I am against certification. As has been pointed out, it's not what you know but how fast you find what you need to know. Now for Perl certification how would you do it anyway? One of Perl's main features is that there are many ways to accomplish one task. How does one test that? How are you going to quantify a person's ability with Perl unless the test writers can think of all possible solutions for each question?

Now for my big rant. I wish managers and people is human resources would educate themselves on the true effectiveness of certifications. It is often hard to get one's foot in the door of a possible employer unless you've wasted time on money of certifications. In addition to the reasons I mentioned above, if I can download and memorize certification tests, what about being certified truely makes me a better candidate?

Neil Watson
watson-wilson.ca