CERTIFICATION

Hey, have you ever seen something like this?

HELP WANTED. A computer-literate mammal needed to keep our company's information architecture from taking us over any more than it has. Must hold CNA, CNE, MCSE, CPA, HIJKLMNOP.

Q: Why do human resources departments and managers like certifications?
A: Because it's so difficult to find anyone in this ridiculous industry with a clue.

So what do we think about certifications, really?

In principle, certifications are great. They provide a metric against which the holder can be measured to determine some basic level of competence.

In practice—especially with this industry—certification has become less of a means to determine mastery of a domain and more of a means to determine one's allegiance to it. Thus, we have "certified engineers" for Novell, Microsoft, Cisco, Sun, and other products. The holders (or their organizations) have forked over a bunch of money to these technology providers—who often tout their products' "ease of use", by the way—to ensure that they know which button to push when the blinky red light comes on and which complementary product to offer when things start to break.

Alright, so we're exaggerating a little. These do generally test for some basic competence in the terminology and concepts that are involved. But ask anyone who has been burned by an idiot with an MCSE and you'll see that we're not exaggerating much.

In any case, it's certainly true that product vendors that offer these certification programs view such programs and their "study guides" as an additional revenue source.

No way are such certifications—even vendor-neutral certifications offered by impartial industry consortia—a substitute for experience. University degrees, certifications, and every other means by which we try to measure how well someone knows something with a test are a good place to start.

Computer industry certifications are in their infancy. Many certification programs that exist now will be irrelevant tomorrow. Some are even irrelevant today. Maybe in another 50 or 100 years, they'll mean something, but certainly today, their value is debatable. A few vendor-neutral certifications are starting to show some promise, but even the best available have issues to address.

Degrees and licenses have not eliminated bad physicians and accountants. We license engineers and architects but we still have bridges that don't last as long as they should, roads that need constant care, and buildings that would not stand if they were built the way they were drawn. Drivers' Licenses certainly haven't eliminated morons who drive on the highway in the left lane at 40 MPH with their turn signals on.

What licenses and certifications probably have done, however, is raised the bar over time. Still, in many cases, when it comes down to it, what you want in any professional is experience.

So, are we certified in the technology du jour? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But the question that you really should ask is this: "What have you actually done?"

Tell us what you're facing and we'd be happy to let you know how our experience applies and just what we can do.