[consulting] Drupal Certification (was: General consultant'svent)

[Bill Fitzgerald]

RE:

 > And I don't know which marketplace you've been
 > talking to, but the ones I talk to think there needs
 > to be a better way to show that a firm/individual
 > is a Professional Drupal Developer/Development Shop.

Every person who spends a penny on anything would like a better way of 
ensuring that they aren't wasting their money. To conflate this very 
human tendency with the need for a Certification System misses the 
point: part of our job is to help people understand exactly what they 
are getting with their investment (and as I see it, a client "buys" 
access to expertise, which will save them time in the short run and 
increase efficiency in the long run).

In my past life (aka, before I became a Drupal geek) I spent far too 
much time working around people who had excellent paper credentials but 
lacked practical skills. These credentials ranged from tech 
certifications to PhDs -- none of these are guarantees that the person 
holding them knows *anything* about *anything*. One of the elements 
about the Drupal community that is refreshing is the complete lack of 
reliance on these artificial metrics.

Cheers,

Bill