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I don't think you should hire on the basis of any certification, but they make an excellent flag as to whether someon should get the interview. Even in screeni

I don't think you should hire on the basis of any certification, but they make an excellent flag as to whether someon should get the interview. Even in screening resumes it absolutely should not be your only deciding factor, but it is one good factor to look for when going through large stacks of resumes.

theli0nheart 17y ago
I wholeheartedly disagree. Programmers can learn to be great at what they do by _doing_. How many doctors do you think could learn what they know without going to medical school? None. This is why you must have an MD to practice medicine. Programming has no barrier to entry. One of the only ways to see how well someone can write code is by actually looking at their code. There's no shortcut, for better or for worse.
- timwiseman 17y ago
  Everything you said is right. The best way to judge a programmer is through a combination of talking with them, reviewing their code, and using a finished product they made. With that said, most hiring managers are deluged the moment they announce a job opening. You cannot practically do a code review on every applicant. When staring at a stack of resumes you need to be able to tell who is worth the time to do an interview and possibly a code review on. When I see a certification on a resume, it tells me a couple of things: 1. They studied at least enough to pass that test. As someone who has passed many of these tests, I am well aware that for most certifications this is a low bar indeed, but that is more than the nothing that many resumes have, especially for entry level positions. 2. They care enough to take the time to do this. I know they are doing it primarily to impress hiring managers, so again this is a low bar but it is more than nothing. Especially when dealing with entry level candidates, it is a valuable data point in determining who gets an interview. I would never recommend making a hiring decision based on it, but, especially at the entry level, it is a good way to help pick out people for interviews and possible code reviews.

theli0nheart 17y ago

I wholeheartedly disagree. Programmers can learn to be great at what they do by _doing_. How many doctors do you think could learn what they know without going to medical school? None. This is why you must have an MD to practice medicine. Programming has no barrier to entry. One of the only ways to see how well someone can write code is by actually looking at their code. There's no shortcut, for better or for worse.

timwiseman 17y ago
Everything you said is right. The best way to judge a programmer is through a combination of talking with them, reviewing their code, and using a finished product they made. With that said, most hiring managers are deluged the moment they announce a job opening. You cannot practically do a code review on every applicant. When staring at a stack of resumes you need to be able to tell who is worth the time to do an interview and possibly a code review on. When I see a certification on a resume, it tells me a couple of things: 1. They studied at least enough to pass that test. As someone who has passed many of these tests, I am well aware that for most certifications this is a low bar indeed, but that is more than the nothing that many resumes have, especially for entry level positions. 2. They care enough to take the time to do this. I know they are doing it primarily to impress hiring managers, so again this is a low bar but it is more than nothing. Especially when dealing with entry level candidates, it is a valuable data point in determining who gets an interview. I would never recommend making a hiring decision based on it, but, especially at the entry level, it is a good way to help pick out people for interviews and possible code reviews.