Technical rants from a geek.
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IT Certifications Aren’t Worth the Paper They’re Not Printed On!
Posted on December 11th, 2009 4 commentsAt work we are trying to attract a new client. They toured the facility, they looked around and asked questions, all while my peers and I demonstrated our knowledge and abilities. They were impressed as we took actual phone calls for actual users. They oohed and awed as we remotely administered dozens of servers, of varying types and platforms. It all seemed to be going smoothly until they wanted to see our certifications.
We were like see our what… You are kidding right? We are doing the work for many other customers and we have real working relationships with fortune 100 companies, but they want us to produce papers to prove that we can do it. We all agree we should go get the papers; how tough could it be? So we all start working on our Server+ certifications and other IT(Information Technology) Certifications.
Server-like Systems
So we get this software that swears up and down that they follow theComptardComptia Server+ to the letter, since I have taken A+ training courses I believe them completely. The question and topics covered by Server+ range from Antiquated to Unrelated. The test and course material meticulously covers the disadvantages of SIMM tin leads vs copper leads, and other information that is so old it predates the Internet and I couldn’t find a a good link to it.
There were many other unrelated topics, such as fire control systems. I guess in a small organization the server administrator is trusted with the lives of everyone nearby and allowed to choose how water is sprayed onto to giant pile of flaming computers. This is for safety officers, loss prevention agents, managers, lawyers (to prevent lawsuits) or insurance companies (to prevent claims). I fail to see how the guy who decides which piece of software to install should be responsible for FIRE! It seems a little unrelated to me.
These weren’t isolated portions either, they kept throwing old and unrelated junk at me. PIO modes from 20+ year old hard drives, history lessons of who invented what, hooking up hard-drives in desktop systems, and finally how does a USB coffee cup warmer get its power (and other passive power USB devices).
This is how related Server+ is
When the information wasn’t unrelated it was old. Here is a quote from the course material:
- Created in 1986.
In an industry that you have to read the news daily or get left behind, what from 23 years ago could possibly still be relevant. I skipped the 32bit/64bit transition because I knew I didn’t have time to keep up to date with all the news, when I stepped out of IT for a while. I picked it back up just earlier this year, and I hit the books (The Web really) relearning what was needed. Only occasionally do I need knowledge generated during my 18 month IT Hiatus a year ago. How could I ever need knowledge about something 23 years ago rather than more knowledge from now, or at least the historical relevance of archaic tools. I could understand studying why one technology beat out another. But no, they go into technical details like this:
- Standard: SCSI-1
- Data Bus Size (bits):8
- Clock Speed (MHz): 5
- Throughput (MB/s): 5
- Maximum Devices (including SCSI controller): 8
- Cable(s): 50-pin Centronics
When the information wasn’t old or unrelated it was inaccurate. I could see how some of these could be judgment calls, like when they said
ItanicItanium as a good 64bit chip. I was was there for the beginnings of the Itanic, and I know better, and the Itanium Sales Forecasts agree with me. But, someone still could still disagree because on some level it is still an opinion. However some of the items that used in this Certification are just plain wrong by the math.
Incorrect Question
[Warning Technical Gibberish incoming]
In one of the multiple choice questions in a practice test they asked “How much Memory can a 64 bit CPU address?” and there was no correct choice provided. For those who don’t know, a CPU does the thinking and RAM/Memory store what is being thought about. The “bits” in a CPU refer to the number of wires used to “address” the RAM. Since each Byte (1 letter or number) has its own address, and each wire can only be on or off this sets a pretty hard cap on how bytes the CPU can easily talk to. A memory address is a unique combination of 1s and 0s (ons and offs) that those 64 wires can take.
Anyone who has taken 7th grade math knows how to calculate how many possibilities exist in a simple combination like this. However, let’s assume that you have been deprived a basic education and are clever enough to try and figure it out for yourself. The first wire has 2 states (on/off), and the next wire has 2 more so I guess we should multiply to get 4 total states. If you work it out this keeps holding up for all 64 wires. Just multiply 64 twos together, or if you remember your 7th grade math take 2 to the 64th power and prove 2^64 bytes in exabytes is 16 Exabytes and can be addressed by a 64bit CPU.
