[clue-talk] LPI cert

[Angelo Bertolli]

One thing for sure:  you should NOT be penalized for not having the 
certificate.  Certificates can be like labeling network cables:  no 
labels at all can be better than labeling things wrong.  The certificate 
probably affects the decision of management/HR more than any interview 
with a technical person, but they are exactly the people who don't know 
what the certificate means or how to take it.  The certificate simply 
means:  they know enough of the commands, or else were able to study 
enough to remember them for the test.  That's not a bad thing.  I'd 
definitely take an unskilled but certificate holding person, over 
someone who puts Linux on their resume because they used it at school 
once.  But all of the really good Linux people I've personally known at 
work haven't bothered with certificates.  (Ok, I did but Brainbench and 
Linux+ were free.)

jefb wrote:
> Certifications? Mehh. I'll proly take a couple just for the raises but 
> other than that. I have not been too impressed with some of the people 
> that take them. It seems to me that some of the ones that do take the 
> tests and pass them just don't get it. Do they know the commands, yea. 
> Do they understand what they are doing , maybe. Do they understand 
> concepts, standards and common practices that the tests are supposed 
> to test for.
>
> This is all from various conversations with people that have had certs;
> I have argued that a file should be here... because...  and gotten 
> blank stares back.
> UIDs and GIDs should be this and had responses that useradd just adds 
> the next one. I wanted to tell him that you can use useradd to make a 
> use what will fit in the standard. I asked that all users across all 
> systems be the same UID/GID, responce "why?" So now we have the same 
> username across the servers that have different UIDs and GIDs.
> I have argued that an RPM should be named this.... and was told that 
> is not the way it was done.
>
>
> Sufficed to say I remember the MSCE boot camps where anybody who could 
> spend the money got a cert. Did they understand what they were doing 
> and why? Maybe. Should Linux have certs, I don't know. I, myself, have 
> had more fun in the cert group talking about the concepts and 
> practices then studying for the test itself.
>
> Jef
>
>
> Nate Duehr wrote:
>> On a more Linux-y topic...
>>
>> I passed LPI 101 and 102 today without any major problems.  Company
>> started getting antsy that they wanted people to have more
>> training/certs and the deal was "if you pass, it's paid for"... so I
>> scheduled two tests on a day off, and did the "get 'er done" thing.
>> I guess I'll go ahead and do the Level 2 stuff next.
>>
>> Some stuff on the test was good, other stuff was "who the hell needs to
>> KNOW that in a real production environment?!"... it was a tad harder
>> than I thought, but I think I'll chalk that up to my distrust of "fill
>> in the complete command here" types of questions on cert tests... you
>> have far less "feedback" than multiple-guess, since at least in
>> multiple-guess when you know the answer cold, you can see how the test
>> writers THINK a little bit from the WRONG answers.
>>
>> But in all, it was a fair, reasonably difficult test for someone needing
>> to be "certified" on Linux systems.  I'm a Debian-head, so I stumbled on
>> a couple of obscure RPM questions that I really didn't care about.  LOL.
>>  I also found their focus on adding SQL syntax to a SYSADMIN test to be
>> COMPLETELY wrong... too many sysadmins out there who THINK they're DBA's
>> already... once you've worked with a real DBA... you know you don't know
>> jack.  LOL!
>>
>> But anyway... now I'm curious, and I've seen some discussion on the
>> topic here before, but I forget easily... how many folks on the list are
>> certified and have you found it at all useful in your professional life?
>>  A requirement for any Linux jobs out there that you were interested in?
>>  Etc...
>>
>> Just wondering the "worth" of the thing, I guess.  Since it was "free to
>> me" (well, I guess technically it's still floating on my credit card
>> until I get reimbursed) I have no frame of reference for how much it's
>> worth and whether or not the $160 per test had any real marketplace
>> value to it.
>>
>> It's definitely (appropriately) harder than Linux+ which I did a long
>> time ago... again, no particular reason why back then, and I don't know
>> if that one is supposed to be re-certified after a time period... but it
>> was a joke compared to LPI Level 1.  Level 2 should be "interesting". 
>> Not sure the new Level 3 is worth the brain damage...
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Nate
>>
>> -- 
>>   Nate Duehr
>>   nate at natetech.com
>>
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>
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