Those of you who go back a few years with www.ScriptingAnswers.com probably remember that I at one time considered launching a VBScript certification of some kind. A lot of excellent feedback, some logistics issues, and frankly the cost of doing so (a good exam can run upwards of $250k to create, believe it or not) made me put the idea on a back burner.
I’m still not sure the idea’s ready for the front burner :). However, I have to admit that I’m completely out of touch with how folks feel about certifications in general, these days. I used to be pretty “connected,” but frankly am not in a position where I personally need to take exams much, anymore, and I haven’t worked in exam development for about three years, now. So I’m curious: Do certification exams still matter?
Folks sometimes ask me if Microsoft is producing a Windows PowerShell exam. I have no idea. I suspect not; they tend to produce more task-based exams, so I’d expect to see PowerShell questions, for example, on an Exchange 2007 exam – and I think I’ve been told that there are such questions out there (or maybe it was PowerShell content in the Ex2007 training – I’m not an Exchange guy, so this one slips my mind a lot). But, more to my point – if there were a PowerShell exam, would you care? Why?
I’ll tell you my perception – which is very possibly misinformed: Folks care a lot less about certifications these days, unless they’re very high-falootin’ exams like CISSP or something, which is perceived as very difficult to achieve (I’m not trying to imply it isn’t difficult, as I’ve never taken it, but folks definitely tell me “they hear it’s tough.”)
So I’m very curious, and I hope you’ll indulge me: Hop on to http://surveys.sapien.com/poll.asp?z=1 and take a quick poll on the subject. I promise to share the thrilling results with you when the poll’s over (say, October sometime – I have a crazy travel schedule in September). And get some of your peers and co-workers to participate, too – I’m really interested in seeing what folks think, and the broader a cross-section we get to take this, the better a feel we’ll all gain for the industry’s take on this issue as a whole.
One area I’m especially intrigued by are third-party exams (like, CompTIA and others), as well as niche-technology exams. I’ve used PowerShell as an example for some questions related to that, since it’s currently an emerging and somewhat “niche” technology. I realize every technology has its own merits, so just think about PowerShell in particular for those questions and answer as best you can.
The survey doesn’t require a login and doesn’t ask for any personal information. Thanks for helping me satisfy my curiosity!
As some one who’s been on both sides of the hiring fence, here’s what I think about certifications.
They are "nice to see" on a person’s resume in the past. It shows that "hey, even back then they knew XYZ technology".
However they only time they really *matter* is in 2 instances. First, if a product or technology is really new. Second is if obscure enough that its hard to verify their knowledge.
For example I worked at a company that dealt with call-center phone switches. I didnt know crap about them and when hiring people, I had no way to know if they knew the technology or not. In that case, certifications on a resume was the only "valid" thing I could go by.
I personally think Powershell falls into both of those reasons, and I would LOVE to have a Powershell certification on my resume from ANY organization, mostly because there arent many people who know it as of now.
Only probably is, a lot of perspective employers probably dont know why its valuable for someone to know powershell. hehe
Certification for PowerShell would be useful to me for two reasons:
1. As Jeremy indicated, the technology is recent and most people (even in IT) have no familiarity with even the name, much less the implications of the technology. Having a certification on my resume would mean an opportunity to explain the significance of the technology.
2. As someone who straddles both the IT management and developer worlds, a certification like PowerShell would be like a union card for entre into either community. For sysadmin types, it would mean that I have a good handle not only on managing server resources but I’m ready for what Microsoft is bringing to us in the near future with Windows Server 2008. For developers, it would mean I have a handle on .NET programming, at least marginally. Developers often think IT managers haven’t a clue about coding. This would allay those fears.