Increasingly, many people who want to change careers see
the computer industry as the place to be and certification as the way to achieve
that end. Looked at from the outside, the computer industry is attractive. The
newspapers and other media regularly feature stories about the shortage of IT
workers and the growing need for skilled employees. There is no lack of stories
about people in the industry who receive multiple job offers and large salaries
and are able to demand perks, like desks built entirely of Lego. It's understandable
that people would want in, especially if the alternative is unemployment or
some unsatisfying, underpaid, or possibly dangerous job. Making the computer
industry even more attractive is the fact that entrance to the IT profession
(if we can call it that) doesn't appear to require anything more than a few
certification exams, unlike high paying professions that likely require extensive
post- secondary education at a university or college.
While it is true that a great many people
change careers successfully, it is also true that a significant number do not
change careers successfully and end up being saddled with large debts to pay for
their certification courses, without the benefit of the high-paying job that was
supposed to be the big pay off. There are a number of reasons why these people
are not successful in changing careers. It may be that some of them lack
job-hunting skills or some other quality independent of their technical
abilities that makes it difficult for them to find work. But, a significant part
of the problem is the result of the unrealistic hype regarding job opportunities
within the IT industry in general and the power of certification specifically as
a way to achieve employment.
You've probably seen or heard assertions
that there is "negative unemployment" in the IT industry, that there are more
jobs than people to fill them, and that the average salary for an MCSE is
generous to say the least. (See MCP Magazine's Salary Survey at
http://www.mcpmag.com/members/00aug/fea1main.asp.)
The whole industry is motivated to hype these assertions: from large trade
associations representing companies that want the US Congress to increase the
H1-B visa quotas
(http://www.itaa.org/news/pr/PressRelease.cfm?ReleaseID=970605727)
to your local training center that wants your money. It's hard to judge the
merits of these assertions when you suspect the motivations of the agents making
them.
Assertions about the need for IT
professionals are so common that they acquire an aura of fact. You have probably
encountered these assertions in the form of advertisements for your local
training centers while listening to the radio or watching TV, if not on the
Internet. As competition for your training dollar gets more heated, the claims
made for the value of certification become more inflated. Some of the bottom
feeders in the certification industry will make specific and outlandish claims
that certification will guarantee you new employment in your chosen profession
at an incredible salary. Well, just like your parents probably told you: "if it
sounds too good to be true, it is."
Most of the larger and more reputable
training centers are not as blatant, but some of them still nonetheless
carefully phrase their pitches so that the ambiguity causes readers to supply a
favorable meaning. Take, for example, this language, which appears on the web
site of a large training franchise: "...you're guaranteed the skills that'll
help you solve real-world challenges. In fact, most of our technical students go
directly on to pass certification on their first try!" Well, all of this may be
true. If, as an instructor, I tell you how to search TechNet or I write on the
whiteboard the URL to the Microsoft Knowledge Base, I suppose I am giving you
some skills that will help you solve "real-world challenges." Also, it may well
be true that most of the students do pass the certification exams on their first
attempt. The truth of these statements is not in dispute. However, the proximity
of these two statements creates another, suggested meaning. The meaning is that
somehow a certification exam is a reliable measure of your ability to "solve
real-world challenges."
If exams could accurately predict or
measure your ability to do problem solving in the real world, it would be easy
to get a job with the certification alone. However, many people are finding
that, if they don't also have the experience, getting a job on the strength of
the certifications alone is very difficult. The primary reason: certification
exams are not an accurate measure of your...
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