledee and Tweedledum so he hired me to take up the slack.
What happened here?
Well after sitting the two of them down I found that pre-2k neither had any interest in IT or computers in general, it was the pre-2k $$$ that lured them. The Sys Admin had been able to get a wide array of qualifications just by going to companies that sat cram sessions. The Helpdesk Techo on the other hand was a natural academic; he could cram for any subject and pass an exam if he had enough preparation time.
The IT industry is not bloated, it's diluted. Diluted with apathetic people who when faced with problems that real technicians revel in will curl up and demand training. We now have a new company policy regarding hiring, certifications mean nothing. This makes hiring hard, we have to read the CVs and god forbid actually interview people but we get the best of the best:)
Slashdot Mirror
The certification boom is the worst thing to happen to IT since the .com bubble burst.
Let me tell you a little story, last year the organisation I work for had it's IT staff leave for better shores just before a massive restructure and expansion. Without an IT department it was left up to HR to do the hiring who based their decisions on the certifications of the applicants. Disaster.
The MCSE Sys Admin didn't know how to change login scripts and the MCP/Uni Grad/A+ Helpdesk Tech was comically talentless. 2 weeks later they hired the IT manager who was selected by a technical consultant they brought in to assess the applicants. This been government he couldn't fire Tweedledee and Tweedledum so he hired me to take up the slack.
What happened here?
Well after sitting the two of them down I found that pre-2k neither had any interest in IT or computers in general, it was the pre-2k $$$ that lured them. The Sys Admin had been able to get a wide array of qualifications just by going to companies that sat cram sessions. The Helpdesk Techo on the other hand was a natural academic; he could cram for any subject and pass an exam if he had enough preparation time.
The IT industry is not bloated, it's diluted. Diluted with apathetic people who when faced with problems that real technicians revel in will curl up and demand training. We now have a new company policy regarding hiring, certifications mean nothing. This makes hiring hard, we have to read the CVs and god forbid actually interview people but we get the best of the best :)
ZeoSync, the compression algorithm that just kept giving. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/23591 .html