[consulting] Drupal Certification and Requirements

[George D. DeMet]

We require that all of our PHP programmers become Zend certified within 
the first three months of working with us, not because we think that 
certified programmers are any smarter or necessarily any better than 
non-certified programmers, but because it means that at the very least 
we know that they've been exposed to a structured curriculum that covers 
all the important aspects of PHP programming.  One of the things that 
we've noticed is that while "self-taught" programmers are often 
incredibly bright and talented, there are sometimes gaps in their 
knowledge of some areas, and that those gaps can be filled by exposure 
to a curriculum that focuses on industry-standard best practices.  
Making sure that our programmers and developers receive ongoing training 
and professional development is also key.

I do think that a Drupal certification at some point would be helpful, 
and would help a lot of people better understand the "Drupal Way".  On 
the other hand, I also agree that Drupal at present may be too much of a 
moving target for a full-fledged certification program to be really 
useful.  As Drupal continues to mature and the time between major 
releases becomes longer, an Association-recognized certification program 
is definitely something the community should look at; fortunately in the 
meantime we have folks like those at Lullabot already doing a great job 
of educating people about it. 

-- 
George D. DeMet
Palantir.net
1601 Simpson Street
Evanston IL 60201
p 847.328.7150 x306
f 847.328.2211
demet at palantir.net


Kevin Reynen wrote:
> Karoly,
>
> Isn't that a bit like saying modules don't need documentation?  If
> someone wants to know what a module does, can't they just read the
> code?
>
> I've had several MSDN certifications over the years and I agree that
> they are essentially meaningless, but  asking a potential employer to
> take a look at a job candidate's commits stopped being realistic when
> Drupal related jobs started popping up at places other than shops run
> by key Drupal developers.
>
> The great work you, Earl, and many other contributors done over the
> years have led to Drupal's adoption outside these initial developer
> run shops.
>
> Believe it or not, there are people out there who are smart enough to
> recognize Drupal's strengths, but aren't a developer and can't
> evaluate the quality of a candidate's commits.
>
> Not everyone is a developer... and that's a good thing.
>
> - Kevin Reynen
>
> On Dec 19, 2007 7:24 AM, Karoly Negyesi <karoly at negyesi.net> wrote:
>   
>>> Your contributions prove you are good at Drupal, not some piece of paper.
>>>       
>> I agree. Would you ask Earl Miles or me some piece of paper? Your code
>> speaks better than a piece of paper...
>>
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