Re: Certification or College degrees?

[Sharif Torpis <faust () grift com>]

On Wed, 22 May 2002 18:29:52 -0500, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
> Degrees are, in essence, a certificate that you are capable of
> learning
> things by rote and regurgitating them later, possibly applying a
> small
> amount of thought (but not too much).  In most industries, that's a
> highly
> valuable thing to know, and businesses hire college grads with the
> assumption they'll spend the first year doing little but training
> them to do
> useful work.
>
> The IT industry does not have the patience or luxury of hiring a
> completely
> cluess college grad, sending them to the dozens of required classes,
> giving
> them a mentor to help them with their first year of work, etc.
> People want
> someone who can solve the problem today, period.  Certifications are
> a crude
> but often effective means for non-technical people to determine if
> technical
> people meet their needs.
>
> S

If that is what you or anyone else got from obtaining a degree then
you were shortchanged and are probably (understandably) bitter. But
you have noone to blame but yourself either. Every consumer should
count their change.

Your description of learning things by rote and regurgitation is the
method practiced by so many folks following your employer's
certification system. That is why the system and the certified
individuals are looked down upon so often. Anyone that received a
cert this way was similarly shortchanged.

Maybe individuals should think of degrees and certifications as tools
used for the purpose of advancing through life/world/career. They are
certainly not the only tools. You can have replacements or
alternatives. You can (and should) supplement your toolset at
different points in your life. Choose your tools carefully, use the
right one(s) at the apropos time and good luck in life and career. I
personally would want to accumulate as many tools as possible to give
me a wide array of knowledge and options to address any particular
problem/circumstance.

Regards,
Sharif