Vendor cert levels

Thu Sep 4 09:39:59 UTC 2014

In all seriousness, some people could do with that!

On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Bill Woodcock <woody at pch.net> wrote:

>
> We got a resume once where the guy listed "2-day workshop on personal
> grooming, Karachi, Pakistan" under his "education" section. I think that
> trumps the Kentrox certification.  :-)
>
>
>                 -Bill
>
>
> > On Sep 4, 2014, at 0:58, "William Herrin" <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
> >
> >> On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 5:00 AM, Isaac Adams <isaacnanog at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> I am trying to work out a strategy for vendor certification in our
> company.
> >> As a general rule, do you all fund employees certification and if so
> what
> >> kind of levels do you try to maintain as good practice?
> >>
> >> For example. NOC staff should be JNCIA and engineering JNCIP to JNCIE?
> >>
> >> Clearly certification does not usually reflect ability but it does help
> >> people feel valued and to maintain a basic level of competence.
> >
> > Hi Isaac,
> >
> > Personally, I use certifications as more of a weed-out factor. List
> > lots of certifications on your resume? No interview for you.
> > Particularly that guy who used what should have been valuable space on
> > his resume to report having taken a 3-day certification course in
> > configuring Kentrox CSU/DSUs. Yikes!
> >
> > Seriously though, certs stink of a cogs-in-the-machine approach to
> > business, which is the opposite of making folks feel individually
> > valued. Gee, I can tell from talking to you that you're smarter than
> > half our engineers but if you want to respond to the red lights in the
> > NOC you'll have to go get a CCNA.
> >
> > If you want them to feel valued, give them an education reimbursement
> > program for any job-relevant training, college coursework, etc. Any
> > who want to spend it on certs, so be it. Any who want to spend it
> > professional conferences like NANOG, well, those are the ones you
> > keep.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Bill Herrin
> >
> >
> > --
> > William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
> > Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>
> > Can I solve your unusual networking challenges?
>
>