Certificates are plain waste of time and effort. Especially with things
like the test king that make idiots top scorers, it simply is a waste
of time. Worse yet is certificates which are expensive enough to
prevent some people from getting. To top all that, they simply
concentrate on memory rather than problem solving skills which is what
really distinguishes a good developer from a book worm. I've been a
developer and in two years took on the position of technology expert, I
developed in VB, .NET, JAVA and PHP, I don't much care what language I
program in. Problem solving skills are language neutral.<br>
<br>
If I look for a beginner then what I interview is simply a charismatic
personality and I try to gouge the effort they put to learn, how they
would approach a problem. I could ask about code they attempted to
tinker with. Usually assets are the type who have played with a couple
of projects or ideas at one time or another. If I look for an expert I
simply look at his achievements as well as his personality.<br>
<br>
In the end the ultimate decision is not a risk-free endeavor. But I agree with Victor, a company has to be prepared to truly nurture people rather than draining them and expecting perfection and leaving no margins for an error or a delay here or there. When
I want someone who I would consider an asset, I would not care in the
least what languages he worked with, it usually takes so little time
for an exceptional developer to get acquainted with new technology if
given a book or a kick start. In case of drupal expertise, just look
for someone with contributions such as modules or patches to modules or core. It's that simple.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Dec 21, 2007 2:31 PM, Liam McDermott <<a href="mailto:liam@intermedia-online.com">
liam@intermedia-online.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="Ih2E3d">Victor Kane wrote:<br>> All posts here are well meaning... but there are a few premises which in
<br>> my opinion are faulty and bear deeper examination.<br></div>Very interesting reply. I have to say though, it doesn't really seem to<br>have much to do with what everyone else was talking about. :)<br><div class="Ih2E3d">
<br>> Drupal's intelligence as being practically a virtual machine while<br>> remaining procedural, its clean super modular approach, etc., is a<br>> result of what already works: the bazaar: we must avoid the temptation
<br>> of the cathedral.<br></div>Absolutely and good point. I think that's why most people in this thread<br>were saying we don't need certification. Personally I just treated as an<br>interesting brain teaser, just trying to think of a certification method
<br>that would work.<br><div class="Ih2E3d"><br>> The corporate world has been with Drupal for quite some time now, and is<br>> enjoying it as it is.<br></div>I don't know, my wife works at a well known tech university and they're
<br>standardising on Sharepoint. In fact Sharepoint is gaining a scary<br>amount of traction. There's always room for improvement, particularly in<br>ways that will increase the credibility of Drupal in the world of the PHBs.
<br><div class="Ih2E3d"><br>> So I would submit for consideration the counterpart: the instability of<br>> many corporations and NGO's lead to excessive demands, the need for<br>> everything to be ready "yesterday", the need to extract a pound of flesh
<br>> from the hirelings. More than certification, we need a bloody union.<br></div>Hmmm, not sure about this. Employment law is good enough in most<br>countries is good enough to negate the need for unions, depends where
<br>you are I suppose. Perhaps a co-op would be a better idea?<br><br>> More than certification we need a bloody union!!!<br>Isn't this a false dichotomy? Couldn't we have both: the community could<br>organise the certification. To continue the Bazaar approach: the exams
<br>could consist of work that contributes to the community.<br><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>Kind Regards,<br>Liam McDermott.<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>consulting mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:consulting@drupal.org">consulting@drupal.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting" target="_blank">http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting</a><br></div></div></blockquote>
</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Ashraf Amayreh<br><a href="http://blogs.aamayreh.org">http://blogs.aamayreh.org</a>