NYCPHP Meetup

[Jerry B. Altzman]

on 2008-04-23 17:25 Peter Sawczynec said the following:
> I believe the most beneficial PHP+ cert that we can strive for would be
> more on par with a Cisco cert. An acknowledged, industry heavy weight,

Note that the lower-level Cisco certs (i.e. everything but the CCIE or 
its equivalent) now have a multitude of boot-camps available for them to 
push you through in a weekend, and therefore their value, both real and 
perceived, is slipping. It's been a while since I've studied the finer 
trivia of Cisco kit, but I'm confident I could muster a passing score 
all the way up to CCNP without studying for more than a weekend--a week, 
tops. Would you let me loose on your routers *only* knowing *that*? (The 
fact that I deal with Cisco kit in other ways on a daily basis 
notwithstanding...)

What makes the CCIE so valuable is that it contains both a written and a 
lab component, and the latter is damn *hard* -- it has a real failure 
rate in the double digits -- so that it's unlikely that you'll be able 
to pass it through book learning alone. That is to say: in order to pass 
it, you're most likely an experienced practitioner already.

I see a lot of talk about certifications, and I have to reiterate the 
question: why bother? In other words, what are you trying to accomplish? 
In order for it to really fulfill its mission, a certification basically 
needs to substantiate someone's years of experience and actual ability 
to perform: it's a *certification* that you can *do something* that 
isn't just your word for it, and it comes from an impartial third party 
(whoever they may be).

Of course, it matters a bit who the certifying authority is (which is 
why people value degrees from real colleges over mail-order degrees), 
but unless there is a statutory requirement for licensure and 
registration, the only value of the certification "in the marketplace" 
is what the holders are actually doing: if you've got a certificate that 
is, in a word, achievable in a week's intensive course, it's worthless 
except to paper collectors, and the market will value the certification 
accordingly.

> difficult but well worth while cert. I believe that the cert should be
> advanced, sophisticated and relatively difficult -- the PHP+ cert should
> not be about qualifying entry-level initiates, it would be used for
> qualifying middle to expert level.

Peter has successfully compiled the correct here. I would take it 
further: the exam should be QUITE difficult, and dilettantes should NOT 
be able to pass it.

Make a certification more like the PE, where you must show verifiable 
years of experience (signed off by another in the field), and have a 
tough exam on top of that (and I'm not even counting the EIT), or more 
like the CCIE, with a very difficult pair of exams, *written and 
practical*, and then you'd have a certification that is worth bandying 
about--something that conveys the elusive "I should get paid more 
because I'm *demonstrably* worth it" message.

Oh yes, it should also need to be renewed every 7 years or so, not just 
to generate income for the certifying authority, but to demonstrate that 
you're still at the level you claim to be.

> There could/should be a separate entry-level cert if needed.

Given the field of programming, I would suggest the "fog a mirror" 
certification. For $29.95, I'll provide you with a certificate suitable 
for framing. For $39.95, I'll even make it 3 color. (Latin available 
upon request, and only to Kristina.)

> Peter

//jbaltz
-- 
jerry b. altzman        jbaltz at altzman.com     www.jbaltz.com
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