Cool New Vendor-Neutral Cert Series

I know this is a joke, but the test and cert process really should be this way. The entire education system should be this way.

People are working on exactly this system. Can't discuss details but suffice it to say that this will be a reality.

I run a hacker space in SoCal with lots of cisco gear/books etc and am figuring out how people learn etc. http://cnwccxx.blogspot.com/

I was just about to get angry....you got me. That was an interesting laugh.

Seriously - I work for one of the "vendors" - open source this and it could really take off.

If some group of people would really make such tests with low or no profit behind it would be great. To get such tests widely and trusted available they would have to cooperate with an exam institute. (not online test taking)

For example right now i'm planning to take an exam that costs nearly $1000 for the exam only. If I pass than it certifies that I can work with some OS from a vendor in specific. In real it shows I can work with some OS and can admire some vendor specific branding (and had a big wallet to pay for the exam). The vendor specific certification limits my job-opertunities unless I pass the exams from other vendors for that OS too. That would be almost the same exams, just proving that I can admire some other vendor branding as well.

I'm getting nuts of vendors who try to earn big money on people who can work with a specific OS, but have to prove they can admire their vendor branding on that OS. That same rule applies to some networking exams.

Some vendor of networking equipment takes it even further by not requesting the correct answer, but the vendor correct answer. Some not narrow minded people with allot of networking knowledge know what network equipment vendor i'm talking about..

Yeah, this is a joke alright.

Unfortunately, in a world being driven increasingly toward mediocrity (and below), where there are no "failures" and everyone gets a "star" regardless of their actual drive, determination, skills or knowledge, where every standard is lowered to the least common denominator, this sounds about par for the course. Today’s graduation performance criteria for public school students would have been the very definition of a failing grade 30 years ago. I think they use exactly this sort of grading criteria.

It used to be that a minimum wage job was exactly that, a job in which absolutely no skill or drive was needed to make the wage, and you were being paid exactly accordingly. Anyone with a lick of self respect or determination would be able to learn SOME skill or otherwise prove their ability to work dependably and responsibly, and as a result EARN a better wage and move upward out of the minimum wage position. It was a badge of shame to be worthy of only a minimum wage. The days of being paid what you’re worth are nearly gone.

Bozos in government, and their liberal lackeys, however, don't understand the concept of work ethic or EARNING a wage, that there are actually absolute idiots out there in the real world without any work ethic that just want to take home a paycheck, not perform actual work. So they have screwed the free market system by forcing employers to pay people a "livable wage" for being absolute idiots without a work ethic nor possessing the desire to be useful. As a result, customer service, quality and efficiency has been nearly destroyed in the U.S. Minimum wage was intended to be a starvation wage, because it is motivation for dead-asses to EARN their keep by learning skills, learning work ethic, pulling their own weight and moving up to useful and trusted positions. These were positions intended for unskilled, high-school drop-outs, not adults who are supposed to be responsible supporting a family.

This "proposed" “certification”, as “humorous” as some might think it is, squarely reflects these trends of the U.S. marketplace. As such, it is, unfortunately, completely believable. So who is the real “April fool?”

I got my CISSP cert on the first try but let it lapse: the cost to maintain it was too high with budgetary constraints and limited time. The CISSP is a mile wide and an inch deep, but hardly measures real-world skills accurately.