[TriLUG] Are Certifications worth it?

[Sam Folk-Williams]

I totally agree with everything Marc said. But, in terms of whether it
is "worth it" for you personally, you will definitely need to weigh
the cost of the exam against your career goals and the job market
where you are, etc. If you take the class it will cost you, I think,
close to $3000 and even then you might not pass. There is only a 40%
first time pass rate.... So, it's a big gamble if you are paying for
it yourself. Having said that, there is some good data out there that
shows the RHCE does "pay off" in terms of a higher paying job if you
get it.

-Sam

On 8/25/05, Marc M <linuxr at gmail.com> wrote:
> Look on Monster.com <http://Monster.com>. RHCE is by FAR better represented
> as far as what employers are seeking goes. LPI teaches a lot of differrent
> aspects that are intended to not be specific to any one vendor. In a perfect
> world, that is a nice thing. In a perfect world I would study all distros
> equally, weigh everything perfectly, and make sure that I don't form any
> unfair opinions.
> 
> However I believe that most corporate envioronments are WAY more likely to
> run Red Hat than a lot of other distros, with the possible exception of some
> server farm environments that might run a lot of Debian, Gentoo, etc. This
> is for better or for worse depending on uses and other positive attributes
> of other distros. I am not saying RH is better, only better in terms of name
> recognition which of course buys it lots of market share among the 'lets do
> what everyone else is doing' corporate managerial types.
> 
> Therefore it seems wiser to study for something based on the vendor that
> people are most likely to run with. If there was any Debian training
> available, maybe that would be a competition for it. I have noticed that
> SuSE/Novell has tacked on the 'Certified Linux Engineer' CLE certification,
> which is really just add-on to their Novell CNA/CNE track.
> 
> Beyond name recognition it is also important to note that the RHCE is a
> tough exam that tests real world stuff with broken machines, hands on the
> network services, etc. No multiple choice or 'paper' certified individuals
> with this cert. My money is on RHCE.
> 
> Marc
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 8/25/05, uzoma nwosu <uzoma.nwosu at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Following the "essential Linux skills" thread, someone posted a link
> > to lpi.org <http://lpi.org>. Now what I would like to know is which cert
> > more
> > valuable, LPI or RHCE? Or is there another cert out there that some
> > of us should look for? Also, are there any study groups happening for
> > this, now? I would love to take classes for this but I am too broke to
> > do so.
> >
> > Uzoma
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-- 
Sam Folk-Williams, RHCE
http://predisposition.com/stuff