[geeks] The old certification debate....

[Dan Duncan]

On Jan 18, 2008 8:57 AM, Jonathan Katz <jon at jonworld.com> wrote:
> Hola amigos!
>
> In my current job hunt I've found a few positions that either require
> or would like a RHCE. I've shunned certifications most of my career
> but find that employers like that kind of eye candy. Does anyone here
> have an RHCE? How difficult is it?

I was never big on certs either, but I don't think it will hurt you.
It may not get you the job, but it might get you the interview.
The RHCE is performance-based, so it's more highly-prized than some certs.

Good advice for any timed test is:  Practice, practice, practice.  If
you need to look up man pages for everything or search for the config
file it will slow you down considerably.   After some discussion here
about a year ago, I decided to get my RHCE for RHEL4 and passed with a
perfect score.  I took the RHEL5 RHCE exam in December and got
somewhere around 97%.  The RHCE or RHCT cert is good for 2 revisions
but I got a special deal on the RHEL4 under RedHat's "double dip"
program where the RHEL5 exam was free.  One thing to keep in mind is
that if you take the RHCE exam and don't pass enough to get the RHCE
cert, you can pass a lesser included subset and still get an RHCT
cert.  It's a lot cheaper than taking just the RHCT exam and then
later taking the RHCE exam.  Now $WORK is looking at SUSE as an
alternative so I'm considering a cert there now but I haven't really
started to pursue it.  I'm trying to decide if I should do Solaris
certs first.

-- 
Dan Duncan