Testing the limits

Can networking certification exams be given online? Brainbench thinks so.

By DAVID RATHS
Network World, 08/20/01

Jamie Gillespie has both Cisco Certified Network Associate and CompTIA's iNET certifications. But the computer security analyst at Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT) in Brisbane also has a dozen other certifications from Brainbench that he's earned over the Web.

Gillespie is one of thousands of IT workers worldwide who have decided to certify their strengths in various networking technologies by taking Brainbench's online skills certification exams.

IT certification is big business - market researcher IDC predicts the market will grow from $2.5 billion in 2001 to $4 billion in 2003. Because vendors such as Cisco and Microsoft want to ensure the validity of certifications bearing their names, they insist that exams be taken in brick-and-mortar facilities run by companies such as Sylvan Learning and Prometric. Test takers must show up with two forms of ID, and proctors watch them take exams.

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Yet despite the lack of support from major vendors, Brainbench's ease of use attracts IT workers such as Gillespie. "It started as a friendly competition between my co-workers and me to see who could score highest on the free exams that Brainbench offered at the time," he explains. "As time went on and Brainbench gained popularity, we used the certifications more as a way to validate our knowledge and experience."

There's no doubt that Brainbench has discovered an untapped niche. It has three million registered users and has delivered 1.5 million certifications. By making certification tests more convenient and less expensive ($20 compared with more than $100 for most proctored exams), Brainbench has brought the concept of certification to a much wider audience. People who live in remote areas where proctored exams are unavailable are now working toward certifications.

Gillespie takes the tests at home in his free time, and sometimes even on his lunch break at work.

Systems engineer Eric Waters has four Brainbench certifications and believes in many ways they offer him more of a challenge than traditional certification exams because there aren't study guides and "brain dumps" available to prepare for them. Waters, who works for Total Data Services in Gainesville, Ga., and also has five proctored certifications, likes the fact that Brainbench tells you how well you did on an exam compared with others who took it. "I took the TCP/IP exam last year and did better than 99% of the 5,000 people who took it," he says. "That made me feel good."

Brainbench, based in Chantilly, Va., recently introduced a subscription model. For $99 per year, individuals can take unlimited certification tests. The company offers more than a dozen network-related certifications, from IP routing & switching to Novell NetWare 5.0 administration.

"There are thousands of knowledge workers out there who want to quantify their skills, but only one in 10 is ever going to go to a test center," Brainbench CEO Mike Russiello says. "We're just trying to help make the employment market more efficient."

But networking vendors and competing certification organizations claim that without proof that test takers aren't cheating, the certifications they earn aren't worth the paper they're printed on. "We need the secure environment, where we can verify that the taker has never seen the test before, does it in the allotted time by himself, with only the allowed tools," says Lutz Ziob, vice president of certification for CompTIA.

Vendors claim that most hiring managers depend on proctored certifications. "The feedback we get from hiring managers is that the proctored certification is important," says Jim Greene, director of worldwide certification for Novell. For legal and logistical reasons, corporations can't thoroughly test applicants' job skills, he says, so they often must rely on the person's certifications. "We have to protect against identity fraud," he says.

But employers send network professionals mixed signals about the importance of proctored certification. "Some companies won't even interview you if you don't have an Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). Others don't value an MCSE very highly because of the amount of boot camps and brain dumps available," Gillespie says. Certifications are meant to represent your knowledge base, he says. "Does traveling to an office building, paying a couple of hundred dollars and having someone briefly look at my driver's license before a test make my knowledge any more real?"

Waters isn't sure about the value employers place on Brainbench's certifications. "If they knew as much about the tests as I do, they would value them," he says. "I'll put it on my resume."

Russiello claims the only people who express concern about security are those who have a stake in proctored testing. If an employer is uncertain about an applicant's certification, Brainbench will offer to have the person retake the test at the employer's site and immediately send the prospective employer the results.

But Ziob doesn't agree with Russiello's premise that few people who take Brainbench's tests would consider going to a test center. "Our job is to prove to them why it makes sense to get certified and make it as easy as possible," Ziob says.

AusCERT's Gillespie agrees that each style of exam has its place in the industry. Some people and companies have the money to spend on week-long courses and exams in a more controlled environment, while others can't afford those luxuries of time and money, he says.

He enjoys the sense of community the Brainbench site has created. "You can share study tips and even general info that's not test-related," he adds.