[174321] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Vendor cert levels
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Woodcock)
Thu Sep 4 05:35:19 2014
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: "Bill Woodcock" <woody@pch.net>
In-Reply-To: <CAP-guGVmqxZoe_=OGpMU-L5mhDyt6ct3f3OSbC_H8_f302Cfbw@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2014 12:34:26 +0300
To: William Herrin <bill@herrin.us>
Cc: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
We got a resume once where the guy listed "2-day workshop on personal groomi=
ng, Karachi, Pakistan" under his "education" section. I think that trumps th=
e Kentrox certification. :-)
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-Bill
> On Sep 4, 2014, at 0:58, "William Herrin" <bill@herrin.us> wrote:
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>> On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 5:00 AM, Isaac Adams <isaacnanog@gmail.com> wrote:=
>> I am trying to work out a strategy for vendor certification in our compan=
y.
>> 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?
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>> For example. NOC staff should be JNCIA and engineering JNCIP to JNCIE?
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>> Clearly certification does not usually reflect ability but it does help
>> people feel valued and to maintain a basic level of competence.
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> Hi Isaac,
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> 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!
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> 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.
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> 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.
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> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
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> --=20
> William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us
> Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>
> Can I solve your unusual networking challenges?
