Re: perl certification

[talexb]

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.