On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 7:28 AM, Stephen Satchell <list@satchell.net> wrote:
On 06/07/2015 01:10 AM, Joshua Riesenweber wrote: [snip]
What the industry could probably use most for entry-level certs is a technical reading comprehension requirement on the certs, or a requirement of GRE scores e.g. 145 Verbal, 160 Math, before being able to obtain the certs, to demonstrate an ability to read and understand documentation, including BNF, and the ability to lookup something from a technical manual, read, understand, and apply it properly using qualified background knowledge at the level being certified. Too often, certs concentrate on trivial minutia that is "trivially tested", but also not frequently used, so the population has a bunch of people who just paid copious $$$ for in-person coaching on _just the specifics of the exam_, or people who memorized answers from stolen copies of exams. So even in that, many of the tests lose their ability, due to the intervention of 3rd party "learning providers" who are just making a quick buck training candidates directly to exams, instead of teaching the subject. In short: In regards to the use of certifications when hiring --- they can be used by non-technical reviewers to help filter candidates, where there are more applicants than desired. Consider it a "bulk" filtering criteria that can be done instantly without wasting as much time, and the final filter might be an internal quiz and human interviewers. The certs are no definitive measure, but candidates with Both experience and industry certs to help confirm the quality of that experience are more likely to be applicants worth committing serious time to evaluate, And they can be used to help break ties between otherwise equal applicants in favor of those certified. As to if it matters whether the certification is for Cisco equipment and you use X vendor equipment instead, I would refer to semi-relevant link here: http://www.jasonbock.net/jb/News/Item/7c334037d1a9437d9fa6506e2f35eaac If Carpenters were hired like engineers.... 'I see here, you have experience with cutting timber with "Makita and Milwaukee brand Skillsaws" Unfortunately, we need someone with 25 years experience using the DeWalts.' Certifications can also be used by consultants/contractors to market services, or assure end customers that their services are by people "qualified by the vendor of their equipment".
The R&S CCIE lab exame is a timed practical exam, and as certification tests goes it does a fair job measuring the ability of the candidate to implement routers and switches to obtain certain results, ON CISCO EQUIPMENT. (This is also true of the other Cisco certification tracks.)
Correct. However, earning a certification such as CCIE demonstrates that you are not one of those clueless folks who completely lacks understanding and ability to learn basic config and troubleshooting. Earning the cert would require a great deal of practice due to their time limits, therefore the candidate that holds one shows proof of a certain level of dedication to advancement or learning within the field. And sufficient technical aptitude and ability to learn is implied by the certificate to deal with other vendor's equipment, even though Cisco's certifications only address Cisco equipment directly; there are many vendor-neutral concepts which should have been understood for success. The specifics of configuration language and hardware are "implementation details". No certification measures a candidate's ability to quickly learn novel configuration syntax or special rules of arbitrary $new_vendor's equipment.
One can learn how to do almost anything. The real trick is being able to finish tasks quickly, and that's damn hard to do without practice, practice,
Ability to finish tasks *accurately* is what matters. But very simple things should be done quickly. The results of non-repetitive tasks should always be looked at carefully to help validate accuracy,, And the practice required to do any tasks that are frequent and repetitive should be gained by anyone qualified on the job fairly quickly.
That said, certifications show that the candidate can turn a wrench. It shows nothing about the candidate's ability to handle ARIN, to troubleshoot political snafus, how to deal with management that is severely
All of these are things that can be learned without a large amount of grief, you need reading comprehension; ARIN's policies and tools are fairly well documented in writing. The candidate who can't even learn and pass a cert test might actually be incapable of learning what is required on their own. It's not cost-effective to buy in-person training or certify for *every little thing* that comes up later.
clue-deficient, and most important play nice with colleagues at other
-- -JH