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Re: perl certification
by marto (Cardinal) on Oct 28, 2010 at 12:44 UTC
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Try Super Search or searching Google, this has been asked many times:
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Re: perl certification
by sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Oct 28, 2010 at 13:29 UTC
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I can certainly tell you this: if you have been using Perl “for more than 4 years,” then you will probably do better if you can just find a way to explain what you did, and what might be the business value of that experience to a future employer. (Never mind the recruiters... what do they know, anyway?) This is a craft that you learn by doing. Therefore, my number-one and number-two questions would be: “what did you do?” and, “show me your code.”
A certification is ... a product. It is a product that is sold to people like you. An affirmation, if you will. A pat on the back. An attaboy. A feeling of accomplishment, of having successfully crossed the finish-line. But, was anybody actually in the grandstands when you did it? To me, if I were a prospective employer, it does not really tell me anything objectively. But if I can see your work, and hear you talking about it, and get you into some serious conversation, then I can learn a great deal about you in a few minutes’ time. Far more than I would ever learn from a piece of vellum with gothic-font writing on it. And if I am about to make a multi-thousand dollar purchase (of your time and expertise), that matters.
Analogy: “So you say you’re a ‘certified cabinetmaker.” Okay, cool. Whatever. Do you have some references from recent customers whom I can call?” If I am about to get into a boat and set sail, I want to talk to former passengers ... not calligraphers.
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As I am sure you have gathered, generally the community does not like certifications. Whether you agree with their reasons (I don't) does not matter, the view is overwhelming and it ain't going to happen.
Not many languages do have certifications, languages used in a similar environment to Perl, like Python and Ruby, do not (I think PHP might have, but the quality of PHP code is pretty poor generally). The good news is that none of your competitors for Perl jobs have certificates either!
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Re: perl certification
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Oct 29, 2010 at 04:29 UTC
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Is there any perl Certification available ?
Sure. You can get one for $50,000 from a well known Perl monk.
I can't speak for others, but I've done a lot of interviewing and recruiting over many years. What I've noticed is that just about everyone I've ever interviewed who has a certification, on further probing, has proved to know precious little about what they were certified for! Why is this? I'm not sure, but from the certification questions I've seen asked at Perl Monks, I suspect a common reason for seeking certification is that the certification seeker has appalling Perl and general programming skills and accordingly will never get a job if interviewed by a technical interviewer. Their best job-seeking strategy, therefore, is to seek a position interviewed by non-technical HR or managerial types, wear a suit, and wave a certification under their (clueless) noses.
That's not always the case though, sometimes folks are forced to attend a certification course by their employer. One example that springs to mind here is of a superb C++ developer at work who holds a Java certification! Apparently, his previous employer got sucked in and paid big bucks to send him on a Java certification course. I relentlessly tease him about this Java certification because he knows nothing of Java, just attended the course and never used it again.
So, over many years of interviewing, holding a certification has actually become a negative factor for me.
See also Certifications are dumb. Update: See also New Perl Certification Course.
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This reminds me of the discussion on how valuable a college degree really is. The guy who knows what he does by pure experience vs. the new college grad in a similar field that knows nothing, but has a college degree.
What I get from others who posted, is that certifications are looked down upon by some. Okay...so lets say we are interviewing 2 guys. Both have the same degree, but only one decided to go a step further and get a few certifications. Or 2 guys, no degree, but one has certs.
And yes, a technical recruiter is at hand.
How can these certifications possibly be a negative thing?
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Re: perl certification
by talexb (Chancellor) on Oct 28, 2010 at 15:50 UTC
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The Perl community doesn't really look that well upon certifications. They're more interested in what stuff you've done, what stuff you're doing, and what stuff you plan to do.
In a recent job interview I talked about a system that consisted of an Apache request handler that forked a number of daemons using IPC::Run, each of which would run an application that generated page images. After 60 seconds of inaction the daemon would shut down. The system worked well, had decent performance, and I got it done in 3-4 weeks.
That's way more interesting that saying you got some certification.
Here's another way to look at it. If someone's hiring a truck driver or a limo driver, they would indeed need to present their credentials -- but I can't imagine hiring a driver without the obvious "OK -- let's go for a drive."
It's usual and customary during a job interview for a developer to be able to go up to a white board and do an off-the-cuff presentation about the technical aspects of a chunk of Perl code they've done. If they're not able to do that, they need to learn more Perl, or improve their presentation skills.
In conclusion: certification for Perl is a waste of time and money.
Alex / talexb / Toronto
"Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds
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Re: perl certification
by Anonymous Monk on Oct 28, 2010 at 12:51 UTC
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