The Certification Debate
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Charles, I (and 3 of my CFI friends.....) stand corrected.
Flying does actually change quite a bit, and quite often. Maybe not as radically as going from VB6 to C#, etc. But the changes are potentially life threatening, so you better KNOW it. Since I did my last flight as PIC things like how a weather report is formated has completely changed, airspace rules have changed (and changed name), GPS is in use, you have FMS' even in smaller planes.
Scary thing is I think my flight training (I have a BS in Aeronuatical Studies which is basically flying, but a full college curriculum for it) did more to prepare me for being a DBA/SQL Developer than my IT classes...
I do think certs can be an important thing to look for when hiring for a low level DBA. Shows the person hopefully has some apptitude for the field.
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To get the piece of paper is one thing, but to maintain the knowledge from studying for it and being able to apply the knowledge to situations out of the testing environment is a different thing. It annoys me to no end to see people get a certification but then they can't do what they're certificated in. Some people just get that piece of paper because they think it automatically guarantees them a job. When I was working for a college, we had an intern in our department who wanted to learn computers quickly to take the A+ test but she didn't even want to touch a computer. At that point, why bother?
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Some companies require certificate MCDBA to apply for a DBA job. However the best DBAs I had worked with; none of them had a cert. Those companies missed a lot of good candidate.:-)
I agreed the cert just liked a degree, it represented you were willing to learn but it did not mean you know how to do the job. A lot of good developers did not have a degree, Bill Gate did not have a degree. One of the best developer I knew had a degree in marine biology!!!
A piece of paper did not represent everything. You want to hire someone who has the knowledge not a piece of cert.
my 2 cents.
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This September completes my 35th year as a professional software developer. I had 4 years before that as a semi-pro/student. No degree or cert in all that time.
Willingness to learn? No problem. I'm taking an MSP class today. I learn daily. I read books (got two by Joe Celko right here. Thanks Joe.), I haunt the blogs and forums. Plug and Play, to me, means Plug it in and Play with it.
Certs, degrees, and resumes are ways for the HR folks to measure what you have done and what you should know.
ATBCharles Kincaid
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Congratulations Charles! 35 years is something to be proud of.
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