in reply to Certification Foo

Blessed or not, liked by companies or tossed into the wind, the problem I have with Perl certifications is that most of them you have to pay for. In a community where the language is free, I can't see paying $20 usd to take a Brainbench (or the like) test that expires after a year and has no real world application. It's a waste of time and money. If the company knows so little of Perl that they rely on a third party certification, you should be able to get the job without a 10 cent certificate I can make with an equally expensive program. Language certifications mean nothing in the long run.

If a company really wants to see what an asset to the company you can be, they will devise their own test that more closely shows what you can offer them.

Lord Wrath

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Re: Re: Certification Foo
by chromatic (Archbishop) on Jan 26, 2002 at 01:24 UTC
    That's an excellent point. Beware a company that can't (or won't) express what it wants in an employee.
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Re: Re: Certification Foo
by ignatz (Vicar) on Jan 25, 2002 at 20:59 UTC
    I'm wondering how long before ActiveState offers this. They're always looking for new ways to make ca$h off of something that's free. (Sorry, I'm still a little pissed having noticed last night them trying to get me to pay them to use PPM3 when upgrading Perl on my windows box.)
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      Which of the following scenarios do you prefer?
      1. ActiveState tries to find money-making off of something that is available for free, which they contribute to.
      2. ActiveState tries to find ways to make money off of things that are not free, and only contributes to those.
      3. ActiveState goes out of business.
      There are, of course, many theoretically possible options which are missing from this list. But these are the most plausible options. And given these choices, I like the first best because it results in the most free stuff for me. YMMV.
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        Many Many years ago Activestate was the group that made it possible for me to get Perl on my little windows compooter. I love them for that. I even love the fact that they are working with Microsoft on the whole .ASP and Visual Studio thing. That's all good. BUT...

        (Excuse the long rant)
        ...don't mess with the Perl installer. There's nowhere that it says that I have to pay for ASPN when I see the link in the install. Only by drilling down on some web page does it show you the c.$500 pricetag. How many clueless newbies will see that and go, "Oh shoot! I have to pay for Perl?" When I see an installer that asks for registration and takes me to a page to get a key after I pay them I bail. There should be NO confusion that Perl is FREE. Totally FREE. They are messing with that. How long before PPM2 isn't offered and the only way I can use it is with ASPN? They have already done that with Komodo. DOHH!!! Just got used to it? Now you have to pay. Sorry Charlie. I love activestate's involvement with the community, but don't abuse it. That's all I'm saying.

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