BrainShare Preparations and an Article Highlight

It’s been a little bit since I’ve written something new here – I’ve not forgotten, but just been busy preparing for BrainShare and my annual Novell Instructor Summit. There’s been more to do than I could have imagined a year ago; I’ve got a track of 10 instructor sessions being run (including IPEs for those who want to become instructors – it’s not too late for attendees to register for CNI281 and CNI380 in order to participate)

I did want to highlight something, though – I was contacted by Allan Hoffman over at monster.com after he’d read some of my thoughts here; he was interested in my thoughts about the value of certification. I wrote a fairly long response to his inquiry, which I will repost here after BrainShare is completed.

Allan’s article also talks about a recent Foote Partners survey which talks about IT skills pay and the tie to certification. It’s very good reading, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in pursuing certification.

Comments?

I’ve noticed over the past couple of months of this blog being here that the readership is slowly but steadily increasing.  At the same time, there have been no comments posted yet.

I’m interested to know what the readers here think – I had set things up so that a login was required.  I’ve disabled that feature, but left the moderation feature on.  The reason I’m using moderation is solely to keep spam out of the comments.  I’m hoping that dropping the login requirement and only requiring a name and e-mail address will make it easier for people to comment on what I’m writing.

As I stated in my initial post here,  the purpose of this blog is:

1. Understand better what people think about technical certification and training

2. Help you – the reader – understand what it is that I have going through my head as I apply myself to tasks in my professional life

3. Foster some discussion about the pros and cons of technical training and certification

4. Help those who are thinking about jumping into an IT career make an informed decision about their options about how to get started

Don’t be shy – I’m interested in what you think of what I’ve written.

An Interesting Observation

Last October, when I was preparing to drive back to Minneapolis for my younger brother’s wedding, Dan Veitkus (VP of Training Services at Novell) asked me if I had anything to listen to in the car on the drive. While I had a fair selection of music on my iPod for the trip, I said I always liked having something new to listen to. He suggested I have a listen to the book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, and loaned me the audiobook version he had purchased to listen to himself.

Off to Oregon & The Value of Instructor-Led-Training

We’ve been working on getting instructors up to speed, and one of our partners – Touchstone Technology – is hosting a “train the trainer” bootcamp for Novell Instructors working to get their Novell CLP 10 certification. I’ll be attending the first two days of the class so I can meet some of the instructors in the field.

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.