From: "Nathaniel S. H. Brown" <nshb@...>
Date: 2005-11-04T06:32:38+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.
> 

I imagine quite a few people ride in this boat. Personally, if I am going to
spend the time on anything - it better be worth it. Not just what I find
interesting, if I don't find it interesting, it's due in large part in lack
of trying to appreciate what I am trying to understand.

> > 
> > 
> >>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.

Whether it's the CEO or the Director of IT, someone of influence within that
organization will be reviewing your resume when it comes down to it.
Ensuring that you have the keywords inherant in the langugage strengthens
your reputation. From the perspective of the hiring agent, whoever that may
be, they likely don't know you deeper than what you put on your resume. So
whatever you can do to strengthen that trust, and give them a better
impression, can only benefit your interview, if not their final decicion
whether or not to hire you.

> > 
> > 
> >>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.
> 

Sales and marketing of your skills has always been apart of the interview
process. It's until recent that developers have only started to realize
this, and look for different options when negotiating their salary rather
than just accepting what they are given.

> > 
> > 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, not to deflate what seems to be a rather large ego, but not all of us
are as core in Ruby community as you are clearly announcing. Others need
stepping stones to ensure that all the bases are covered when it comes to
programming the language. Having a certification from a reputable issuer,
ensures that all the fundamentals, and hopefully some of the advanced
concepts are covered. If you are new to the langauge, as most are, the
inherant credibility of a certification would ensure that all topics are
covered and would hopefully give one with the certification an appreciation
that indeed, they are able to confidently tackle a Ruby project from all
angles with the best practices in mind, security and otherwise.

If you had never programmed before, where would you start? Likely being self
taught you would start sifting through google, maybe checkout the ruby
mailing lists and put together your own amalgamation of what "The Ruby Way"
is. A school, if credible, would only certify that you know the way.

- Nathan

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Nathaniel S. H. Brown                 Toll Free 1.877.4.INIMIT
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