The Free World: GNU/Linux Certifications. Yay or Nay?
There’s an interesting article over on Linux Insider today about Linux certifications. I guess for the first time, a Linux certification has topped the list of important certifications for 2006 over at CertCities. As far as I know there are only three solid GNU/Linux certifications out there. The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) levels 1 through 3, the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), and the Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT). The LPI is the only truly vendor neutral certification and the RHCE is…well…Red Hat specific. It was the RHCE that topped the list with the LPI level 2 coming in at 10th.
I found this article interesting because I’m just about to embark on my LPI level 1. It’ll take a couple of months I expect because there are actually two tests in each level. At the moment I don’t have any certifications. I have a 2-year Computer Information Systems college diploma and am about 7 courses short of a full Computer Information Systems bachelors degree (which I don’t really think I’ll even finish. Too much management stuff…yech). The LPI will be my first certification and I decided to take it for the same reason that I took my diploma: to cover off the dead spots in my knowledge. I’m not of the opinion that education makes a person smart. I think about the best that education could ever hope for is to curb a little ignorance along the way but instilling intelligence it probably too tall an order.
Given my druthers, I would rather take a full-fledged GNU/Linux diploma program but over here at least, there is no such beast. The certifications are the closest (only) thing that I can get. While I don’t think that the certification is going to make me a god of any sort, it will force me to learn about all facets of a GNU/Linux system rather than just the parts that I use on a daily basis. I shy away from things like X configuration and kernel modules because I don’t understand them. Without an impetus like this certifcation program, I might never tackle these things.
I’m curious about how people feel about certifications in general and Linux certifications specifically. In general, I feel that those people with certifications probably know something about the subject matter, but there’s never a shortage of people that will spout off about ‘old so-and-so who doesn’t know anything despite holding whatever-certification’ (curiously in my experience, most of these people don’t hold any certifications). If I was a recruiter and I needed a Linux guy and all other things were equal, I’d pick the guy with the cert. I work with one guy who thinks that the only true way to test a potential employee for skill is to actually test them in-house. I think that if corporations had that much time on their hands there wouldn’t be any market for certifications to begin with.
Are any of you certified? Thought about it? Think it’s a total waste of time? What’s the feeling out there?
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6 opinions for The Free World: GNU/Linux Certifications. Yay or Nay?
Mark Rais
Feb 25, 2006 at 12:04 am
Greetings!
Jon, I’ll add that Novell has done a very solid job of expanding and strengthening their Linux Certifications (CLE being the most popular).
See their write up:
http://www.novell.com/linux/linux_cert.html
I wanted to add this since Novell’s Linux offerings are starting to become an important certification in other countries.
That having been said, I still find that “experience” outweighs certifications. And thereby certifications are good entry tools, foot in the door. But if you already have a job and are looking for longer term growth, certifications don’t necessarily do much if you have experience… with cisco routers, foundry switches, security protocols, SAN support, etc.
I think that you will find that even in entry positions, having the ability to verify some form of Linux experience supercedes certifications unless they are combined.
Naturally, the other challenge is that a Novell CLE cert is stronger for some organizations (focused on Novell’s Enterprise Linux offerings) and RedHat in others.
I personally think some people go far higher using all the time they would have to prep and take the certifications in real server rooms, even as volunteers.
Jon
Feb 25, 2006 at 10:42 am
Hey Mark,
I didn’t know about the Novell CLE cert. Thanks for that.
I would agree that experience plays a good part. There are some people (like me) that don’t work ina Linux environment, however. I have no opportunity to gain server experience and in all truthfulness, I’m not really interested in the server-side of GNU/Linux even if I did have that opportunity. I’m powered by desktop GNU/Linux adoption.
I never thought about hanging around in someone’s server room as a volunteer. I wonder what type of organization would let me do that? Hmmm….interesting idea, thanks!
Sean
Feb 25, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Don’t forget about Linux+…
On the “I have no opportunity to gain server experience ” note: When interviewing people and asking about their linux experience, I ask about their Linux setup at home. The guy that runs web and email off his cable modem at home gets a lot of points in my eyes.
Sean
Jon
Feb 27, 2006 at 6:16 am
Excellent point. Sean. I, in fact, ran a Debian box in my basement with my mail, web, and telnet server on it :)
RHCEasy
Aug 10, 2006 at 5:12 am
Check out the blog on RHCE:
http://rhceasy.wordpress.com/
Dermacia
Jan 18, 2007 at 4:20 am
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