NYCPHP Meetup

[mikesz at qualityadvantages.com]

No matter how many certificates you stack on top of each other from
Manhattan to the Moon, it STILL does not equate to a BScs degree. I
see lots of people here bitterly complaining about legitimacy and yet
the avoid the very thing that gives them instant credibility, the
Degree.

My very first experience with sitting in front of a keyboard was in
fact while I was working on my degree at a time when BScs didn't exist
and colleges were issuing BSEE degrees for graduates who majored in
Computer Science.

From my experience with certificates, the only people who really
benefit from them are the companies that hype them and the test taker
courses that teach you how to take the test and not whether the
qualifications are solid or not.

From my perspective, have been a hiring manager for more than twenty
years, I know from bitter experience that certificate programs are a
LOT more marketing hype than they are a practical barometer for
gauging what someone is suppose to know about anything. Lots of people
can pass tests and don't know basis stuff when you set them in front of
a keyboard.

Some sound advice, GET THE DEGREE! When push comes to shove that is
what give you credibility not some pie in the sky marketing hype that
promises the moon and delivers chopped liver.

In a hiring situation when two candidates are pretty well equally
qualified, one with a degree and one without, almost ALWAYS the degree
is the determining factor for who gets the job!

This whole "self governing body" sounds a lot like a scam to me to
create a yet another bureaucratic monstrosity that has no power and
generates a lot of useless noise. Corporate Entities are obligated to
 do what is best for their stock holders and that is the driving force
 for how products generated by Zend Technologies evolve. The fact that
 they haven't become a Micro$$$ is perhaps only a matter of waiting for
 the right time and has nothing at all to do with "community". Whenever
 they figure out how to do a licensing gig like Micro$$$, to exploit
 all the PHP developers on the planet, then you will discover who exactly the
 "governing body" for PHP is to be sure.

 My experience with User groups is that they tend to think they are the
 "driving force" for products when in reality they are, well, User Groups and
 really don't have the power they think they do. They have the yearly
 meetings and put on their conferences etc. but its the Corporation
 roadmap that decides the directions for where the products go, not the user groups.

-- 
Best regards,
 mikesz                            mailto:mikesz at qualityadvantages.com