From: James Britt <james_b@...>
Date: 2005-11-04T06:02:46+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Certification

Nathaniel S. H. Brown wrote:
> Taken from a JavaUG here in Vancouver written by Lydon Tiu:
> 
> 
>>1) Forces you to learn things you otherwise won't.

Pretty much any test I took involved learning things I found 
interesting, and memorizing the rest just long enough to pass the exam. 
  Test do not motivate me to learn.

> 
> 
>>2) Allows you to put those important "keywords" on your resume 
>>   which gets you past HR and hence at the very least gets you that first
> 
> interview.

Interesting.  I prefer to avoid companies that have an HR department, 
but not everyone can or wants to do that.

> 
> 
>>3) Icing on the cake - if you have the experience(the cake) plus the
> 
> certification, 
> 
>>   then you'd be better tasting to a potential employer.

Ah, yes. Nothing says "Eat me!" like certification.

> 
> 
>>4) Marketing value - companies could use your certification on their
> 
> corporate profile, 
> 
>>   RFP submissions, bid submissions to list the qualifications of their
> 
> employees.

I've seen this at some contracting places I've been.   I suppose it 
helps win over clueless customers.  Again, the value of this to any 
Rubyist may depend on if they actually want to, or must, work someplace 
that uses this sort of sales technique.

I fully expect that sales and marketing will become an increasing part 
of the Ruby world, but I'm not thrilled about all of it.

> 
> Moreover, having the certification definitely helps gain the confidence
> saying you know the language. As salesmen can attest to, having the
> confidence is what gets the product sold, and during an interview you are
> definitely the product.

Unit-test green bars give confidence.  Download stats from rubyforge.org 
give confidence.  Page hits on one's Web site give confidence.    Praise 
for your Ruby articles, whether in mainstream mags or simply on your own 
Web site, give confidence.  Posting to ruby-talk gives confidence. 
Speaking at a RubyConf gives confidence.

If you need a certificate for your confidence, then please choose Perl 
or Java or C#.


James


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