Re: Professional or Not (was Database Design)

From: Joe Maloney <mpir_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: 7 Jan 2004 11:06:23 -0800
Message-ID: <d17bad25.0401071106.45e8bf57@posting.google.com>

"J Alex" <nospam_at_nospam.net> wrote in message news:<xJSKb.208473$b01.4584471_at_twister.tampabay.rr.com>...

> <sybrandb_at_yahoo.com> wrote

> > "J Alex" <nospam_at_nospam.net> wrote
> > >
> > > 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.

> 
> I never said that.
> 

> > Comp.sci has very little to do with practical IT.

> 
> Depends on the program I guess, but I learned lots of practical IT,
> especially development methods and good practices. I'd say the classes were
> a 50-50 mix of programming classes and theory.
> 

> > People with a
> > comp.sci degree aren't necessarily better developers or administrators
> > compare to people without such a degree.

> 
> Sure they do. Some people without the degrees are very good, but invariably
> the developers/dbas that have been least effective have not had an
> IT-related degree. Why do you think IT is so different than say, chemistry
> or geology?
> 

> > There is no problem of 'unqualified people'.

> 
> Then why are people on this board advocating certification requirements? If
> everybody in IT is fully qualified to do their job, then certification is a
> waste of time. And if there is no problem with unqualified people, why did
> you say "I routinely notice all people working in IT younger than about 30
> usually don't know anything about development methods and logical thinking."
> Please be consistent in your posts.

There are several professional certification programs that are not Microsoft or Oracle or Novell or specific vendor oriented.

The Institute For the Certification of Computer Professionals (ICCP), AITP, Association for Systems Management and others run such programs for Certified Computer Programmer, Certified Systems Professional and Certified Data Processor. The all require usually at least a BA and 5 years experience, as well as passing certification test. THey have been around for at least 20 years. In my experience, they went out of HR fashion about 7 years ago for the vendor based/specific certifications.

IMHO, if you are to be a professional, you need to pass some certification tests, whether it is medical boards, the Bar, the CPA exam or whatever.

As I have seen elsewhere, somewhere, if you want to be a technician, you pass the Oracle or Microsoft or DB2 certifications. If you want to be a professional (the reference I saw would say engineer), you pass some tests that would include aspects of all three. Received on Wed Jan 07 2004 - 13:06:23 CST