Certification is a Scam

Tech certification plays upon the fantasy that a sensible way to get ahead with your career is to acquire credentials. As most people are even more lazy than stupid, they greedily desire as much advantage as possible for the least amount of effort. This allows certification sellers to offer an easily completed credential with a…

Expert in a Weekend

On Friday I secured an interview for the following Tuesday. The job requested expertise in a particular technical area I didn’t know anything about. If college taught me anything, it was how to cram. I went to sleep early Friday night so the weekend would be free. There was an online class with 33 hours…

Certification Pretense

The manager walked into the room to announce the big push for a new certification the customer requested. Two dozen developers laughed uncomfortably, knowing what was to follow. The manager asked what developers thought of the certification and after a few rounds of tepid talk, someone spoke up honestly and broke the taboo. “It’s just…

IT Testing Center Comedy

The IT testing center was an accredited space where clients could take training classes and certificate bearing exams. These were needed because university degrees no longer conferred knowledge or general competence. Hiring managers were similarly deficient and couldn’t weed out fakers from the experienced, and everyone was lying about their skills on resumes. It was…