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Author:

doug

As a user group manager, I usually recommend to all employers that are considering outsourceng or hiring telecommuting developer positions, insist on (or give much greater weight) to the Certified Developer. For the developer who is career employed, or already has his/her own circle of contacts, this may well not be necessary, as you already have a relationship built  On the other hand, Certification is a recognizable credential when presented to an employer who has ot previously dealt with you.  Not wishing to offend anyone, however from an employers's point of view (That is what I was before retiring) When a job announcement is posted, there comes a flood of resumes, and the hiring manager cannot readily determine which are inflated and whether ot not the code samples are really authentic.  As a result, we scheduled intergiews (first on a technical basis) to weed out the lesser qualified, and save time.  I can tell you that all the resumes that sported certifications in the field related to our announcement, got in-person interviews without aqtechnical interview.  More and more job postings REQUIRE a certification to be even considered, and that does not mean a better qulified person got the job, it just means that you did not go to the trouible. I know there are many experienced developers out there that pooh-pooh the idea of certification, mainly because they are either too lazy, or have plenty of work at the time, and don't see the need.  These are the ones that get pidgeon-holed when applying for a gig at a new employer, and they wonder why. As a result, I strongly recommend sitting for your certification exam, and overcome your fear of falure. (I had to take mine three times)  Then go for the advanced certification.   It is not hard for an employer to go to the Macromedia site and get the names and contact address of the certified developers in their area.   You should strive to get your name posted there too. Comments and flames welcome. Doug White manager San Antonio Macromedia & ColdFusion User Group http://www.samcfug.org http://www.clickdoug.com ______________________________________________________________________ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com

Author:

jeph

Although that's probably the way the world works and the way hiring managers think, I really think the certification is a bunch of B.S.  I'm certified, and was able to pass the certification within 4 months of picking up a CF book, and programming a few sites.  It is not a difficult test, and it is also not a practical test.  I was disappointed when I sat down to take the test and it was all these questions that tested your memory, as opposed to actually programming and problem solving skills.  Remembering which attribute to use in some seldom used tag seemed to me like a silly thing to test on.  It takes 2 minutes to look it up in the help file.  I would rather the certifications actually test programming principles and problem solving aptitude instead of these silly syntax questions about specific tags.  There were some good questions about the way the CF server interacts with the webserver, and how all that works, which I think is important to know, but overall...I think it's just another way for Allaire/Macromedia to make a few bucks.  I really put no faith into anyone that has their certification, because it's not difficult at all to get. I put much more weight on someone with a degree in programming, because you know that apart from all the coursework, and specific programming languages learned, they will probably have developed well tuned problem solving skills, and learned how to use the tools available to them, or where to find help when they need it.  I would not hire someone that didn't have a degree in CS, unless it was obvious from their sample code that they had a high level of creative problem solving skill and some good experience to go along with it. So, I guess to sum it up... Doug is probably correct in the fact that hiring managers do look at certification as an important attribute, while I think it is a mistake.  I think how someone goes about architecting an application is much more important than if they could remember specific information on a few uncommon tags, as long as they know where and how to find the information they need.  Just my $0.02, but I don't think those certifications tell barely anything about the aptitude of a programmer... the safest way to hire a programmer is to create your own tests, or sample applications that would use some or many of the core programming concepts you are looking for. While I'm at it...I have to say a few things about hiring managers who require "Fusebox" experience.  I have used Fusebox on a few sites, and while it has it's benefits on extremely large sites that are difficult to manage...with many different programmers working on specific parts, on smaller to mid sized applications I believe it to be somewhat detrimental to the efficiency with which a project gets done.  Couple that with the fact that it only takes a week at most to pick up and understand...why would that be a requirement for a job?  Wouldn't you rather have a programmer that can pick up new concepts and methodologies quickly, as opposed to someone who it takes 4 months experience with it to understand it fully?  Ok, I'd been wanting to get that out for a while, and I figured since I was posting anyway, I'd throw that rant it there =) I know there are some die hard fusebox fanatics out there, so feel free to flame away =) -Jeph Marrero ----- Original Message ----- From: "doug" <doug@dwhite.ws> To: "CF-Jobs-Talk" <cf-jobs-talk@houseoffusion.com> Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2002 1:35 PM Subject: Re: Certification, Why should I? > As a user group manager, I usually recommend to all employers that are > considering outsourceng or hiring telecommuting developer positions, insist > on (or give much greater weight) to the Certified Developer. > > For the developer who is career employed, or already has his/her own circle > of contacts, this may well not be necessary, as you already have a > relationship built  On the other hand, Certification is a recognizable > credential when presented to an employer who has ot previously dealt with > you.  Not wishing to offend anyone, however from an employers's point of > view (That is what I was before retiring) When a job announcement is posted, > there comes a flood of resumes, and the hiring manager cannot readily > determine which are inflated and whether ot not the code samples are really > authentic.  As a result, we scheduled intergiews (first on a technical > basis) to weed out the lesser qualified, and save time.  I can tell you that > all the resumes that sported certifications in the field related to our > announcement, got in-person interviews without aqtechnical interview. More > and more job postings REQUIRE a certification to be even considered, and > that does not mean a better qulified person got the job, it just means that > you did not go to the trouible. > > I know there are many experienced developers out there that pooh-pooh the > idea of certification, mainly because they are either too lazy, or have > plenty of work at the time, and don't see the need.  These are the ones that > get pidgeon-holed when applying for a gig at a new employer, and they wonder > why. > > As a result, I strongly recommend sitting for your certification exam, and > overcome your fear of falure. (I had to take mine three times)  Then go for > the advanced certification.   It is not hard for an employer to go to the > Macromedia site and get the names and contact address of the certified > developers in their area.   You should strive to get your name posted there ______________________________________________________________________ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting.

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