Re: About PostgreSQL certification

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 05:19:45PM -0500, Theo Schlossnagle wrote:
>
> On Jan 23, 2007, at 5:14 PM, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>
> >>Get a CCIE and tell me that again :-) When you are handed a
> >>complicated network of routers and switches running all sorts of
> >>version of IOS and CatOS and you go to lunch, they break it and
> >>you have a certain time allotment to fix it all.
> >>
> >>Most certifications are not simple multiple choice quizes. Just
> >>the ones you hear about -- the ones that suck.
> >>
> >>>I think seeing relevant training courses + experience on a CV
> >>>trumps certification anytime - unfortunately a lot of folks out
> >>>there are mesmerized by shiny certificates....
> >>
> >>Sure. But experience is very hard to get. And since people with
> >>PostgreSQL experience are limited, companies adopting it need a
> >>good second option -- certified people.
> >
> >They aren't limited, just all employed ;)
>
> I can't find 500, let alone 1000, people with extensive postgresql
> experience in an enterprise environment. Oracle has an order of
> magnitude more. MySQL even has better numbers than postgres in this
> arena. If you only want to hire people with extensive experience,
> you're exposing yourself to an enormous business risk by adopting
> postgres. You'd have to hire out to a consulting company and if too
> many do that, the consulting company will have scaling issues (as
> all do).
>
> The upside of Oracle is that I can hire out to a consulting company
> for some things (particularly challenging scale or recovery issues)
> and get someone who knows their way around Oracle reasonably well
> (has performed _real_ disaster recovery in a hands on fashion,
> performed hands-on query tuning, database sizing exercises, etc.) by
> simply finding someone who is Oracle certified (all of those things
> are part of the Oracle certification process). Granted, just
> because someone is certified doesn't mean they "fit" or will excel
> at the problems you give them -- it's just a nice lower bar.
> Granted you can make a name for yourself as an expert without
> getting a certification, but if you've made a name for yourself,
> you aren't likely to be on the job market -- which is really my
> point. Oracle's certification programs have helped Oracle
> considerably in gaining the number of Oracle professionals in the
> job market. PostgreSQL certification has the opportunity to do the
> same and in doing so increase overall PostgreSQL adoption. That's
> a good thing.

When you're getting this together, by all means let me know so I can
trumpet it all over the PostgreSQL Weekly News :)

Cheers,
D
--
David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 415 235 3778 AIM: dfetter666
Skype: davidfetter

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