Ruby Certification Test

[Giles Bowkett]

I went and got two certifications. I'm actually planning to get a
couple more. My existing certifications are in Java, XML, and
hypnotherapy (from the most stringent hypnosis certification program
there is). The certifications I'm planning are in Final Cut Studio Pro
and Adobe After Effects. I'm going to look into getting side work on
weekends doing editing and motion graphics. A certification's less
valuable than actual work experience, but more valuable than nothing.

I think the real reason for hostility against certifications has
absolutely nothing to do with their usefulness or non-usefulness. I
think they're useful, although less authoritative than they claim to
be. I think the reason people hate certifications is that an attempt
to be authoritative implies an attempt to be an authority, and for a
big fat beauraucracy to assert authority over independent programmers
is total BS. People who think it's **offensive** BS hate
certifications. I think it's **funny** BS, so I get them anyway, every
once in a while.

There is a third group of people, who **don't** think certifications
are BS. I think those people are wrong, and if there are more of them
on this list than in the past, that's probably a consequence of Ruby
becoming more mainstream, but I still think certifications are useful,
especially if they make you study and they ask difficult questions. If
it makes you learn the language in detail, it can be good. It was over
a year after getting my XML certification that I actually used XPath
in a real-life work situation, but when that time came, I did it from
memory with no problems at all. It was all still in there.

The number one reason I liked Rails when I first saw it is because I
had looked into getting a J2EE/JSP certification. They make you learn
**all** of the JSP APIs, and it's like this archaeological dig. You go
down a layer, there's a terrible API that you wouldn't be able to use
in real life. You go down another layer, there's an even worse API
that you wouldn't be able to use in real life for the same reasons,
plus additional reasons. Then you do it all again. There's this whole
sequence of terrible APIs stacked on top of each other, where Sun came
up with something, it sucked, and then they came up with something
completely different instead, which sucked only slightly less, but
still continued supporting the earlier thing, because they couldn't
admit it sucked, and they had customers on it. And the funny part is,
you don't just have to learn all these crap APIs. You also have to
learn Sun's excuses for them. I'm serious. Those are questions on the
exam.

As long as you actually think about what you're reading, studying for
the JSP cert is an incredible education in how to **** up Web APIs
really, really badly.

(I think I'll blog this.)

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[Robert Dober]

Once you got the third, couldn't you just make people think that you've
shown them the other two?

Sorry, weak joke, I know, no sleep.

No sleep??? But than Gilles *can* help you
R.

 

[Giles Bowkett]

My existing certifications are in Java, XML, and

No sleep??? But than Gilles *can* help you

You are getting sleepy...

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[Robert Dober]

You are getting sleepy...
No, not me it was h......
--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[John Joyce]

The real reason certifications are weak is because they tend to only
test encyclopedic knowledge.
The test and its backing research is what determines the value of the
test.
Good testing will define what the test can determine.
A good programming test would simply include analysis, design, and
bugstomping.
This is a language test that simply tests your understanding of the
grammar, usage, and vocabulary of the language.
Most tests of any topic avoid subjective parts because it is
difficult to apply metrics to them accurately or meaningfully.
That's not bad, just incomplete.

These tests are good in that they check knowledge of the details of a
subject. They don't test your skill at applying the knowledge.

I support the idea of certification/testing if it the testing is
understood for what it is.
We all know that A+ certs don't mean you are good at troubleshooting
hardware, because the test doesn't actually physically involve
hardware or software!
I've been to good interviews where they created a battery of
activities using real software and hardware with only you and a clock
to figure out what's wrong. It was a good test. The only measure of
success or failure was you versus yourself, the clock and compared
with the other participants.

We'll see what the Ruby test turns out to be like. I have high hopes
for it though. The language designers have integrity and are not
doing any of this to get rich, just to promote and validate their
creation, it's a fairly natural step. And if nothing else, the fee
money will certainly go towards a cause we can all appreciate... Ruby!

