Re: What happened to Test 972: IBM Certified Specialist - ILE RPG Programmer?

[Pete Helgren <Pete@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Not to go too off topic, but I wonder if there is a declining interest 
in certifications in general, primarily because of what Jon noted about 
the proliferation of stolen tests.  I think employers are looking more 
to practical experience than a certification and that is because of the 
proliferation of "paper ..." (you can add your certification here: MCSE, 
CCNP, CISSP, etc).  The certifications I have gained I did because of 
the hands on training I got while earning the cert, not for the paper 
that went with it.  I think that certifications in general are on the 
wane.  They really don't certify you for anything but the paper they are 
written on.

Pete

On 5/27/2010 12:00 PM, Jerry Adams wrote:
> It seems, from what Jon said, that there is insufficient interest in the certification test.  Now, is that due to (a) lack of interest in certification by RPG programmers, (b) lack of interest in RPG, (c) lack of interest in the System i (i.e., decline in the number of systems), or (d) something else altogether?
>
> Sometimes people read too much between the lines.
>
> Jerry C. Adams
> IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
> --
> B&W Wholesale
> office: 615-995-7024
> email:  jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player.  It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in. -Casey Stengel
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Charles Wilt
> Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2010 12:36 PM
> To: RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
> Subject: Re: What happened to Test 972: IBM Certified Specialist - ILE RPG Programmer?
>
> Jon,
>
> I understand what you're saying, but the withdrawing of this test
> troubles me even so; as an indication of where the platform is headed.
>
> Charles
>
> On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Jon Paris<jon.paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>  wrote:
>    
> > The RPG cert test has been withdrawn because there was insufficient
> > demand for it. It was too in-depth and required too much practical
> > experience to be used by the colleges that teach RPG. All the time
> > that the test remained reasonably up-to-date and had not been
> > compromised, by the b*stards who steal tests and sell it as
> > "education", it could continue. When last year it became obvious that
> > it needed refreshing IBM had to look at the costs and determine
> > whether to update it - which is an expensive process even though the
> > RPGers who participate are not paid. They determined that the costs
> > were not justified and so rather than offering an out-of-date test
> > they withdrew it. Simple economics. No evil plots - the only evil
> > comes from the hijackers who force tests to be rewritten more often
> > than they should need to be.
> >
> >