Re: Professional or Not (was Database Design)

"J Alex" <nospam_at_nospam.net> wrote in message news:<F7KKb.204019$b01.4545216_at_twister.tampabay.rr.com>...
> "Niall Litchfield" <niall.litchfield_at_dial.pipex.com> wrote
> > "Galen Boyer" <galenboyer_at_hotpop.com> wrote
> > > Well, that's all well and good, but are there any IT
> > > accreditations that hold water? The only one that seems to is
> > > the Microsoft accreditations (I'm not talking from facts here, I
> > > really don't know about accreditations). Are there any database
> > > accreditations that would make an interviewer already have a
> > > certain level of confidence? If not, how would people suggest
> > > that be formed?
> > >
> >
> > There are some that go someway - being a member of the BCS for example in
> > the uk (http://www1.bcs.org.uk/) might be one, but no that is really the
> > point. Folk talk about being IT professionals but the 'profession' doesn't
> > organize itself as a profession with common standards, self regulation,
> > continuing professional education etc. Careers which I refer to as
> > professions, doctor, accountant,architect etc do. Gaining a piece of paper
> > that says I can competently operate Oracle JDeveloper 10g is not a
> > professional qualification, any more than being able to operate sage
> > sovereign makes me an accountant.
> >
> The careers you mention are not really self-regulating. They're government
> regulated. If you practice medicine without a license, the penalty isn't
> losing your status, it's jail.
>
> I think it would be useful if someone were to say exactly what sort of
> qualification we're talking about. For doctors, you're not allowed to write
> prescriptions without a license. Are you proposing we be legally prohibited
> from creating a table without a license? Or are we talking about voluntary
> standards?
>
> Furthermore, unlike, say, brain surgery, any reasonably competent technical
> person can get a book and figure out proper backup/recovery procedures.
> Should a company no longer be permitted to turn that task over to a
> competent C programmer, but instead be forced to hire an outside consultant
> who has the certificate?
>
> It's one thing to say the industry needs standards, and another entirely to
> try to legally enforce them.
>
> My 2 cents - college degrees matter in IT, just like they do in every other
> professional field. The problem-hires I've seen have been when companies
> hire people without degrees, or with degrees in unrelated fields. As the
> field matures and companies start requiring comp. sci. degrees, the problem
> of unqualified people will disappear.

It is just nonsense you need a comp.sci degree to be successful in IT. Comp.sci has very little to do with practical IT. People with a comp.sci degree aren't necessarily better developers or administrators compare to people without such a degree. There is no problem of 'unqualified people'. The problem starts with educational institutions being paid by the government for the number of people leaving the institution with a degree.

Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA Received on Wed Jan 07 2004 - 02:41:32 CST