 

[Robert Dober]

We'll see what the Ruby test turns out to be like. I have high hopes
for it though. The language designers have integrity and are not
doing any of this to get rich, just to promote and validate their
creation, it's a fairly natural step. And if nothing else, the fee
money will certainly go towards a cause we can all appreciate... Ruby!

Well Ruby has been proven to be different in so many ways, maybe it
will here to.
I remain skeptical before I see it though.

R.

 

[Xeno Campanoli]

The real reason certifications are weak is because they tend to only
test encyclopedic knowledge.

There is another reason that is more soft and perhaps much more
important. Certification is made to encyclopedically register one as a
professional commodity for large profittaking enterprises, most of the
likes of which are better organized as public utilities with extensive
public oversight rather than as private enterprises. If we had real
free market the drive would be toward a more rich professional community
that knew itself more extensively rather than just registering people as
items in databases and playing lotto with their lives. Real free market
does work if you don't short-circuit it with corporate oligarchy like we
have in the U.S. I think the Engineering community could use more small
private concerns, and let the M$ and the Sun Corps become public
utilities with mandatory and well subsidized public oversight. Of
course that will work better if you get everyone to stop making cars and
start working for only 20/hours a week in their day jobs.

xc

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

There is another reason that is more soft and perhaps much more
important. Certification is made to encyclopedically register one as a
professional commodity for large profittaking enterprises, most of the
likes of which are better organized as public utilities with extensive
public oversight rather than as private enterprises. If we had real
free market the drive would be toward a more rich professional community
that knew itself more extensively rather than just registering people as
items in databases and playing lotto with their lives. Real free market
does work if you don't short-circuit it with corporate oligarchy like we
have in the U.S. I think the Engineering community could use more small
private concerns, and let the M$ and the Sun Corps become public
utilities with mandatory and well subsidized public oversight. Of
course that will work better if you get everyone to stop making cars and
start working for only 20/hours a week in their day jobs.

*plonk*

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Or, maybe it was negative on some of those interviews where I didn't get
hired

Think of all the people who didn't get interviewed because they weren't
certified.

 

[Robert Dober]

There is another reason that is more soft and perhaps much more
important. Certification is made to encyclopedically register one as a
professional commodity for large profittaking enterprises, most of the
likes of which are better organized as public utilities with extensive
public oversight rather than as private enterprises. If we had real
free market the drive would be toward a more rich professional community
that knew itself more extensively rather than just registering people as
items in databases and playing lotto with their lives. Real free market
does work if you don't short-circuit it with corporate oligarchy like we
have in the U.S. I think the Engineering community could use more small
private concerns, and let the M$ and the Sun Corps become public
utilities with mandatory and well subsidized public oversight. Of
course that will work better if you get everyone to stop making cars and
start working for only 20/hours a week in their day jobs.

Wow!!

 

[Giles Bowkett]

We'll see what the Ruby test turns out to be like. I have high hopes

Well Ruby has been proven to be different in so many ways, maybe it
will here to.
I remain skeptical before I see it though.

I think the point about it being a Japanese certification is a very
valid point. AFAIK Japanese society is a bit more serious about those
things. Technical certs I like as educational experiences (yadda yadda
yadda previous post etc.) but there isn't really anything in place to
make the system honest, at least not over here on the Western half of
the globe.

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[Giles Bowkett]

There is another reason that is more soft and perhaps much more

Wow!!

I would be down with only working 20 hours a week. I'd question the
rest of it, though.

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[Michal Suchanek]

I would be down with only working 20 hours a week. I'd question the
rest of it, though.

Around here it's almost impossible to earn a living working 20
hours/week. Either they pay high but expect you to work almost 24/7 or
they pay so low that you have to work almost 24/7. Positions where you
get anything else are quite rare.

Yet most of the useful work is done in China almost for free so most
of the stuff people do here for living is useless nonsense. Yay, the
awesome free market.

Thanks

Michal