Experience vs certification: The winner?
With IT outsourcing and offshoring on the rise, technology professionals in Australia have been forced to upgrade their skills and turn to industry certification to stay ahead. But are they on the right path?
There is no single, definite answer to this although some believe industry certification has lost its lustre.
"Certification is somewhat losing its value within organisations in the broader corporate context.
"Today's corporate IT staff and management must be as accountable towards the business success as the rest of the organisation comprising other functional units such as production, finance, and logistics," said veteran IT professional from Victoria Ernst Zimmer.
Andy Fry, senior systems consultant (Information Technology Services) at the University of Adelaide, believes in certification but says the problem lies with individuals and the quality of their expertise.
"I do know people who have a myriad of certifications, who proved not to be up to the tasks I have requested them to complete within the project timescales and without external help," Fry told ZDNet Australia.
One example he highlighted was MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) holders. "The Microsoft certification is not entirely realistic in the way the exams are conducted. You are only asked to remember stuff, rather than actually perform tasks.
"Compare this to the Red Hat exams which are practical and functional. Having experienced both exams I would be highly likely to give an RHCE a job based on his certification. An MCSE ... I would ask to perform some testing before I would consider him for a role. It is possible to pass the MCSE without hands-on knowledge of Windows.
"This is entirely unacceptable and has devalued the certification greatly. Whilst Microsoft has made it more difficult to obtain MCSE2003 than 2000, until the exam is more practical it will never prove what a candidate is capable of," Fry said.
To read more of Zimmer and Fry's comments, check out the final part -- Tale of two CVs -- of our special report entitled Have (IT) certs will travel?