NYCPHP Meetup

[David Krings]

Kristina Anderson wrote:
> Industry certifications are all well and good but state-certified 
> professional licenses would be a huge step forward.  
> 
> Just think how cool it would be to have a "NYS Licensed Code Jockey" 
> certificate in a huge frame on your office wall :)
> 
> Not to mention the economic & lobbying power that state professional 
> organizations have.

Like it is with electricians? No way! An electrician licensed in Mass is not 
allowed to install a wall outlet in NYS. I wonder why? Are the outlets 
different? Does NYS use a totally different form of electrical power? So with 
a state license for coders you can code PHP in NYS, but nobody is allowed to 
run that on an out-of-state server?

Certs are something to get hired into a position, but they have the advantage 
to be more specialized. Unlike a bachelor's degree. 2/3rd of the study time 
are wasted for English, history, art, and whatever else non-major garbage the 
universities make students take. Some universities may be better than others 
and thus offer better bachelor programs, but the most are nothing more than 
mainly catching up what high school didn't bother to teach. I really don't get 
why a bachelor student has to read "The Great Gatsby" for the nth time when 
majoring in CS.
I got by BS from a german university and 30 courses and labs were on-topic, 
with 3 electives venturing into less subject related areas. I took mass 
communication, work safety and technical English. I went on to getting an MS 
at a US university and there was really only one course that didn't consist of 
brainless busy work, but challenged one's mind and had one think. Without 
doubt, that was the course I learned most.
 From that view point I think certifications are a good thing, but it depends. 
There are certs for QA folks and tech writers and I think the vast majority of 
people working in those trades (it's not a profession, isn't it?) don't have 
any and don't plan on getting them. Especially for tech writing, getting a 
cert is something recommended for those who were car mechanics before or horse 
racing judges that didn't make it into FEMA.
Certs are a proof that you are capable of systematic learning and performing 
when needed, just like a bachelor, master, or doctoral degree. It doesn't say 
anything how qualified one is for the job and thus shouldn't be generally a 
requirement unless loss of life and property are directly dependent on that 
accuracy of the work. So having a national cert for an electrician is OK, 
which would include training on special regional requirements (such as piping 
all lines up to the 10th floor in NYC) and how to go about obtaining 
information about regional regulations. Interestingly enough, there is no 
certification required for someone to work on your car breaks.

David