Re: Certification

On Wed, Nov 4, 2015 at 5:44 AM Jaime Casanova <
jaime(dot)casanova(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:

> On 29 October 2015 at 08:52, Bob Lunney <bobl(at)aweber(dot)com> wrote:
> > Ah, the old "certification" fallacy!
> >
>
> while i agree a certification doesn't say much... i also know that
> people is continously asking me for certified people or
> certifications...
>
>
Yes, I get similar request whenever we take up a new project. Because they
think certified professionals can deliver a project very well. I don't
blame them. Here in ASEAN (specially in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) I
have seen botched-up implementation by self-claimed experts/freelancer for
PostgreSQL. Or cases where application team has taken up the task of
PostgreSQL deployment as well (for few extra $$) and ended up screwing it
up. As PostgreSQL is open source and 'free' it is quite 'open-ended' and
'free' for someone to claim themselves as an expert. I have seen
implementations which were tuned reading some blog-post or a list of "10
parameters to tune in PostgreSQL" (example - on a 16GB server
max_connections set to 200 and work_mem set to 1GB). This is where
certification can streamline a bit but any certification has to be backed
by a training. This where I see a value add by EDB. That is why I see that
EDB certifications are picking up in ASEAN and people take proud on saying
that they are certified on PostgreSQL. All this involves cost and effort
(which I believe was pointed out by few others).

>
> > However, for those who live in that sad world where certifications are a
> minimum entry level requirement, a certification created by community
> consensus makes sense, so long as the criteria for certification are open
> and public.
> >
>
> ah! you mean like me? yeah, it make sense in this isolated part of the
> world :)
>
>
Earlier someone mentioned about the non-popularity of EDB certification in
ASEAN. I am not sure of history, but in recent past (24-30months time) we
have seen a lot of people taking up EDB's PostgreSQL training and
certification. This has gone hand-in-hand with higher adoption of
PostgreSQL and EDB in ASEAN. And as more organisation take up PosgreSQL
more people will take up certification exams. Even professional look up to
certification as a value add in their resume and so certification authority
should really check their merit before awarding it.
Also I have seen cases of large BFSI and telecom segment customers where
they want to make sure that they have certified staff before promoting a
new technology to be used for critical system. This is again where I have
seen learning path/training and certification plays an important role.

I feel while certifications are really important both to back the adoption
and also to promote more adoption, it has to be backed by a proper training
or learning path. At the same time a lot of effort has to be spent in
maintaining the level of scrutiny of skills.

*Disclaimer:* My employer is a training partner and master partner to EDB
and I am myself a certified trainer. My opinion is my own but is based on
the experience of delivering training to about 150-200 candidates during
more than 15 training sessions in last 2-2.5 years of time.

> --
> Jaime Casanova www.2ndQuadrant.com
> Professional PostgreSQL: Soporte 24x7 y capacitación
>
>
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Best Regards
Sameer Kumar | DB Solution Architect
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