[/Technical Gibberish]
What bugs me most about this is that the guy in the video said the 16 Exabytes. Even though the guys in the video was completely un-photogenic, talked with a funny lisp, and made many errors, he still seemed to genuinely know what he was talking about. Every statement he made could readily be independently verified. Unfortunately the Fact pages and tests were constantly off base and full of shit.
Unfortunately the tests are the part that match up with the Comptia Server+ Certification. Meaning that if they brought in any kind of expert who knew what they were doing, they would get conflicting results. Unfortunately this has been my experience with all certifications from microsoft, Comptia, Cisco and even the majority of classroom study.
What does this mean for companies that hire based solely on certifications? I think it means that they are very likely to hire misinformed idiots, and this unfortunately matches up with my experiences.
I think IT needs a proper Apprenticeship like carpenters, blacksmiths an electricians of years gone by. Maybe not for 7 years, but at least as long a college degree. Even interns and former interns do much better than people with IT certs and no experience. If something like this were common it would weed out people who just wanted a quick buck and tried to get certs by memorizing questions and answers and it would practically guarantee that any journeyman would be better prepared than most independent consultants today. It would also get rid of all those idiots who get a 4 year computer science degree and still don’t learn how to turn a PC on. Certifications as they exist now help make those idiots, and those idiots waste your time and money.4 responses to “IT Certifications Aren’t Worth the Paper They’re Not Printed On!”
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Hey, I'm a misinformed idiot. Know anyone that's hiring?
I'm not too keen w/ the certification questions although I have another friend in IT that says if I put in a little effort. I could get certified. But I'm w/ you 100% on the last 3 paragraphs.
I've always loved the idea of apprenticeships. I know what I want to do for a career. Let me learn from someone who knows what I'll need to know so I can be successful. Also, I don't think college isn't worth it anymore in terms of the cost vs what you actually gain in knowledge you'll need. I wanted to be an astronomer, I don't need to know how to explain how The Wizard of Oz embodies the Populist movement of the 1890s. The cost of college has gotten to the point where unless you were born w/ a silver spoon in your mouth, you have to take out a large amount of loans that they'll have a tough time paying whether they get a degree or not. But a lot of companies say you need a degree to apply. Whatever happened to equivalent experience.
Good to see you post again.
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The specific questions don't really matter. It is just the current state of certifications that the questions have no bearing on reality. I suppose they could fix the questions but it would not entirely fix the problem, because people with no experience would still pass certification and do bad things on the job.
If you think you have something positive to bring to people go for the cert. Just make sure that you know the practical side of the material, actually use the systems you get the certs for.
There are a great deal of problems with the college system and I have no clue where to start fixing them. So all I will say is that I think there is room for improvement.
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The specific questions don't really matter. It is just the current state of certifications that the questions have no bearing on reality. I suppose they could fix the questions but it would not entirely fix the problem, because people with no experience would still pass certification and do bad things on the job.
If you think you have something positive to bring to people go for the cert. Just make sure that you know the practical side of the material, actually use the systems you get the certs for.
There are a great deal of problems with the college system and I have no clue where to start fixing them. So all I will say is that I think there is room for improvement.
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dukttape December 15th, 2009 at 05:03
I can see what you're saying. I went off on my own tangent there. I would also have to question why would do I need to know/have something that has no relevance to anything I do at work or does nothing to advance in my career. But yet people would doubt my ability to do my job because I don't know/have it. Look at my body of work or some of my experience. A piece of paper didn't change the face that I was able to accomplish it. With a little bit of effort, I could probably memorize enough to get certified and get a job in IT. But I know there are much better qualified people out there that don't need a cert.
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dukttape December 12th, 2009 at 07:27