Perl Certification

I looked around to see if anyone had mentioned this before, but I found nothing, so I apologize if this is common knowledge.

I recall reading a recent interview with St. Larry Wall and he was briefly questioned about Perl certification. He said that he wouldn't want to be responsible for any such certification, and I figured that'd be the end of it for now. I have since discovered that there is a certification of sorts.

I recently noticed that Brainbench has a Perl certification test, and while anyone who has been to Brainbench knows their certs aren't worth much, it's still something neat to stick on the wall. The tests cost $25, and the certificate you receive is actually pretty attractive. Check it out if you're in the market for some wall-dressing.

Descartes
-- Programmus, ergo sum.

Comment on Perl Certification

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Re: Perl Certification by mirod (Canon) on May 18, 2001 at 02:50 UTC
Actually if you try Brainbench on the search box you will get a bunch of hits. Certification too by the way. Why is it that so many people "look around" but don't get the same results than me when using the search? On the certification topic I will (once again!) say that a certification in Perl makes little sense: a good programer can be a good programmer in any language. I'll take a good C programmer that has never seen a line of Perl over most web-designer turned CGI programer even if they know what $' is (I don't). I also took the Brainbench test and I would never, ever, hire people because they passed it. The test includes mostly useless trivia and obscure features no-one should be forced to know or use. I actually suspect bambam wrote it (update: just joking!). Plus it is so easy to cheat it is not even funny. I would actually be a little worried if that was the first thing someone looking for a job would mention.	[reply]
Re: Perl Certification by runrig (Abbot) on May 18, 2001 at 03:25 UTC
Save your money. You can take the Brainbench tests for free through Techie Gold.	[reply]
Re: Perl Certification by clemburg (Curate) on May 18, 2001 at 13:04 UTC
This was discussed some time ago in Web-based certification services. I still think the main line of critique against web-based certification services like Brainbench is in essence a critique of formalized testing procedures (like multiple-choice tests) as such. This may have some merit, but in the end anybody arguing against formalized testing procedures will have to provide some alternatives when facing the decision on how to evaluate candidates for a given job. Usually these alternatives will be more subjective (face-to-face or even telephone interview, recommendations, etc.) and/or more expensive (assessment center, trial periods, etc.). For a discussion of some alternatives, see Interview questions. Christian Lemburg Brainbench MVP for Perl http://www.brainbench.com	[reply]
Certification fullstop... by Elgon (Curate) on May 21, 2001 at 23:23 UTC
Well, the problems with the Brainbench certification is that you can cheat and the questions asked require no "understanding" of the topic, merely a certain knowlege of it - THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE! The perl test certainly sucked (I took it once, got bored and failed). In general I wouldn't trust someone on the basis of a brainbench certification... /me, Brainbench certified in... Master Computer Electronics (Haven't done any for years.) Master High IT Aptitude (Yeah right! How good am I at Perl?) Master Math Fundamentals (This is probably fair enough...) Written French (Way too low a mark...) Physiology (I failed medicine at University!) Biochemistry (Okay, so I'm a chemist!) grin "Violence is the first resort of those faced with yet another BSOD." --/me	[reply]
Re: Perl Certification by davorg (Chancellor) on May 18, 2001 at 12:54 UTC
Heh! I took the Brainbench tests for a laugh back when they were free. Apparently I'm the best Perl programmer in London and the second best in the UK. This is, of course, nonsense :) -- <http://www.dave.org.uk> "Perl makes the fun jobs fun and the boring jobs bearable" - me	[reply]
Re: Perl Certification by tune (Curate) on May 18, 2001 at 20:09 UTC
I recently tried Skilldrill. It was funny to see, that I have a lot to learn. If you already have a BrainBuzz account, you can login to Skilldrill very easily. After that you completed one of their tests (a lot, e.g. Mysql Admin, CGI, PHP), they provide a printable PDF document what is looks really nice on the cubicle wall :) -- tune	[reply]