Cognitive Dissonance: The art of overcoming skepticism to improve certification

The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines Cognitive Dissonance as:

Anxiety that results from simultaneously holding contradictory or otherwise incompatible attitudes, beliefs, or the like, as when one likes a person but disapproves strongly of one of his or her habits.

In my last posting, I talk about being skeptical of certification and describe the reasons why I am. So how do I resolve the inherent conflict between being skeptical of technical certification and the fact that a large part of my job is to help develop and manage certification programs?

Why have I been skeptical about the benefits of certification?

I have long been a skeptic about the value of certification. In this post, I’ll explain why.

Blogging about Certification and Training…

…Or maybe more commonly written as “About this Blog” (but that’s just so cliché).

In the world of Information Technology, it takes a fair amount of skill to be successful. As technology evolves, keeping up with the changes can be difficult, even for someone skilled in doing so. If you’re like I was when I worked in IT, often times you spend so much time fighting fires that you don’t have time to see how to make things more efficient and better as you implement new solutions.

That’s where training and certification come into play.